[Sca-cooks] Burt Wolf venting
Decker, Terry D.
TerryD at Health.State.OK.US
Thu Oct 10 11:05:23 PDT 2002
Cattle is the generic for members of genus Bos. Oxen is often used a
synonym. Technically, an ox is a castrated male commonly used as a draft
animal. A steer is a young ox (with conotations of castration before sexual
maturity and being used as a food animal rather than a draft animal). Since
steer derives from the Old English "steor," I would say the term was used in
period even thoguh none of us have come across it.
As a small afterthought, all those Irishmen in the Tain Bo Culain must have
starved to death, since according to the article, they didn't know how to
raise cattle.
Bear
> I wonder if it's possible he's referring to gelded steers. After a
> not-very-deep study of this, I STR seeing references to beef coming
> from bulls and bullocks, and occasionally from cows, heifers, and
> oxen, but I don't believe I've run across any references to steers in
> period, or even until the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries. Unless
> anybody else has some specifics on this...
>
> Adamantius
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