[Sca-cooks] period smoke houses?

[Decker, Terry D.]

Taking a quick look at some of the online references to smoking meat, I
think that no one has taken a serious look at the subject of when, where and
how meat was smoked between the late Roman Empire and the Early Modern
Periods.  What do we know about the subject?  What are the references?

Charlemagne's Capitulary De Vilis contains a reference to smoked meat and
the inventory of Asnapium, one of Charlemagne's estates, references 10 sides
from last year which may be salted or smoked meats.  A kitchen is referenced
in the inventory, but no smokehouse.  Since the separate buildings are
inventoried, if there is a smokehouse present, it is probably and adjunct of
the kitchen.

A quick run through half a dozen primary sources on households hasn't
yielded any more.  This may turn into an interesting research project.

Bear




><clipped>
> Surely the period recipe corpus, in general, refers frequently to 
> salted and, less frequently, pickled, meats, and not often, if at 
> all, to smoked foods. In fact, if you look at recipes which go into 
> detail on ways to keep the smoke off a given food, it suggests that 
> at least some period cultures might have viewed smoky meats as 
> something to be avoided.
> 
> But we know they did it: there are both Roman and 17th-century 
> recipes that call for hanging foods up to smoke in the kitchen fire 
> or chimney. It may be that the smoke is incidental, and that the 
> warm, dry, updraft is the aspect of the process these cooks were 
> going for.
> 
> I think, for what you're looking for, we would need a period book on 
> pig farming for a really detailed description.
> 
> Adamantius