[Sca-cooks] period smoke houses?

[Olwen the Odd]

>Also sprach david friedman:
>>Stefan asked about smokehouses and Adamantius replied:
>>
>>>...
>>>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.
>>
>>Here are a few relevant bits from Le Menagier:
>>
>>To Salt Beef Tongues. In the right season for salting, take a quantity of 
>>beef tongues and parboil them a little, then take them out and skin them, 
>>then salt them one after another, and lay them in salt for eight days or 
>>ten, then hang them in the fireplace, leaving them there for the winter: 
>>then hang them in a dry place, for one year or two or three or four.
>>-------
>>In Gascony, when it begins to get cold, they buy the tongues, parboil and 
>>skin them, and then salt them one on top of another in a salting tub and 
>>leave then eight days, then hang them in the chimney all winter and in 
>>summer, as above, dry; and they will keep thus for ten years. And then 
>>they are cooked in water and wine if you wish, and eaten with mustard.
>>------
>>To Make Sausages. When you have killed your pig, take some chops, first 
>>from the part they call the filet, and then take some chops from the other 
>>side and some of the best fat, as much of the one as of the other, enough 
>>to make as many sausages as you need; and have it finely chopped and 
>>ground by a pastry-cook. Then grind fennel and a little fine salt, and 
>>then take your ground fennel, and mix thoroughly with a quart of powdered 
>>spices; then mix your meat, your spices and your fennel thoroughly 
>>together, and then fill the guts, that is to say, the small gut. (And know 
>>that the guts of an old porker are better for this purpose than those of a 
>>young pig, because they are larger.) And after this, smoke them for four 
>>days or more, and when you want to eat them, put them in hot water and 
>>bring just to boiling, and then put on the grill.
>
>To some extent, these snippets kind of demonstrate my point, which is that 
>the concept of building a smokehouse specifically for the preservation of 
>meat might have been an unknown, or at least an unusual, concept, for many 
>Europeans in period. Note that the tongue recipes don't even mention the 
>word "smoke" (although the meat acquiring some degree of smoke flavoring 
>seems pretty likely in the process). But I still think that smoking, in a 
>smokehouse, is the result of a particular combination of climate, the need 
>to process a relatively large amount of meat, and insect population, and 
>that not every period European culture shows that combination.
>
>Adamantius

Then how do you account for the viking smokehouses?
Olwen

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