[Sca-cooks] Need help finding my preserving recipes

[Decker, Terry D.]

What an opening!  I don't know where your recipes are, but I have one you
may find interesting.

Lifted from Dembinska, Maria, Food and Drink in Medieval Poland, University
of Pennsylvania Press, 1999.

"In 1417, Ulrich von Richental chronicled an interesting gift of aurochs by
King Wladyslaw Jagiello to the Holy Roman Emperor during the Council of
Constance.

On Tuesday after St. Valentine's Day the Holy Roman Emperor received a huge
animal caught in the Lithuanian territories, which was sent to him by the
Polish king.  The king had ordered three such animals to be brought from
Lithuania alive.  However, by the time they arrived at Cracow, due to their
being wild and bound with shackles, the creatures went mad to such an extent
that it was no longer possible to send them on to Constance alive.  Thus the
king ordered them killed.

The king further ordered that the meat of two of the animals be packed in
herring barrels.  The third was cut through, left in its skin, "salted" with
gunpowder and rubbed down with spices.  The barrels filled with the meat
were sent to the Polish bishops then attending the conference at Constance,
while the salted animal was offered to the king of England by the Emperor.
The beast resembled a large ox, only its head was larger and its neck
thicker.  It had a huge chest and two small, sharp-ended horns.  Its
forehead between the horns was one foot wide.  With its short tail, it
resembled a buffalo similar to those that live in Italy.  Its inner organs
were taken out.  When the animal arrived it was lying on its back with its
legs raised up.  As soon as it arrived in Constance, more gunpowder was put
on it as well as spice powder.  In this condition, it was sent on to the
English king then on the Rhine.  As the animal was being carried out of
Constance, the Emperor ordered that a servant go before it playing a
trumpet. 20"


Taken at face value, this is the oldest description of "corning" that I have
encountered, as the active ingerdient in salting with gunpowder is
saltpeter.  The "English king" mentioned is Henry V was engaged in a
campaign to take Normandy and Northern France.  Agincourt was in October,
1415.

Now for the bad news, Note 20.

"20.  Dembinska (1963), 50-51.  Footnote 19.  There are several varying
accounts of this diplomatic gift, and only the Augsburg version actually
stated that it was an aurochs.  The quotation is translated (with
emendations) from an edition of the Vienna codex prepared by M. Solokowski
in Spr. Komisji dla Badania Historii Sztuki, 8 (Cracow, 1907), 77-78.
Similarly, not all of the versions mention that the aurochs eas rubbed down
with gunpowder.  Gunpowder contains saltpeter, a meat preservative.
Dembinska also consulted other versions of the story as cited under Kaulsche
(1804) in the bibliography, extracting missing information from both."

Bear

> I have planned on teaching a symposium on period meat
> preservation including various brine types like
> Lord's Salt. Unfortunately I've gone through my
> books and can't find the bloody passages!
>
> Gunthar