[Sca-cooks] Spices and Cooking (oop)

[Nanna Rögnvaldardóttir]

Brangwayna Morgan wrote:
>
>My theory is, even if it covers the taste, really rancid meat is going to
>give you food poisoning no matter what you spice it with.

Naw ...
Don't know about other countries but here in Iceland, many people used to
actually prefer meat that had gone "bad". For instance, a common treatment
of cattle and horse bones (with some meat attached) in the 18th and 19th
centuries was to hang them in the cow shed for a couple of weeks for the
desired taste (I'm not making this up); then they were boiled (sometimes
after a brief smoking) and the meat was eaten. This was called "hraun" and
the fat rendered from it was eaten with bread and highly thought of.

I don't know why everybody didn't die of food poisoning but presumably
people were much more tolerant back then because of constant exposure to
germs. And cooking will kill most of them anyway. Besides, not all bacteria
that "spoils" food is harmful to humans - I'm reminded of some very potent
surface smear cheeses I've had, for instance.

Here, almost all slaughtering was done in a relatively short period during
the autumn because in Iceland, it has always been more expensive to feed the
animal during the winter than to preserve the meat somehow. Fresh meat was a
rarity, and not neccessarily popular - perhaps because it was thought to be
bland compared to the usual fare. Fresh meat was more often than not cooked
in a soup made with soured whey to liven it up and make it taste more like
preserved meat.

Spices were rare in pre-20th century Icelandic cooking. Too expensive, and
we didn't need them because most of our food was fermented, putrefied,
dried, whey-preserved, soured or smoked, and tasted strongly of it - and we
more or less preferred it that way. Still do, sometimes. The following is a
description of a very popular delicacy here (taken from my forthcoming book,
blatant plug here):

"Icelanders do not have a tradition of eating fish at Christmas but fish is
traditional on St. Thorlak’s Day (Dec 23rd) and in later years, the fish of
the day has become putrefied skate. This custom began in the Western Fjords
and spread all over the country. The skate, which is left to ferment for
several weeks, has an extremely strong and unpleasant smell that intensifies
while it is being cooked. The man of the house (who is often responsible for
the cooking of this particular item) is sometimes banished to the garage and
has to cook the skate on a gas burner there, or else the whole house might
stink of ammonia come Christmas. ... It has to be said, though, that the
taste of the skate is not nearly as bad as the smell, although opinions may
differ. Some prefer it so putrefied that it brings tears to their eyes and
their breath smells of it for many hours afterward. An eighteenth century
poet praised skate of this kind to the skies and said it was “better than
brennivín” (caraway-flavored schnapps), which is praise indeed, coming from
an Icelander."

Now, something like that sure doesn´t need any spice, and no spice in the
world would mask the flavor.

The point I'm trying to make is that not all meat may have been fresh. But
that doesn't neccessarily mean people felt any need to mask the
"off-flavor". Some of them may have preferred it; there is ample evidence to
show that Icelanders often did.

Nanna