dried-meats-msg - 10/19/13

Dried meat and recipes in period.

NOTE: See also the files: drying-foods-msg, Calontr-Jerky-art, pickled-meats-msg, corned-beef-msg, Dried-Bef-Qan-art, meat-smoked-msg, Lrds-Salt-Exp-art.

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    Mark S. Harris                  AKA:  THLord Stefan li Rous
                                          Stefan at florilegium.org
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Date: Sat, 16 Sep 2000 00:12:36 -0400
From: "Robin Carroll-Mann" <harper at idt.net>
Subject: Re: SC - jerky documentation?

And it came to pass on 15 Sep 00,, that Wajdi wrote:
> Pure speculation on my part, but has any consideration been given
> to the idea that dried meat products may be found in early
> Spanish or Arab writings?  Seems to me as if those areas would
> have had sufficient sun to dry meat.

Dunno.  I've seen recipes that use air-dried fish: hake and conger eel.  
There's a 1553 Spanish treatise on the benefits of physical exercise that 
mentions "tasajos", which the Royal Spanish dictionary says is meat 
that has been preserved by drying and salting it, or in oil.

http://www.uida.es/mendez/portada.html

So I searched for "tasajos" at google.com, and found a link to a page 
about food in Don Quixote.  (Okay, so I'm obsessive.  Everyone needs a 
hobby.)  http://www.jimena.com/cocina/apartados/quijote.htm
It gives a quote from the novel, in which some goatherds are boiling 
tasajos of goat meat in a cauldron.  The explanatory note says that 
tasajos are:
"Carne adobada durante cuatro dÌas y dejada despuÈs a secar. Es 
como la cecina del cabrero. Se puede hacer con vaca, ternera, venado, 
jabalÌ..."

"Meat marinated for four days and then left to dry.  It is the cecina [a 
type of hung dried beef] of the goatherd.  It can be made with beef, veal, 
venison, wild boar..."

I found another online source -- a 16th century commentary on sailing 
and life at sea -- and it had some scathing things to say about the 
rations for passengers on a galley-ship.  Tasajos of goat were 
mentioned, along with such delights as rancid bacon.

There was also a quote from a 17th century comedy by Tirso de Molina. 
 Two laborers are complaining that their employers don't pay well.  One 
of them says that his rations are badly-seasoned tasajos and coarse 
bran bread.

I get the feeling that tasajos were often used as a food for travellers and 
the poor.

Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)


Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2000 12:46:01 -0700
From: david friedman <ddfr at best.com>
Subject: SC - Period Islamic Dried Meat

 From _Social Life Under the Abbasids_ by M. M. Ahsan, p. 113
- ---
The Abbasids inherited the art of food preservation from the ancient 
east and the classical civilizations. The drying process was widely 
used and the least expensive. Even the Arabs of the remote past were 
fond of dried meat called qadid. ... The common people of the time 
used this method extensively. Like meat, fish was also dried in the 
sun and used throughout the year.

In one process for food preservation, antiseptic agents, especially 
salt and vinegar, were used. The meat thus preserved was known as 
namaksud, a Persian compound word indicative of the Persian origin of 
the method. To make namaksud, the meat was cut into slices, seasoned 
with salt, and left in the sun on a plank to dry. When required, the 
slices were moistened with water and cooked.
- ---

I should add that Ahsan is not entirely reliable--he repeatedly 
describes murri as "brine," for example, and makes frequent errors of 
arithmetic in doing currency conversions. The book has a tone of 
"paste together all the references you can find to subject X in the 
literature without really digesting or evaluating them." But I expect 
that on a simple point like this he is accurate. He cites a variety 
of sources, of which the most accessible is probably the Encyclopedia 
of Islam; I haven't yet checked it.
- -- 
David/Cariadoc
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/


Date: Sun, 21 Jan 2001 16:02:13 -0800
From: lilinah at earthlink.net
Subject: SC - Moroccan Dried Meat

Long ago we discussed dried meat, and the lack of "period" recipes. I 
have discovered a recipe for Moroccan dried meat. I suspect that some 
variation of this goes back thousand years or more. However, it 
doesn't seem to me to be the sort of thing that would have made it 
into a cookbook for the wealthy or noble, so other than anecdotal 
references in literature, which i have seen, we'll probably never 
really know.

This recipe is from "Taste of Morocco" by Robert Carrier, Boxtree 
Ltd., London: 1987/1996. ISBN 0-7522-1039-4

I haven't tried it myself.

Khlii
Sun-dried preserved meat

The author, a Brit, refers to it as "an age old method". We here on 
this list know that could mean that it goes back to someone's 
grandmother 40 years ago.

He goes on to say: "Khlii is used, much as we use bacon or petit salÈ 
(lightly salted pork fat), to flavour tagines of fresh or dried 
vegetables, or a winter couscous or soup."

- -----

2.25 kg / 5 lb beef
50 g / 2 oz coarse salt
450 g / 1 lb lamb (or beef) fat
1.2 litres / 2 pints water
250 ml / 8 fl oz groundnut/peanut oil
150 ml / 1/4 pint olive oil

Spice and Garlic Paste
75 g / 3 oz (6 Tb) coriander seeds, ground
50 g / 2 oz garlic, peeled and crushed
2 Tb vinegar
50 ml / 2 fl oz olive oil
50 g / 2 oz coarse salt

1. To prepare spice and garlic paste, combine all the ingredients 
together in a bowl, mix well, and leave to rest for 24 hours.

2. In the meantime, cut the meat into long thin strips. Rub the 
strips well with the coarse salt. Cover with a piece of muslin / 
cheesecloth to protect from insects, and leave to absorb the flavours 
for 24 hours.

3. Then take each strip of salted meat and cover it with a layer of 
spice and garlic paste, rubbing it in well with your fingers. Cover 
with muslin / cheesecloth and leave to absorb flavours for a further 
24 hours.

4. On the following day, take each piece of meat and hang it over a 
washing line or, with needle and thread, take thread through the end 
of each strip and tie thread into a loop. Insert a broomstick through 
each loop and hang the pole horizontally in the sun, covering the 
meat with a strip of muslin / cheesecloth as above. Make sure that 
each strip is well covered with spice and garlic paste, and pat on a 
little where needed. Repeat this process over 3 or 4 more days, or 
until meat is thoroughly dried. Absolutely no moisture must come out 
when meat is pressed with your finger. Make sure you bring meat 
indoors at sunset, to keep it away from any possible mist or moisture 
in the night air.

5. When meat is dried, remove it from the line or pole. Cut it into 
even sized pieces and simmer it with its aromatics in melted fat, 
water, and the oils, until all the water has been absorbed. The 
richly flavoured fat will be left in the pan. Stir often to ensure 
that meat does not stick to the bottom of pan or scorch.

6. When the meat is tender, remove it from casserole or stock pot and 
allow to cool completely in a large shallow container. Strain fats 
through a muslin / cheesecloth -lined sieve into a container. Allow 
to cool completely. It must still be liquid.

7. Fill sterilized Kilner / Mason jars loosely with meat, then pour 
over strained fat. Leave jars open for 2 hours, then seal.

8. Reserve the remaining bits or crumbs of meat and spice and garlic 
paste in a jar to use in savoury beghrir or rghaif

- -----

MY NOTE: beghrir and rghaif are fried pancakey-breads - i'm not 
giving a real accurate description, but it will do for now. I ate 
both kinds, as well as several others, while i was in Morocco, but i 
don't think i had any khlii.

Both pan cooked (such as beghrir and rghaif) and baked yeasted breads 
(khobz) are often made with semolina flour so they are faintly golden 
and have a very different flavor from white or whole wheat flour in 
the US - which was to my mind really delicious. When given the choice 
between white and pain complet (which in France is a modified whole 
wheat) bread loaves, i chose the complet, which was the golden kind. 
Anyone on the list have experience making bread with semolina flour? 
I imagine it behaves differently from the usual white...

NOTE 2: The author gives no information on how to store khlii or on 
how long it keeps.

Anahita


Date: Thu, 28 Feb 2002 21:15:52 -0500
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Dried meat in period?

Also sprach david friedman:
>>While I tend to agree with Brangwayna, have you
>>considered dried meat, like jerky?
>
>>Phlip
>
>To bring this back to questions of historical cookery ...  .
>
>What information do we have on the use of dried meat in period?
>Stockfish was certainly common. Anything closer?

The Magyars are thought to have used a form of dried meat, beef or
even horsemeat, and it is rumored (let's just say I don't have access
to a primary source) that the original gulyas was a sort of pocket
soup, more or less a meat stew cooked until the liquid was almost
completely dried, and the meat mostly dried, too. It was then
finished by drying under the sun and in the wind. Presumably it could
be reconstituted for eating, but I suspect it could be chewed on
without further moistening or cooking.

And I could swear there was an Islamic dried beef recipe referred to
on this list...

And then, of course, we have the old standbys of dryish hams being
eaten without further cooking, and sausages, including the
smoke-dried Polonian sausages (English kielbasa) mentioned by Hugh
Plat.

Adamantius


Date: Thu, 28 Feb 2002 20:57:22 -0800
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
From: lilinah at earthlink.net
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Dried meat in period?

From: david friedman <ddfr at daviddfriedman.com>
>What information do we have on the use of dried meat in period?
>Stockfish was certainly common. Anything closer?

I haven't seen any European references, but, then, i haven't looked.
Anahita isn't European.

However, i've seen references to dried spiced meat in the Middle
Eastern corpus - not eaten as jerky though; it's carried around
dried, but it eat it, it's cooked in liquid. There's a recipe or two
for making it and another few recipes for using it lurking in
"Medieval Arab Cookery". I'll have to look and see what it's called
and which of the several translated books it's in...

Anahita


Date: Fri, 1 Mar 2002 11:19:53 -0600 (CST)
From: "Pixel, Goddess and Queen" <pixel at hundred-acre-wood.com>
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Dried meat in period?

On Thu, 28 Feb 2002 XvLoverCrimvX at aol.com wrote:
> So with the talk of jerky (which is making me hungry for the dried meat) in
> the air, who has a good jerky recipe with instructions on how to make jerky.
> Mmm, if i'm not busy, I make some myself if I can find a recipe.
>
> Misha

Here's our recipe. Contains only ingredients that can in theory be
documented to England in the 13th century. We're obsessive that way.

1/2 cup water
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1 tbsp salt
2 tsp honey
1 tsp garlic bits
1 tsp dried onion
1 tsp dried mustard
1/2 tsp or thereabouts black pepper

Marinate sliced meat overnight or longer, dehydrate. Yum. The other half
stores his in his fridge, but this has lasted all through Pennsic while
living in a linen bag. I prefer more pepper and mustard, myself.

Margaret


From: "AnnaMarie" <wolfsong at ida.net>
To: <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Date: Sun, 19 May 2002 11:12:30 -0600
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Update on Lamb Jerky

Well, it's not beef, that's for sure.....  lamb jerky takes about 1/3 of
time longer than beef and even when it's dried to the consistency I dry my
beef it still tastes a bit greasy to me.  I trimmed as much fat as I could
and when it was finished drying I trimmed some more fat off (dogs were happy
with those leavings).  I marinated it in red wine vinegar, pepper and a bit
of sugar so the flavor is nice, it's just greasier than beef and definitely
tastes like lamb.

All in all, I think I'll stick to the beef jerky and save the lamb for stews
and kabobs.

Kristianne
Wolf Song Day Spa & Herb Shop


Date: Mon, 05 Jul 2010 15:33:54 +0930
From: drakey at internode.on.net
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>,	"Terry
	Decker" <t.d.decker at att.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Meat Jerky

There's a Yuan Chinese Recipe (it's in A Soup for the Qan) for Drief 
Beef... I served it as part of a Mongol Feast at Rowany festival this 
year and it was well received... The Tsaoko Cardamon in it gives it a 
pronounced smokey note... 

Drakey. 

On Mon 05/07/10 2:22 PM , "Terry Decker" t.d.decker at att.net sent: 
<< To the best of my knowledge, dried and smoked meats pre-date the Jews.  
Drying meats and cooking begin in the Middle Paleolithic between 
30,000 and 3000 years ago. There is some evidence to suggest that the practice 
is at least 110,000 years old. The Jewish people trace their roots to the  
Biblical patriarchs about 4,000 years ago with Judaism becoming established  
within the millenia following. I don't think one can blame the Jews 
for jerky. 

Bear >>

<<< I have come into some controversy about meat jerky. My latest is that it is of Jewish origin??? 
Suey >>>


Date: Mon, 05 Jul 2010 06:59:57 -0400
From: Johnna Holloway <johnnae at mac.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Meat Jerky

In the Encyclopedia of Food & Culture in the entry "Meat, Smoked"

In South America, long strips of dried meat are called charqui, which  
has come into English as "jerky" as the name for a snack made from  
beef or turkey.

http://www.enotes.com/food-encyclopedia/meat-smoked

Under Canada: Native Peoples
The Plains Peoples

The Plains Peoples (Blackfoot, Blood, Peigan, Gros Ventre, Cree,  
Assiniboine, Sioux, and Sarcee [Tsuu T'ina]) followed buffalo  
migrations. snipped Jerky was prepared by sundrying strips of meat,  
which were pounded almost into a powder and then mixed with buffalo  
fat and berries to make pemmican. Stored in a buffalo skin, it  
remained edible for years, and early European settlers and fur traders  
depended upon it.

http://www.enotes.com/food-encyclopedia/canada-2

Under Preserving and then under Drying

Drying occurs naturally with food left in the sun, or on the vine,  
like beans, or grapes. Some foods, like apples and tomatoes, are  
generally cut into smaller pieces for drying, a practice which allows  
the moisture to uniformly evaporate. Herbs are frequently dried whole  
and on the stem. Low humidity, heat, and air circulation are important  
so that mold does not occur. Meats and fish can be dried to the point  
of extreme desiccation, resulting in a product usually called jerky.

http://www.enotes.com/food-encyclopedia/preserving

I checked the Oxford Reference set:

jerky, jerked beef   South American dried meat. See biltong; charqui.

How to cite this entry:
"jerky, jerked beef"  A Dictionary of Food and Nutrition. Ed. David A.  
Bender.

OED says jerky  noun
ad. American Sp. charqui, charque (Pg. xarque), from native Peruvian  
ccharqui:
Jerked beef.

1890 in Cent. Dict. 1893 E. COUES Lewis & Clark I. 31 The word as a  
verb is now generally spelled jerk, and jerked meat is known as jerky.

Charqui which is linked to this entry says:
[Quichua (Peruvian) ccharqui dried slice of flesh or hung beef. The  
corruption jerkin occurs in Captain J. Smith a 1612, and jerk vb. in  
Anson a 1748.]

    Beef prepared for keeping by cutting into thin slices and drying  
in the wind and sun; ?jerked? beef (the latter being a corruption of  
this word).

1760-72 tr. Juan & Ulloa's Voy. II. VIII. ix. 271 [Chili]..supplies  
[Peru] with wheat..besides sole leather..Grassa, Charqui, and neat  
tongues. 1845 DARWIN Voy. Nat. xii. (1873) 260 The miners are allowed  
a little charqui.

Jerk as a verb
[Corrupted from American Sp. charque-ar in same sense, f. charque,  
charqui, ad. Quichua (Peruvian) ccharqui ?dried flesh, unsalted, in  
long strips?. The verb in Quichua was ccharquini ?to prepare dried  
meat, to jerk?, whence perh. the early cognate JERKIN n.3 The word is  
now used in all parts of Spanish America, and was app. found by  
English navigators in Spanish use in the W. Indies. (See Skeat, Trans.  
Philol. Soc. 1885, 94.)]

    trans. To cure (meat, esp. beef) by cutting it into long thin  
slices and drying it in the sun.

1707 SLOANE Jamaica I. p. xvi, They [the wild hogs] are shot,..cut  
open, the bones taken out, and the flesh gash'd on the inside into the  
skin, filled with salt, and exposed to the sun, which is called  
Jirking. 1748 Anson's Voy. III. ii. 305 He..was sent here with twenty- 
two Indians to jerk beef.

Johnnae


Date: Mon, 30 Aug 2010 13:42:13 -0700
From: Carina ZLawson-Williams <aurorasouthern at hotmail.com>
To: <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Sca-cooks Smoked and Pickled: Sources and
	Recipes

Sun dried Jerky

       Cut fresh meat into long thin strips, one inch wide. Rub strips with garlic or salt if desired. Dry in sun as quickly as possible by hanging over a line. DO NOT LET THE STRIPS TOUCH. Store in a dry place in clean jars or sacks 

Cold brined Jerky

       Cut muscle meat lengthwise of the grsain into strips an inch thick , about one and a half inches wide and as long as you can make them.Put strips in a wooden barrel or  non- metallic container and cover with a sweet pickle or corning solution for three days. Hang the meat over a cord line or string to drip for 24hrs and continue to hang it in a room or other dry place. Keep the strips from touching each other and protect from dirt and insect with a light cloth covering if necessary. The jerky will continue to dry as long as it is exposed to air- therefore it should be taken down and put swasy in an air tight container as soon as it is dried to your liking. A light smoke will add to the flavour and help preserve the meat

Hot brined jerky

Is made similar to cold brined except the meat is cut much smaller- like shoe string potatoes- the hot solution is made by adding salt to boiling water until no more salt can be dissolved. Dip strips into the hot brine until they turn white (about 5 min) - then string them up to dry and handle the same way as cold brined

You may wish to marinade the meats before using any of these methods
sources- Dene  and Inuvialuit elders


Date: Mon, 30 Aug 2010 16:10:41 -0700
From: David Friedman <ddfr at daviddfriedman.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Smoked and Pickled: Sources and Recipes?

Expensive but sounds good. A little googling finds a claim of 
literary evidence back to the 15th c.

<<< perhaps something like the Italian Bresaola.  Recipes can be found 
on line, basically beef (or horse) marinated in a brine with herbs & 
wine then air dried.  I made some using a modern recipe and it seems 
like it would keep a long time even without refrigeration.  Haven't 
looked for period recipes though it is one of those things one would 
suspect has a long history.

Simon Sinneghe
Briaroak, Summits, An Tir >>>


Date: Mon, 30 Aug 2010 21:20:58 -0400
From: Johnna Holloway <johnnae at mac.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Bresaola was Smoked and Pickled: Sources and
	Recipes?

There's a recipe in Scappi for how to cook them.
page 157 in the Scully translation.
45. To make bresaola of lean veal, fried or grilled

Page 556 recipe 46 To prepare braised veal Bresaola

Anyway Bresaola is mentioned 15 times in the text. You can use Google  
books to locate the mentions.

Johnnae

On Aug 30, 2010, at 7:10 PM, David Friedman wrote:
<<< Expensive but sounds good. A little googling finds a claim of  
literary evidence back to the 15th c. >>>

perhaps something like the Italian Bresaola.  Recipes can be found  
on line, basically beef (or horse) marinated in a brine with herbs  
& wine then air dried.  I made some using a modern recipe and it  
seems like it would keep a long time even without refrigeration.   
Haven't looked for period recipes though it is one of those things  
one would suspect has a long history.

Simon Sinneghe
Briaroak, Summits, An Tir


Date: Mon, 30 Aug 2010 22:32:22 -0700
From: lilinah at earthlink.net
To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Smoked and Pickled: Sources and Recipes?

Adamantius wrote:
<<< It would seem highly plausible that the Turkish version of basturma, 
which is dry-rubbed and air-dried, as I understand it, is probably 
quite old, and also commercially available. Of course, modern 
versions generally include paprika in the rub, but the basic concept 
very likely stems from a much older, Old World friendly, concept...>>>

The only time that the Ottoman Sultan's palace purchased beef in the 
15th and 16th centuries was for the making of basturma, once a year. 
Unfortunately, i know of no recipe for it nor any description of how 
it was made. Clearly in the 15th c. no paprika was involved, and i 
suspect not in the 16th either.
-- 
Urtatim [that's err-tah-TEEM]
the persona formerly known as Anahita


Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2012 17:38:21 -0300
From: Suey <lordhunt at gmail.com>
To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] medieval jerky

Ailleagan wrote:
<<< I am working on a project involving medieval beef jerky. . . Does 
anyone here know of any extant recipes or descriptions for dried beef? >>>

This is what I have:

*cecina*, OCast /?e?ina/, Eng. jerky. The Leonese cured meat originated 
in the village of Cierzo, known to be a cold area but Montoro in 
_Cancionaro _claims that the origin is Jewish as they used it instead of 
salt pork and ham. It was known as a Jewish item as far south as 
Cordoba. Actually, jerked meat in southern regions meant salted meat. It 
is principally from beef and goat. This cured or jerked meat is the 
color of molasses. It is found especially in Astorga and had become one 
of the most important gastronomic dishes in the entire province of Le?n 
by the 10^th C at least. Then beef jerky was sold in the markets of 
Le?n. Historically, it is peasant food as the majority of households 
annually slaughtered a cow and two pigs to make homemade cured meats, 
including jerky, and for fresh meat as well. It is an ancestral food 
item of austere populations and known previously as castrated meat (of 
goat, lamb and/or roe deer). The oldest animals of the herd are fattened 
during three months in the farmyard for this purpose. It is then 
slaughtered between St. Martin's Day (November 11^th ) and the 
Immaculate Conception (December 8^th ). The meat is cured by placing the 
pieces in a trough and covering it with salt for 24 hours in order to 
absorb an adequate amount. Then the salt is brushed off. The meat is 
then marinated for 24 hours in a mixture of salt, long pepper, wine, 
garlic, thyme, oregano and nutmeg. Then it is prepared to hang from a 
kitchen beam or rafter.Sas believes that stanza 2255b of /Libro de 
Alexandre /should read: after the jerked meat was hung, the roots for 
kindling were brought [in January], i.e. /?enisa/(ash) is a 
transcription error and the word should be /?e?ina/. The meat is cured 
by buring holm oak branches and cabbage stumps in the kitchen fireplace. 
With the arrival of spring, the people begin to eat the pieces. Instead 
of such a long smoking process, jerky may be aired for 14 months in the 
wind on a mountain peak. Lambjerky is thought to be the most delicious. 
That of goat is the toughest. Game too was cured in this way. Jerky, 
also, is cured in a similar fashion since time immemorial in the 
Highlands of Scotland. To be called a "jerk" in Le?n or Scotland, must 
be a compliment. 2. an animal designated for cecina during its lifetime. 
[Castro. _Alimentaci?n_. 1996:249; _Dialecto_. 1947:174; ES: "Cecina de 
Le?n." Nov 25, 02; ES: Fortun. Mar 8, 02; ES: Sartori. Oct. 2, 02; ES: 
Wilson. Jun 9, 02; Bercero/Janer. 1983:271:2255b; Montoro/Ciceri. 
1991:200-203; S?nchez-Albornoz. 2000:34:39; Sas. 1976:130; and Tapiello. 
1994:138]****

In other words if you find a current recipe it will be the same as in 
the Middle Ages - in rural areas at least.

Suey


Date: Tue, 19 Jun 2012 17:59:54 -0400
From: Suey <lordhunt at gmail.com>
To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Beef Jerky Recipe OT OP

Johnna Holloway wrote:
<<< Subject: [Sca-cooks] Beef Jerky Recipe OT OP >>>

Johnna called "beef jerky" OT and OP - I don't see it as that -
"Cecina" - jerky is coming up soon in my blog - Medieval Spanish Chef. 
It has been traced back to the 10th C in Leon and before that to the 
Jews who used it instead of salt pork and ham in Spain.
I don't know if I can use or adapt the recipe Johnna provided but today 
I have been overwhelmed with a recipe calling for 32 liters of wine, 86 
lbs of something else -
Its nice to have recipes one can try out without having to have a 
mathematician on board!

Suey


Date: Thu, 21 Jun 2012 14:24:20 -0700 (GMT-07:00)
From: lilinah at earthlink.net
To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Beef Jerky Recipe OT OP

There are several kinds of jerky-like dried meats documented in Arabic language cookbooks. Most are meant to be cooked, however, not eaten as is, the way modern jerky is. In the Moroccan variety, khlii, the meat is dried then packed in fat for storage - the Moroccans seem to have a fondness for aged fats, viz. smen, which is butter, often with herbs added, put into jars and buried or stored in a cool-ish dark place, often for years, before being savored.

There was one kind of meat, however, in Ibn Sayyar that was to be eaten dried. The very thin slices of meat were wrapped around sticks (i suppose dowels would do today) and IIRC - i don't have the book here where i am - they were put on a tray in the bottom of a tannur and very slowly heated until dry and crispy.

I'll look up the recipe tomorrow and post it.

Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita

<the end>
Edited by Mark S. Harris	dried-meats-msg	12 of 13