- Oct 13, 2008
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This is something I've often wondered about. Assuming you live in a tropical climate or even just somewhere where it happens to be warm (let's say like 75 to 90 degrees fahrenheit range), and you have no refrigerator, what do you do with meat?
presumably most of it would be slaughtered or hunted fresh on an as-needed basis, although I can see some kinds of drying and pickling being employed for some things among those who really needed to or who had the time and resources.
Most sources will tell you to age freshly killed poultry (and other meat) in a fridge for a couple of days. Or in cold climates people will hang game or whatever in cool weather. Great. I believe I understand the reasoning behind this, enzymes, rigor mortis etc. And Having a refrigerator, I have generally followed this. And when I haven't done this, I've usually noticed that the meat is "stringier", all other things being equal.
But what have people done in warm climates for the last 3 million years, and millions of others still do? Surely people have figured out ways to make food safely and deliciously without meat lockers or resorting to eating "stringy" meat all the time. I would really like to know how. I can't believe that people everywhere were all simply living in deprivation and getting sick constantly until some savior invented refrigerators (that many people still can't afford for that matter, never mind people who live without reliable electricity).
Hope this makes sense...
presumably most of it would be slaughtered or hunted fresh on an as-needed basis, although I can see some kinds of drying and pickling being employed for some things among those who really needed to or who had the time and resources.
Most sources will tell you to age freshly killed poultry (and other meat) in a fridge for a couple of days. Or in cold climates people will hang game or whatever in cool weather. Great. I believe I understand the reasoning behind this, enzymes, rigor mortis etc. And Having a refrigerator, I have generally followed this. And when I haven't done this, I've usually noticed that the meat is "stringier", all other things being equal.
But what have people done in warm climates for the last 3 million years, and millions of others still do? Surely people have figured out ways to make food safely and deliciously without meat lockers or resorting to eating "stringy" meat all the time. I would really like to know how. I can't believe that people everywhere were all simply living in deprivation and getting sick constantly until some savior invented refrigerators (that many people still can't afford for that matter, never mind people who live without reliable electricity).
Hope this makes sense...