[Sca-cooks] Storing eggs through Lent, WAS Re: Hi again everyone!!!
Patricia Dunham
chimene at ravensgard.org
Fri Apr 3 11:14:51 PDT 2009
>Meanwhile, back in the Middle Ages, it's late Lent, period food is
>borrring right about now, running out of stockfish and almonds and
>looking longingly at eggs and cheese. Say, what did they do about
>laying hens anyway? You can make cheese out of milk, but what did
>they do with the steady supply of perishable eggs?
1. My immediate reaction to "preserve eggs" is "isinglass", aka
"water glass". I do NOT know how period this is. Isinglass is a
sort of liquidy jelly-like substance, made from ... the swimbladders
of fish, esp sturgeon, esp Beluga sturgeon. In a barrel or cask or
crock, depending on your supply. The isinglas keeps oxygen from
getting to them and staling them, I think. In your regular cold
cellar, of course, not difficult during Lenten weather in northern
Europe. And, of course, you do NOT wash the eggshell before the egg
goes in the goop.
Hmm, how common would BELUGA swimbladders have been in SCA-Europe in
period...? Maybe not isinglass. Common isinglas today uses cod; the
substitution was invented in 1795, because of the cost and difficulty
of importing Russian sturgeon derivatives. (Wiki Isinglas article)
2. Pickling season = Lent??? The Wiki article on eggs says
vinegar-pickled eggs should keep for a year without refrigeration!
No pickling allowed in my house, however. Wiki also mentioned
salting; and I saw something somewhere about simply boiling them,
peeling and storing in plain water. Safe water is an issue in
period...
3. Google also turned up this :
"a book from the library by Clarissa Dickson Wright (one of
the Two Fat Ladies) and this is what she says about storing a glut of
eggs.
'Preserving: Eggs to be preserved whole in the shell should be clean
and dry, but do not wash them as the shell is porous and this
practise can cause disease. Instead, wipe them with a damp cloth and
then a dry one. You can then rub them with buttered paper or liquid
paraffin so that all air is excluded and they will keep for six
months or longer.'
Butter or soft beeswax would certainly have been available in period,
for the anti-oxygen sealing...
Now, can anyone document any of these, beyond "common sense"??
Chimene
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