[Sca-cooks] Rotten meat and spices...

[Olwen the Odd]

As far back as I can remember we always hung our kill, be it rabbit, 
squirrl, deer, goat, lamb, duck, chicken even.  Depending on how large or 
small it was determined how long it hung.  A good size deer or lamb hung 
wrapped in cheesecloth for up to 4 days.  The little guys just most of a day 
to a whole day.  The only thing we never hung was dove, just shoot em out of 
the sky, rip off their breast, toss the rest to the dog and wash and saute'. 
  mmmmm....
Olwen

>On Tuesday 12 April 2005 10:15 am, dale elliott wrote:
> > What of the pheasent scene from Sho-Gun.  Did the English hand the 
>pheasent
> > until the neck rotted?  or is this bunk?
>[...]
>"Rotted" is probably not the correct description, either, whether they
>actually did it or not.
>
>"Aging" meats is an autocatalytic process - it's not to allow spoilage
>organisms to invade the meat, but to allow time for existing enzymes in the
>meat to break it down and tenderize it.
>
>Presumably in the case of the pheasant, the idea was not that it would 
>"rot"
>but that once the muscle and connetive tissue had softened enough, it would
>no longer be strong enough to support the weight of the bird's body.  At 
>that
>point, you'd know the tenderizing process had reached the point that you
>wanted.  Hanging the bird up would also allow gravity to stretch the 
>muscles
>and minimize the effects of rigour mortis on the texture of the meat.
>Apparently, both the initial rigour mortis and the subsequent
>"aging" (breakdown and softening of the muscle fibers due to enzyme 
>activity)
>happen fairly quickly in birds, as compared to e.g. beef or mutton.