[Sca-cooks] SCA Slaughtering

[Anne duBosc]

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I think I agree with both Jadwiga and Phlip on this one.
Yes, in farm country, butchering day is still an all-day, bring-the-neighbors-and-the-relatives kind of affair, and everyone has a chore or three.
But I'd agree with Jadwiga that in a Noble's household, especially a large one, the large animals were probably done by specialists.  Urban households probably even bought the small animals already killed and dressed.
I've seen documentation on this list for regulations regarding butcher shops, so there is little doubt that they've existed from antiquity. And their customer base would have to be people who could afford to buy meat, not peasants.

Mordonna
 Jadwiga asked
> 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?


and Phlip answered:
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.




Lady Anne du Bosc
Known as Mordonna The Cook
Atenveldt, Atenveldt
mundanely Pat Griffin
Phoenix, AZ


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