[Sca-cooks] Spices for preservation of meats

[Terry Decker]

Spices were expensive, but were not beyond the reach of anyone who could 
acquire a modicum of wealth.  As for the relative cost, who, when and where 
must be considered in the equation.  A couple of papers on the subject of 
spice prices can be found at:

http://www.economics.utoronto.ca/munro5/SPICES1.htm

http://www.econ.yale.edu/seminars/echist/eh05-06/Freeman's%20Paper.doc

The hunt was often reserved to the nobles, but not necessarily the meat. 
For example, for centuries the German Jaegermeister's have had the privilege 
to sell part of the meat taken in the hunt as part of their wages and were 
to provide a portion of the hunt to orphans, widows and the needy. 
Domesticated livestock are outside of the purview of the hunt and in many 
jurisdictions birds and fish were taken commercially and sold in the 
markets.

Bear

> Remember pepper alone was as
> expensive as the purchase of a slave or a sheep.  We find spices in
> nobles' household accounts but lower classes not only could not afford
> spices, they seldom had meat as hunting grounds were owned by the nobles
> and it was forbidden to hunt on them. Meat was for the nobleman it was
> thought that as he needed it for strength in wars riding his horse and
> wearing armor.
>
> Christy Campbell or Ysabelle wrote:
> Can anyone point me at information on the period uses of spices to 
> preserve meat?