1. "Mutton"
Posted by augusta on Mar-30th-02 at 1:20 AM

Here's a site I ran across.  It tells about mutton and gives some recipes from 1918:

http://www.bartleby.com/87/0013.html

Wow, Augusta, that's a great site, thanks!! Now we can prepare a more authentic breakfast meal that is the closest approximation to the original meal served at the Borden house on the day of the murders, but especially make sure to make the mutton last, re-warming and then putting in the fridge and then re-warming and so on, for a solid 5 days before eating it, so as to replicate the mutton experience of Mr. and Mrs. Borden and John Morse on that fateful morning!!!

(Message last edited Oct-6th-02  11:54 PM.)

*Urp*  Mutton must be hung to "ripen" for up to three weeks?  And then it sat in the Borden's icebox off and on for like 5 days?  No wonder they were all sick, ewwww, just the thought turns my stomach!

But, thanks for the site, Augusta!  Very interesting read, I don't think that I have ever actually eaten Mutton, but, have had Lamb. 

In the summer of 1965 I read a book on the Trial of Lizzie Borden. (Was this an edited version of the 1937 book to renew the copyright?)
That book blamed the left-over fish for the upset stomachs in the family. It would just be like an old miser to try to use up something past its use-by date!!! Remember the year old hay in the barn?

Yes, Rays, I do have to agree with you, the swordfish was most probably the culprit.  But, hearing how mutton is prepared didn't do anything for my stomach, ick, ripen for three weeks, thats like basically being hung to rot for awhile. 

I read a newspaper a few weeks ago. It is still the practice to hang freshly slaughtered meat to age in Gt. Britain. "Just because you never saw it doesn't mean it isn't being done by slaughterhouses."

I have often seen this visiting relatives in rural Penna & NY states. In the shade, in cold weather (deer season).

Yes, I remember as a girl, certain families in the neighborhood would have a deer hanging in their shed to "age".  I have never tried venison, this is probably the reason why.  I have heard that about England before, they have certain meats(like pheasant)that are aged and considered a great delicacy, but, to me at least, sound like they are beginning to rot.  And in case you are wondering, yes, I have eaten aged beef before, before I knew what the aging process really was all about. 

Venison is the king of meat; ask any royalty from earlier times. In fact, it was a felony (death penalty) for any commoner to taste this "forbidden fruit". Or to hunt even a rabbit eating your garden!

Those who hunt (know what a hundred pounds of meat costs?) will often mix in cheap hamburger "deer burgers" to improve the taste of this naturally lean meat. MickeyD imports grass-fed beef from Australia, then mixes in tallow or trimmings to "beef up" the fat content; you can decide if you want to eat it. There was a scandal some decades ago, somebody claimed they mixed in unwanted kangaroo meat in their shipments. But this lean meat would improve the food value.

Anyone here ever eaten horse meat? "It tastes like beef" they say. Medieval laws made horsemeat sinful or illegal; the nobility loved their horses too. But its higher iron content used to make it prescribed by doctors for anemia (in the olden days). Your serve!

Have you NEVER seen pictures of beef carcasses hanging in a refrigerated warehouse? Just part of the aging process?
Those who know butchers may want to inquire discreetly.