1893 text
Boiled salt beef. To powder was to sprinkle with salt, and the powdering tub a vessel in which meat was salted. [One form of beef, from 22nd February 1659/60 entry, PG]
This text comes from a footnote on a diary entry in the 1893 edition edited by Henry B. Wheatley.
6 Annotations
First Reading
language hat • Link
powdered beef:
From Latham's Companion:
"Fresh meat is said to have been difficult to obtain in the winter, because cattle, for lack of winter feed, were killed off in the autumn, so that housewives had to preserve their meat in brine or by powdering it with salt. But Pepys mentions eating salted or powdered beef only very occasionally
Grahamt • Link
Loathe as I am to disagree with Latham, I would question the statement that cattle were killed off in Autumn. Autumn, harvest time, is a time of plenty. Cattle, fowl and swine were traditionally killed in midwinter when forage was getting scarce. Thus the midwinter or Yule festival, to take advantage of the glut of meat. Preserved food would then last almost to Easter, (Lent) when people would fast until the new season's meat became available (lamb, chicken, veal, etc.)
By Pepys time, husbanding cattle by storing winter feed was probably becoming more common, especially to feed the better off in the cities throughout the year. If the less well off ate meat at all in late winter, then it would have been preserved by salting or smoking.
David Quidnunc • Link
Nissenbaum: FRESH meat in December
"December was the season
David Quidnunc • Link
Prime Chine Time
Copy of my entry from 8 December 1660 entry (where there's more discussion on the topic):
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
Nissenbaum certainly seems to exaggerate by saying early winter was the
David Quidnunc • Link
Chine of Beef: Statistical Overkill
ADJECTIVES PEPYS LIKES TO USE WITH "CHINE OF BEEF" (17 mentions, total):
"good chine of beef" -- six (35 percent)
"brave" -- once
"most brave" -- once
"great" -- once
"lovely" -- once
"rare" -- once
no adjectives -- six (35 percent)
# "CHINE OF BEEF" MENTIONS EACH YEAR:
1660 -- 2
1661 -- 4
1662 -- 3
1663 -- 2
1664 -- 2
1665 -- 2
1666 -- 2
1667 -- 0
1668 -- 0
1669 -- 0
David Quidnunc • Link