[Sca-cooks] stuffed camel, anyone

[Lilinah]

Bear wrote:
>The hump is a mound of fatty meat, that supposedly tastes like coarse beef
>when roasted (which probably cooks out a lot of the fat).

There was a feast last fall that i just could not miss, because real 
camel meat was on the menu and i'd never had camel before. So i can 
say from experience that it didn't taste or smell anything like any 
sort of beef i've ever had.

I chatted with the cook afterwards. She's a terrifically enthusiastic 
person who does most of her research on period uses of... mmm... pee 
and poo, and other materials and processes unusual in most of the 
modern US. Talk about recycling! And her classes are NOT to be missed 
since she imparts an amazing amount of well organized information in 
a thoroughly engaging, intriguing, and entertaining manner. And since 
she's always gathering more info, there's always something new, so 
they're worth going to more than once.

Anyway, Aurelia told me that the recipe directed the cooks to brown 
the meat first, and she said that minute the camel meat hit the pan, 
it smelled like caramelized, even burnt, sugar. It did have a rather 
burnt odor when it was served, but i dug in anyway, and it did not in 
the slightest taste burnt.

The texture was rather more tender than the usual muscle meat, since 
the hump is not hard working muscle, but it was not unpleasant. It 
was a interesting flavor, quite different from any other animal meat 
i've eaten. No, it did not taste like chicken :-) But it didn't taste 
like beef either. It was much milder than goat, and to me more 
pleasant than lamb or kid. I assume it was from a young camel, as it 
wasn't gamy. I'd certainly be willing to eat it again.

-- 
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita