[Sca-cooks] Aging of meat

[James Prescott]

At 00:30 -0500 2005-04-13, Stefan li Rous wrote:

>  But yes, if you are desperate enough you might eat rotten meat 
> feeling it is better than nothing. Of course these are going to be 
> the exceptional cases such as the cases in the Crusades, and 
> probably elsewhere, of folks decided dead humans are better eaten 
> than nothing at all, as well.


In the same way that wine is simply carefully rotted grapes, there
are some carefully rotted meats (perhaps 'fermented' would be a less
emotionally loaded word to use) that are highly prized in certain
cultures.

Peter Freuchen in his excellent "Book of the Eskimos" (World
Publishing, New York, 1961) describes a number of such delicacies.

I'll quote one of the less extreme examples (page 139):

"We were invited to Uvdluriak's and there for the first time I tasted
rotten _mattak_.  This dish, which is a great delicacy for the Eskimos,
consists of huge flakes of narwhale skin that have been kept in meat
caches for several years.  In the low temperature they do not become
rancid, they just ferment, so that the skin tastes very much like
walnuts whil the blubber, turned quite green, tastes sharp -- almost
like roquefort cheese."


Thorvald