[Sca-cooks] Re: "Drummond, et al"

[El Hermoso Dormiendo]

Yes, following up on my own post - I see later messages I hadn't got to 
identifying "Drummond" from 1958 as a somewhat discredited (or at least 
supplanted) source for the "spices on rotten food" claim.  So - never mind.

On Wednesday 13 April 2005 12:35 pm, El Hermoso Dormiendo wrote:
> Anybody got a pointer to "Drummond et al, 1958", which appears to be the
> sole source for reference to "using spices to hide rotten meat" in this
> work.
>
> Seems odd - as has been pointed out elsewhere in this thread, spices tended
> to be more expensive than fresh meat in the first place, and the paper is
> talking about the butchers, not the cooks, using the unspecified "spices"
> to allegedly "mask decay".  (Alternative explanation - some spices [cloves,
> etc.] DO have antimicrobial properties - if the butchers are wealthy enough
> to throw spices on the meat that they are selling to the cooks, perhaps
> instead of spicing "spoiled" meat it may have been done to PREVENT decay?
> Spiced pickling solutions or spiced brine, maybe? Purely speculating
> here...)
>
> If the BUTCHERS were selling spoiled meats, that doesn't indicate that the
> cooks didn't get them home, cook them, taste them, and then exclaim "UGH!
> This crap is inedible!  That bastard sold me bad meat!" rather than just
> dumping more spices on it in hopes that nobody will notice and blame them
> when they get sick...
>
> Seriously - I WOULD like to find out what "Drummond et al, 1958" is so I
> can dig up a copy to read.  If someone could dig up the full citation there
> I'd like to look it up and read it.
>
> On Wednesday 13 April 2005 08:51 am, Speaker To Idiots wrote:
> [...]
>
> > Food safety in urban contexts
> > soon became the target of city government, and the
> > duplicity of butchers selling cheap meats spiced to
> > mask decay and of other merchants trying to dump
> > lower-cost spoiled foods on consumers meant that
> > these hazards increased as socioeconomic status and
> > purchasing power decreased (Drummond et al.,
> > 1958). This meant that dietary improvements experienced
> > by the poor were partially offset by questionable
> > food quality.
>
> _______________________________________________
> Sca-cooks mailing list
> Sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
> http://www.ansteorra.org/mailman/listinfo/sca-cooks