[Sca-cooks] horsemeat

[brooke white]

My mother, who has been trained in the arts of housekeeping for a private
home back in Germany told me that the true Sauerbraten from the Rhineregion
used to be horse. That makes a lot of sense,if you think about 'not wasting
old cavallerie horse' and I have absolutely no idea WHEN that dish was
created, but a true Suaerbraten - regardless of what Martha Stewart will try
to make you think is not made in 3 hours. It is marinaded rather long in a
rather sour medium, which would probably soften up overly tough meat, would
it not? However, these days truly 'honest' Kneipen will list this dish not
as "Rheinischer Sauerbraten" but as Sauerbraten "Rheinische Art". You will
rarely be served horse, and certainly not without being told. But it does
seem to me less a matter of dire times dictating what was eaten and more a
matter of: Overabundand times being ok with being wasteful. People didn't
eat Panhass (another rhenish specialtly that is no longer widely available)
BECAUSE they were poor, but because it was tasty (Panhass is made from the
stuff that add up in the cooking water for freshly made sausages, it get's
sifted out and will get a consistency (due to the gelatinous parts of the
meat that was cooked/'gebrüht') that makes it easy to slice. My grandma told
me with a guilty smile that she used to make sure - as a young girl - to let
at least two sausages 'explode' when her mother wasn't watching, so she was
sure to get enough panhass from one 'making sausages day')

We have lost countles perfectly Good, nutrious and tasty dishes due to
rather Modern peculiarities: Ever had 'Blutwurst' (Sausage made from liver)
there is a reason why, it is part of a dish called heaven and earth. because
if it is a good one and fried quite right and mixed with applesauce it is
absolutely delicious.

I have been haven trouble to get good 'tough' meat since I have moved to the
states, as the 'traditional' cuts of meats are different in every culture.
I'd so love to figure out what a 'falsches Filet/Pastoorenstück' translates
into...

It is less a matter of people eating icky food because they have no other
choice (I remember one of my 'helping the thirdworld' teachers made us the
'staple' food of a very poor tribe in the Andes, dried potatoes and beans.
It was amazingly good.)
It is more a matter of food being an indicator of status (and is to that day
look at the Whole Foodies are racist thread of the foodeducation discussion)
and during different times people held different beliefs about what food
conferred what status.

And there seems to be one common denominator: Even when there was only one
thing to be had (which rarely was tha case, my grandma told me about eating
oak supplemented bread and coffe sibsitutes from oaks and what you call
Endive roots(which in german funnily enough is Chicoree))
People did their very darn best to make it tasty. more often than not they
succeeded.

YOurs
Elisande