[Sca-cooks] Safety in the Kitchen

[Phil Troy/ G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach Michael Gunter:
>>Why use unfinished wood tables? All tables in the mediaeval period would
>>have been finished, then scrubbed often as part of the cleaning process.
>>They would have been quite smooth. Or do you mean unoiled/unlaquered? These
>>are fine for this process - the wood will no doubt contain its own anti-germ
>>properties.
>>
>>Glenda.
>
>This reminds me of somewhere I read that the kitchen crews (I think of Hampton
>Court) would, after the cooking was finished, scrub the work tables with
>salt and boiling water.
>
>Gunthar

I think  I've also seen that somewhere. At the end of the day, the 
Ottomanelli butchers I often buy from (the only ones out of several 
such places where I can really watch them work) scrub their butcher 
blocks with steel scrub brushes. Not wire brushes, mind you: they 
look like a floor-scrubbing brush with little steel strips, maybe 
1/8" wide, thin spring steel strips instead of bristles or wires. 
We're talking visible stock removal...   After that, they use salt, 
some kind of sanitizer spray, and maybe the occasional coat of oil.

Adamantius