[Sca-cooks] meat pasties and their longevity outside modern cooling

[Edouard de Bruyerecourt]

> the results were again and again "no organisms isolated"  As a control
> they tested meat pasties purchased from a service station [and kept in
> cooler!], and in each case, a week after the purchase date, the meat
> was already infected with some bacillus.

Actually, the store pies were not kept in a cooler. Quoting the
article: "Three meat pies were purchased from the local service station and
kept at room temperature in the paper bags in which they were purchased."
(Elston, Del. "Pyes de Pares." _Medieval History Magazine_, February 2004,
p. 16). The test pies were also kept at room temperature, but in wooden
bowls and covered with a cloth. It was the author's opinion that the
purchased pies would not have been safe to eat after one week. The first
purchased pie was tested one week after purchase, and presented bacteria at
an unsafe level (1,000,000 cfu/gram). The second pie was tested after two
weeks and presented a level greater than this.

Of also interesting note was the comment by a senior microbiologist that
certain oils in the spices, particularly the cinnamon,
are 'bacteriostatic,' meaning they inhibit the reproduction of bacteria.
Ginger was one of the other spices used, and I recall from an article on
sushi that it has anti-microbiologic properties, along with rice vinegar
and wasabi (wasabi kills cholera almost immediately).

This might suggest 'heavily spicing food' not to cover the taste of
spoilage, but because they noticed heavily spices food did not spoil as
readily.

Ironically, I was given a free copy of this issue by Mark Gaukler at
Estrella, at which I was attempting to eat more period food without a
cooler. The meat in Lord's Salt made a rather nice Beef yStewed, if a bit
tart. In fact, I didn't even bother adding the spices in the recipe for
yStewed, since they were similar to those used in the Lord's Salt. The
tartness didn't bother me, but might have bothered others. I had intended
to wash/soak the meat, to remove some of the vinegar, but it was getting
dark and I was hungry. Making several meat pies as described in this
article would have been much more convienent 'campaign food' for just this
instance, since I was riding along with a well-packed merchant, and space
was at a minimum. Assuming the crust was otherwise edible, I would probably
have eaten it, since the extra salt would have tasted good.

Edouard