>
> If the meat starts to putrify, then the French used a sauce to cover
> the bad taste,
> >
> >>I was told of a method of hanging the rabbit or hare in a tree and allowing
> >>it to become fly-blown. Apparently, the flies and/or maggots eat the guts
> >>and when the flesh is almost green it is taken down, washed and cooked.

Both these sound like urban myths to me.

The first is plain daft. The french have known ways to avoid meat
putrifying for a very long time. But I suppose the word "French" is the
modern American for "******".

For the second, yeah, game tastes better (to British taste) hung for a
while - quite a long while. The French and Italians prefer don't like
it that way, and eat it fresh. But hanging game is just like hanging
beef. It makes it taste better, not rotten.

The best example of "rotten" food is probably that old roman sauce,
whose name I've forgotten, made from rotten fish.

Lazarus

--
Remover the rock from the email address

On Sun, 19 Oct 2003 21:25:23 +0100, Lazarus Cooke
> wrote:

>
>>
>> If the meat starts to putrify, then the French used a sauce to cover
>> the bad taste,
>> >
>> >>I was told of a method of hanging the rabbit or hare in a tree and allowing
>> >>it to become fly-blown. Apparently, the flies and/or maggots eat the guts
>> >>and when the flesh is almost green it is taken down, washed and cooked.
>
>Both these sound like urban myths to me.
>
>For the second, yeah, game tastes better (to British taste) hung for a
>while - quite a long while. The French and Italians prefer don't like
>it that way, and eat it fresh. But hanging game is just like hanging
>beef. It makes it taste better, not rotten.

What most people tend to forget, or don't know in the first place, is
that pheasant season in England is the October/November timeframe.
Average tempurature is below 50F/11C. Well ventilated and protected
from blow flies the process is dry aging.

On Sun, 19 Oct 2003 21:25:23 +0100, Lazarus Cooke
> wrote:

>The first is plain daft. The french have known ways to avoid meat
>putrifying for a very long time. But I suppose the word "French" is the
>modern American for "******".

Hm. Birds was supposed to be hung until they started to move again
when I was a child. One wood-grooze I removed feathers from when child
(about 8 year, that is around 1958, was full of maggots, which I was
told was normal before starting the job,and indeed it was full of
them, but only on skin.
It tasted really delicious after having hung for about 3-4 weeks. No
rural or urban gozzips or legends there.
anyway, food was too expensive to be thrown at that time, so the food
was used anyway, evt. camuflaged in some way if seriously spoiled.

Remember the gruesome oxidized salted herrings in late spring, having
laid in salted brine since early autumn, now deep yellow from
rancidification after that long store.

So to let children accept the fact that no matter how spoiled the food
was, it had to be eaten, or you had to wait with food until that food
was eaten until you got something else to eat. (and I still remember
when buying some foods, we needed a permition to buy, but that ended I
think here in Norway around 1955 or so, except car which was
rationized until about 1962 or around there sometime.

But the point is that those stories about the need to hung until
almost eaten by faggots and moving by themselves by the help of
maggots was jokes told to make children accepting eating spoiled food.

(By the way, maggots is the new way to treat wounds that are difficult
to heal. The maggots eat the dead skin that hinder the wounds to grow,
which also is the reason for risk of deadly infections and thus the
maggots may hinder deadly infections, but many don't accept the
treatment on reason it is very unappetizing :-) Quite understandable,
though.

On Sun, 19 Oct 2003 21:25:23 +0100, Lazarus Cooke
> wrote:

>
>The best example of "rotten" food is probably that old roman sauce,
>whose name I've forgotten, made from rotten fish.
>
Garum, IIRC.


Rodney Myrvaagnes Opionated old geezer

Faith-based economics: It's deja voodoo all over again

Rodney Myrvaagnes muttered....

> On Sun, 19 Oct 2003 21:25:23 +0100, Lazarus Cooke
> > wrote:
>
>>
>>The best example of "rotten" food is probably that old roman sauce,
>>whose name I've forgotten, made from rotten fish.
>>
> Garum, IIRC.
>
...or the modern equivalents (or at least in the same vein), Thai nam pla
and Vietnamese nuoc mam, good stuff!

TMO

Or, for today's descendents of Rome, Worchestershire sauce (umm, rotten
anchovies).

toodles, gretchen

--On Wednesday, October 22, 2003 9:33 AM -0500 Olivers
> wrote:

> ...or the modern equivalents (or at least in the same vein), Thai nam
> pla and Vietnamese nuoc mam, good stuff!

> Garum, IIRC.
>
Thank you!

Lazarus

--
Remover the rock from the email address

On Sun, 19 Oct 2003 21:25:23 +0100, Lazarus Cooke
> wrote:

>The best example of "rotten" food is probably that old roman sauce,
>whose name I've forgotten, made from rotten fish.

Garum is not rotten (decayed by microorganisms entering the fish) but
;a result of autolysis, the cells own degrading system breaking down
the cells and lysing them to release the content. If not run to the
end, it is also known as tenderizing. The process that make meat
chewable.