[Sca-cooks] all there is to know about food... in three minutes!

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach Finne Boonen:
>On Sun, 10 Oct 2004 14:55:43 -0400, Brett / Wistan <brettmc at gmail.com> wrote:
>>  A couple odd perceptions that come up when talking about food in the
>>  middle ages.
>>
>>  1.  People didn't use many spices because they didn't have any.
>>
>>  2.  People used lots of spices because their food spoiled too quick. (
>>  I tell them only the French did this, an it was post period. ;) )
>>
>
>hmm, does food stay good for longer periods of time when using certain
>spices? (eg salt, but others then salt) Since warmer regions often use
>a different spicing pattern. (wich might just be because more spices
>where available, wich might be because certain spices preserve food
>and warm regions meat spoils sooner)?

The question then becomes, how often (really) are spice mixtures used 
as a preservative in warmer countries? Offhand, I can think of one 
spicy dish (and some relatives thereof) that is made as it is in 
order to retard spoilage (among other things), and it's not really 
clear to me that it's not a near-desiccating cooking process and 
plenty of oxygen-excluding oil that actually does the job: the 
Sumatran beef curry dish called rendang is, from what I've seen, is 
cooked until the meat is tender but almost dry, and most of the 
liquid component is a [very little] thick jamlike stuff under a layer 
of oil. It's intended to keep at least a day or more without 
refrigeration, and is eaten with hot rice. As I say, it's not clear 
to me that it's the spices, or at least the spices alone, that really 
perform the actual preservation.

However, it may be that the desiccation (and salt) protects from 
bacterial growth, and the spices repel insects who'd be tempted to 
lay eggs in the food (which is, I understand, the rationale for 
pepper in the cure for Smithfield Ham).

Adamantius

-- 
"As long as but a hundred of us remain  alive, never will we on any 
conditions be brought under English rule.  It is in truth not for 
glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are  fighting, but for freedom 
-- for that alone, which no honest man gives  up but with life 
itself."
	-- The Declaration of Arbroath, 1320

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