Salt

[mr beer]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Why is a fix even needed?

People seem that they might want one, as evidenced by this thread. If someone wants a fix, and those reasons are purely aesthetic, that's as valid a reason as any.

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by RyanW

Refrigeration is so much the be-all-end-all of food preservation today that many people tend to forget other preservation methods ever existed. That leads to a common misconception that salt, pepper, and/or other spices were primarily used to cover the flavor of questionable meat.

Maybe it did have other reasons. But preservation was one of the most important uses of salt and salt was incorporated not just into king's tables but travel rations.

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Well, bacon is more than 50% meat, so it seems inevitable that it's low on fat, right? ^_^

Traditional English bacon, back before the 20th century was often considered 'good' if it had six inches (15cm) of fat between the rind and the first layer of meat. However bacon and ham are smoked as well as salted, and pre-modern hams were smoked (and salked) a lot more heavily than they are today.

I think the key here is that, unlike mutton and beef, pork has very little fat within the meat. Thus the fat is accessible to the curing method, and also if it goes rancid it doesn't spoil the meat.

[safisher]

Originally Posted by Rupert

Traditional English bacon, back before the 20th century was often considered 'good' if it had six inches (15cm) of fat between the rind and the first layer of meat. However bacon and ham are smoked as well as salted, and pre-modern hams were smoked (and salked) a lot more heavily than they are today.

It was very common in the US South to "brine" pork for ham and bacon. This might take 2 weeks or more of keeping the meat submerged in a salt water solution. After the meat was brined then it was salted and spiced again (often slathered in honey, which is antimicrobial) and smoked for an extended period, sometimes for years. A common saying when I was a child was that a ham was not properly cured until it was 2 years old. I personally know of hams that were edible after 20 years. This was the proverbial wedding ham, put in the smokehouse at a child's birth and kept there the whole time.

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by jason taylor

Maybe it did have other reasons. But preservation was one of the most important uses of salt and salt was incorporated not just into king's tables but travel rations.

Preservation is not the same thing as concealment. I'd rather eat a pickle than a rotting cucumber dipped in vinegar, salt, and dillweed, but the folk history version is that spices were used to conceal, not to flavor when preserving.

Now, there's an interesting semantic line to draw between a rotting cucumber soaked in vinegar, salt, and garlic, vs a fermented pickle (or whatever fermented product vs a "rotten" version) but like the price of salt and spices these things are very regional and cultural.

[Flyndaran]

Fermenting is just rotting in a way pleasing to the consumer and less likely to cause sickness. Though with alcohol that may be somewhat debatable.
Where that line is is very cultural, I agree.
I love pickles and hate cucumbers, but my girlfriend is the opposite.

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by Bruno

Preservation is not the same thing as concealment. I'd rather eat a pickle than a rotting cucumber dipped in vinegar, salt, and dillweed, but the folk history version is that spices were used to conceal, not to flavor when preserving.

Now, there's an interesting semantic line to draw between a rotting cucumber soaked in vinegar, salt, and garlic, vs a fermented pickle (or whatever fermented product vs a "rotten" version) but like the price of salt and spices these things are very regional and cultural.

I am sure sailors really LOVED hunks of beef hard enough to use as a weapon.

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by jason taylor

I am sure sailors really LOVED hunks of beef hard enough to use as a weapon.

Sorry, exactly how does that relate to using spices to cover the taste of rotten flesh?

Dried beef isn't rotten, that's the entire point of drying and salting it - to preserve it so that it doesn't rot. It often isn't particularly spiced either, as it's a utility food :P

[The Colonel]

Originally Posted by jason taylor

I am sure sailors really LOVED hunks of beef hard enough to use as a weapon.

According to at least one author I've read, the Royal Navy's salt meat may actually have been stored in brine rather than dry-salted.

Originally Posted by Bruno

Sorry, exactly how does that relate to using spices to cover the taste of rotten flesh?

Dried beef isn't rotten, that's the entire point of drying and salting it - to preserve it so that it doesn't rot. It often isn't particularly spiced either, as it's a utility food :P

Badly preserved salted food was certainly a thing - stockfish was infamous for it - usually because someone had skimped on the salt (or used adulterated salt), but you're right - the whole point of salting was to prevent decay. In the medieval period, if you could afford spices, you could afford fresh meat (or at least sound preserved meat).
The early modern period, on the other hand, could well have plenty of unsound practices going on - even with modern regulation we have food adulteration scandals aplenty so in the early days of industrial food... again, I recall someone stating that one of the things that happened to British food was urbanisation outgrowing the ability to bring fresh food into the cities on a reliable basis and thus our food culture drifted towards the "four "S"s" - Sugar, Salt, Starch and Stale (in urban areas at least, in the countryside food culture remained pretty standard for Northern Europe). I could well see early modern vendors covering up bad meat - there are certainly a couple of C18 cookbooks with recipes for just that... but again, nothing to do with salting.

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by Bruno

Sorry, exactly how does that relate to using spices to cover the taste of rotten flesh?

Dried beef isn't rotten, that's the entire point of drying and salting it - to preserve it so that it doesn't rot. It often isn't particularly spiced either, as it's a utility food :P

It doesn't. It does remind that one of the purposes of salt was to preserve by killing germs. And not as a luxury product, or to cover the taste of rotten flesh which is an odd motive given that rich people can afford enough fodder to keep animals until they are slaughtered and poor people can't afford spices in the first place.