SC - Re: SC dried squid

[Nanna Rögnvaldardóttir]

Ras wrote:
>Probably. But why bother? Meat was abundant in the markets and fresh daily.
>Salt preservation was known and used. As was preservation in honey. Either
of
>those methods is infinitely preferable over drying.


Maybe so, but out here on the edge of the habitable world, salt and honey
were expensive luxuries, fresh meat was only available for a limited period
of time each year, and there were no markets. Icelanders (and I´ll freely
admit we´re still stone age barbarians in many ways) smoke-dried their meat;
it was still being done at my home when I was a child and I ate so much of
it I´ll probably die of stomach cancer in the end. We would probably have
sun-dried the meat too, only you need sunshine for that, or at least a
climate that will stay dry for a few days at a time.

But I agree with you; this probably only holds true for places where such
survivalist techniques were actually needed to survive.

Nanna