[Sca-cooks] Irish beef

[KazOShea at aol.com]

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Since I am coming in on what seems to be an ongoing discussion I may cover
some ground that may have already been covered.

The irish did not eat much beef at all. The primary meat was pork, after that
it was lamb or fish, then wild game as available. Beef was considered a dish
for the high king. The beef was preserved in salt, then boiled to remove the
salt, it was then spitted and rubbed with honeycomb and salt and then roasted
over and open fire.
There is a reference to this in a poem of the 12th century regrading the
banishment of the demon on gluttony.

Cattle were also much to valuable in period to use a a meat source, one of
the primary components of the irish diet was cheese. A lot of cheese making
art was lost because of the English occupation of Ireland during Elizabeth's
reign. They did not slaughter a cow until it's milk producing days were done.
Otherwise it was the equivalent of taking a stack of money and setting a
match to it. Your wealth was your cattle.

In service
Iago/TGS