[Sca-cooks] Re: Curry spices & rancid meat

[Elizabeth A Heckert]

On Wed, 25 Jul 2001 10:32:27 EDT Devra at aol.com writes:
>I had always heard (no documentation) that:
>1)the spices helped to PRESERVE the meat (which was always slaughtered
>as fresh-to-eating as possible

    With the exception of salt (and maybe sugar???)  neither of which are
spices the way other spices and herbs are;  how would a spice act to
preserve food?  Spices add flavour, colour,  sometimes make your mouth
and face hot, and often make your mouth water (which starts digestion???)
but none of these things help with preservation.  The ancient Egyptians
also used spices in making mummies, but natrum was at the bottom of that
equation, and isn't that a salt?

Johnnae llyn Lewis wrote:

> She notes that surviving medieval
>recipes do not mention that one needs to add extra spices if
>the meat is tainted. Much of what we accept in terms of this
>accepted truth, she traces to Drummond (The Englishman and His Food),
>who got it wrong in his book by misreading a number of recipes.

   May I ask, when did Mr. Drummond write his work?

   Elizabeth

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