[Sca-cooks] Myth of Spoiled Meat

Johnna Holloway johnnae at mac.com
Sat Nov 21 19:51:36 PST 2009


For cook shops see the following
Start out with Carlin and Rosenthal's
Food and Eating in Medieval Europe.
Hambledon Press, 1998. The papers of interest in it
are the following:

Martha Carlin's "Fast Food and Urban Living Standards
in Medieval England."

Margaret Murphey's "Feeding Medieval Cities:
Some Historical Approaches."

Both have great bibliographies.

Also see:
Feeding A City: York which is the Leeds Conference
on foods in York. Published by Prospect Books in 2000
and edited by Eileen White.

Two others to look at:
London Eats Out. 500 Years of Capital Dining.
London: Museum of London and Philip Wilson Publishers, 1999.

and

Londoners' larder : English cuisine from Chaucer to the present /
Annette Hope. 1990

Of those two, Hope is the better book.

Hope this helps--

Johnnae llyn Lewis

On Nov 21, 2009, at 4:23 PM,
>
> So, I know the kind of traveller's food shop that I'm thinking of  
> existed.
> And, having clientele that is here-today-gone-tomorrow makes it a  
> lovely
> place to break laws.
>
> snipped large amounts
>
> Can someone help me out, here?  I'd love to put these doubts to rest.
>
> Ian of Oertha
> *******************
>
> Your argument can be applied to any restaurant, deli, or fast food  
> joint today.  They serve local and travelling clientele just as the  
> Roman/Medieval/Renaissance cookshop or tavern did.  They comply with  
> the law because that is easier than trying to consistently cheat  
> everyone and maintain the reputation needed to stay in business.  It  
> is easier to run a grift being a travelling man, than as a  
> businessman with a fixed address.
>
> Modern regulations don't solve dishonesty and I'm certain Medieval  
> regulations didn't solve it either (considering some of the  
> punishments meted out to thieving bakers).  What they do is  
> establish limits and provide a means of redress.
>
> Was spoiled meat served?  Probably.  Was it so common that spices  
> were used to hide the spoilage?  Probably not.
>
> Bear



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