[Sca-cooks] SCA Slaughtering

[Phlip]

Ene bichizh ogsen baina shuu...

> > Is the realism of slaughter and processing (and
> > a lot more neatly done  than real mundane processing practices) just too
much
> > to expect to be acceptable, no matter how period the practice?
>
> Well, here's a question: the cooking we re-create is cooking for the
> nobility or upper middle class, since we are encouraged to rely almost
> exclusively on recipe books for our information about what foods were
> consumed.
>
> Would the cooks of a noble or upper-middle-class household routinely start
> with a live animal or or a dead one? In the case of game in particular,
> wouldn't rabbits, stags, boars, etc be delivered to the kitchen already
> dead and gutted but not skinned?

Well, I'd guess that they's start with all small animals, poultry including
ducks, geese, and chickens live, as well as rabbits. Smaller animals, too,
would be on the hoof when delivered- piglets, kids, lambs.

I'm basing my belief on cultures today, who commonly slaughter their own
foodstuffs. There's good reason for it- if you see the living animal, you
can tell if it's active, its coat is healthy, and its eyes are bright- much
as we pick outlobsters today.

> Would the cook routinely participate in the slaughtering process of
> domestic animals in period, or just in the processing/cutting up? How
> often would a cook in town send someone to a butcher to fetch a cut of
> meat or a big piece of dead animal? I would assume that
> chicken-slaughtering, in particular, would be done by cooking staff-- but
> would cooks kill their own piglets, pigs, veal calves, cows, rabbits,
> goats, lambs and sheep, or would other staff accomplish these tasks while
> cooking and/or butchering staff, did the actual cutting up? Also, what
> about animals whose skins were processed by tannery? Would the cooks do
> the skinning there, or would someone else do the skinning?

Well, again, I'm basing my comments on modern practices, but in areas where
we're less affected by supermarket culture, everyone participates in a major
slaughter- a pig sticking, for example, or a cattle slaughter, but an
individual animal, for your dinner, might be done by just one or two people.

As examples, when I slaughtered my first lamb, I had a friend standing by to
give me advice about slaughter matters relating specificly to lamb. Once I
realized it was no different than slaughtering any other animal, he went off
about his business and I finished up.Yes, it would have been nice to have a
helper or two, but it wasn't necessary.

When a friend gave me a gilt of his with a broken leg, I had an Amish friend
help me- not because I didn't know what I was doing, but because at 200 lbs,
she was a bit heavy to handle by myself- same with the veal calf I
slaughtered for Iasmine's Coronation feast.

OTOH, I've been to friends' farms when they were having a major pig
slaughter- several pigs at once, to have the lard rendered, the bacon and
hams smoked, etc for the winter. I think Mordonna will bear me out on this-
this will be an all-day occasion, where everyone helps, from the littlest
kids to the oldest adults. Neighbors will come, and perhaps bring some of
their stock as well,, and a good time is had by all (except the pigs, though
you couldn't tell it by the rendering pots bubbling merrily away).

I can't see that this sort of thing would have changed much over the years-
it's simply too practical a method for using your manpower.

Now, in one of these sorts of things, certain people do certain tasks-
usually the men (but not always) kill the animals, and carry them to the
cutting board or hanger, and those who know what they're doing do other
parts of the job as needed.

Skinning is not a big deal, either- for smaller animals, it's rather like
rolling a child out of a sleeping bag, once the initial cuts are made- for
larger animals, other than around certain areas where care needs to be
taken, it's simply pull and cut (if necessary) the connective tissue,
between the hide and the carcass.

Today's supermarket mentality has made of slaughtering and butchering, a
mystery. It really isn't- it's like any other chore- a bit messy, you need
to know what you're doing and have control of your tools, but you certainly
don't need a college degree.

Phlip

 If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it is probably not a
cat.

Never a horse that cain't be rode,
And never a rider who cain't be throwed....