[Sca-cooks] Takes on Hamburger history

[Stefan li Rous]

<<< From Smithsonianmag.com, trying out historical hamburger recipes, including Apicius.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/taste-testing-history-hamburger-180959789/

Johnnae >>>

An interesting article.

We have discussed chopping meat vs. grinding it previously.  Like Gunthar, the writers of this article also said "Pounding meat in order to tenderize it takes a lot of work (though it is easier than mincing). It was much more work than running it through a meat grinder."

They also highlight:
<<< But mechanical grinders were still rare items in the 1880s. A typical kitchen would not have had one when Mrs. Lincoln's Boston Cook Book was first published.

It was becoming clear to us that the critical step in the evolution of the hamburger was probably the availability of meat grinders. In 1897, a company called Landers, Frary and Clark launched their “universal food chopper. Originally marketed for chopping and grinding almost any food in the kitchen, today we would look at this object and refer to it as a meat grinder. >>>

also
<<< The ingredients were the same as the authentic Hamburg steak, but running the same meat through a grinder made a world of difference. Steak Hamburg turned into a completely different food once people switched from pounding to grinding. >>>

So, if meat grinders weren't available and folks didn't chop up the meat by hand because of the labor, how fine or chunky was the meat that was put into medieval sausages?

I would also say this is the answer to when people say a hamburger is period because all the ingredients are. The meat is period, but ground meat of this consistency really wasn't. They *could* make it, but few chose to and fewer still chose to put it between two slices of bread, which wasn't that similar to a modern, fluffy hamburger bun, anyway.

Another point, I know that a number of people have redacted and cooked medieval sausage recipes. I've got a number of these in the Florilegium. I suspect all of these used meat ground in a grinder.

So are we likely to be chopping up the meat to a finer texture than what the medieval sausage recipes were calling for?

Stefan

--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
   Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          StefanliRous at gmail.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/marksharris
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****