[Sca-cooks] Food Myths

[johnna holloway]

Plat's Jewell House from 1594 has a recipe
"To helpe venison that is tainted."

We discussed this last August on the list--
from Wed, 22 Aug 2001 21:09:39 -0400
I wrote then:

"Actually, the quotation continues after
"and it wil bee sweet enough to be eaten"
with the words
"as I am enformed by a Gentlewoman of good
credit, and upon hir owne practise."
recipe 16 pp.22-23 of the 1594 edition.

Note that Plat is just reporting on someone's
report and he doesn't tell us to then spice it
heavily and serve for supper.

Johnna Holloway

"Laura C. Minnick" wrote:
>
> Ok folks- what do we say to this?
>
> 'Lainie
>
> Anne Telesco wrote:
> >
> > In a message dated 8/22/2001 3:36:08 PM, lcm at EFN.ORG writes:
> >
> > >Rotten meat is
> > >rotten meat- you can't cover that up with spices,
> > 'Lainie@ group, hate to burst the bubble on that one but-
> > "To help venison that is tainted-If it be tainted, cut away all the flesh
> > that is green and cut out all the bones and bury it in a thin old corse cloth
> > a yard deep in the ground for 12-20 hours space and it will be sweet enough
> > to be eaten". This from Hugh Platt's "Jewell House of Art and Nature" (a kind
> > of period Heloise) published in 1594. Personally I wouldn't eat green meat no
> > matter how long you buried it in the ground and no matter how coarse the
> > cloth was!
> > Lady G
> >

"Decker, Terry D." wrote 18 September 2002
> Be careful that you don't create your own myths at the same time.>
> The recipe for recovering "tainted" meat is not meant to recover meat that
> is "rotten.">
> The recipe is in Markham (IIRC) and is obviously not a commonly followed
> practice from the wording.