[Sca-cooks] Viking Fish preservation

[johnna holloway]

Elizabeth posted this query back in July and I finally
came across a couple of books that may throw some light on
the question.

Sue Shephard's Pickled, Potted and Canned. How the Art and Science
of Food Preserving Changed the World has finally made it to the USA.
It came out in the UK in 2000. It mentions burying foods in bogs where
it is preserved due to the boric acid in the soil. No footnotes but a
really comprehensive bibliography.

Also Food Conservation. Ethnological Studies. edited by Riddervold
and Ropeid. Prospect Books, 1988. Consists of the papers from the
7th International Conference on Ethnological Food Research held in
Norway
in 1987. 24 papers covering technical, cultural and historical aspects.
Interesting collection, but nothing much on the use of peat.

Johnna Holloway

Elizabeth A Heckert wrote:
>
>   Gentle Cousins,
>
>          A Viking-oriented list I'm on has been discussing this article
> that was mentioned briefly on the Cooks' list.  The discussion has led me
> to several questions, some for chemist-cooks and some for archeologists.
>
>          Has anyone seen information on Viking-era peoples using peat as
> a meaning of keeping food?  All the article is willing to commit to is
> that it is 'traditional' (which I consider a four-letter word!)
>
>
>      Elizabeth
>
>