On food and cooking the science and lore of the kitchen ( PDFDrive ) 339

gave them their name Pastez de beuf Take good young beef, and remove all fat Cut the lean into pieces and boil, and afterwards take to the pastry cook to be chopped, and fatten it with beef marrow — Le Ménagier de Paris, ca 1390 Pastilli di carne Take as much lean meat as you want and cut it up fine with small knives Mix veal fat and spices into this meat Wrap in crusts and bake in an oven… This can even be made in a well-greased dish without a crust — Maestro Martino, ca 1450 Preserved Meats The preservation of meat from biological spoilage has been a major challenge throughout human history The earliest methods, which go back at least 4,000 years, were physical and chemical treatments that make meat inhospitable to microbes Drying meat in the sun and wind or by the fire removes enough water to halt bacterial growth A smoky fire deposits cell-killing chemicals on the meat surface Heavy salting — with partly evaporated seawater, or rock salt, or the ashes of salt-concentrating plants — also draws vital moisture from cells Moderate salting permits the growth of a few hardy and harmless microbes that help exclude harmful ones Out of these crude methods to stave off spoilage have come some of our most complex and interesting foods, the dry-cured hams and fermented sausages The Industrial Revolution brought a new approach: preserve meat not by changing the meat itself, but by controlling its environment Canning encloses cooked meat ... Moderate salting permits the growth of a few hardy and harmless microbes that help exclude harmful ones Out of these crude methods to stave off spoilage have come some of our most complex and interesting foods, the dry-cured hams and fermented sausages... chemicals on the meat surface Heavy salting — with partly evaporated seawater, or rock salt, or the ashes of salt-concentrating plants — also draws vital moisture from cells Moderate salting permits the growth of a few... of our most complex and interesting foods, the dry-cured hams and fermented sausages The Industrial Revolution brought a new approach: preserve meat not by changing the meat itself, but by controlling its environment Canning encloses cooked meat