lwheelr
Lovin' The Homestead
Ever seen the meat markets in third world countries? They are FULL of funky meat. What do you think people routinely ate before the invention of the refrigerator?
Historically, "EYEWwwww" is what people ate every day.
If meat goes "off", even if it is green and slimy, high enough heat, for long enough, will kill anything nasty in it (unless it has been canned or kept in an airless environment and has developed botulism). So you cook the dickens out of it, and it won't hurt you.
Cooking won't improve the taste though. Beef, chicken, etc, that is too old will still TASTE off after it is cooked. The bacteria have broken it down and changed the flavor - just like they do with fermented foods. People who are accustomed to the flavor don't think there is anything wrong with it. They also develop a high tolerance for common bacteria and fungus, which they are exposed to in handling the meat.
The reason the French courts developed highly seasoned dishes during the middle ages, is because of gamey meat. They had no refrigerators, so they'd butcher something, and eat off it until it was gone. So the first meat tasted quite different from the last, and since MOST of their meat was off, and they developed a taste for it, they got to hanging it for a day or so before cutting into it to begin with (something our meat producers still do, and something people are advised to do with home butchered or wild game meat).
In the courts, meat was consumed much faster, so they started seasoning it more highly to disguise the FRESH taste, NOT to disguise the gamey flavor (which is what we would naturally think).
Now, they DID re-cook it daily, following the old rule of Pease Porridge - "in the pot, nine days old". But in between cooking, it decayed, and the flavor changed day to day. When the meat was gone, they'd butcher another animal and go to work on it. Poor families did the same thing with a small chunk of meat bought at the fly infested markets - they just had to make that small piece go for a week or two.
In Australia, the heat meant that during many months of summer, they could not butcher beef, it just rotted too fast, and became infested with flies too fast. So they ate a lot of mutton, smaller carcass, they could eat it faster.
Typically, cooking it in small pieces, by a means OTHER than pan frying (boiling, baking, etc), is more certain in getting it cooked all the way through. That was typical earlier in history anyway, steaks were not generally a popular food, they tended toward roasts and soups or stews.
I'm NOT advocating that you cultivate a taste for spoiled meat. Just sayin' that humanity survived for millenia without refrigerators or freezers, and by and large, people didn't die of food poisoning.
Heat kills germs. It does not destroy TOXINS produced by bacteria or fungus, but most of the common ones are not harmful to people. Botulism toxin is one notable exception - but it grows only under certain conditions. In general, meat is safe to eat, even if it does not taste or smell right, as long as it has been cooked really really well.
In a survival situation, having access to some strong seasonings might be helpful...
Historically, "EYEWwwww" is what people ate every day.
If meat goes "off", even if it is green and slimy, high enough heat, for long enough, will kill anything nasty in it (unless it has been canned or kept in an airless environment and has developed botulism). So you cook the dickens out of it, and it won't hurt you.
Cooking won't improve the taste though. Beef, chicken, etc, that is too old will still TASTE off after it is cooked. The bacteria have broken it down and changed the flavor - just like they do with fermented foods. People who are accustomed to the flavor don't think there is anything wrong with it. They also develop a high tolerance for common bacteria and fungus, which they are exposed to in handling the meat.
The reason the French courts developed highly seasoned dishes during the middle ages, is because of gamey meat. They had no refrigerators, so they'd butcher something, and eat off it until it was gone. So the first meat tasted quite different from the last, and since MOST of their meat was off, and they developed a taste for it, they got to hanging it for a day or so before cutting into it to begin with (something our meat producers still do, and something people are advised to do with home butchered or wild game meat).
In the courts, meat was consumed much faster, so they started seasoning it more highly to disguise the FRESH taste, NOT to disguise the gamey flavor (which is what we would naturally think).
Now, they DID re-cook it daily, following the old rule of Pease Porridge - "in the pot, nine days old". But in between cooking, it decayed, and the flavor changed day to day. When the meat was gone, they'd butcher another animal and go to work on it. Poor families did the same thing with a small chunk of meat bought at the fly infested markets - they just had to make that small piece go for a week or two.
In Australia, the heat meant that during many months of summer, they could not butcher beef, it just rotted too fast, and became infested with flies too fast. So they ate a lot of mutton, smaller carcass, they could eat it faster.
Typically, cooking it in small pieces, by a means OTHER than pan frying (boiling, baking, etc), is more certain in getting it cooked all the way through. That was typical earlier in history anyway, steaks were not generally a popular food, they tended toward roasts and soups or stews.
I'm NOT advocating that you cultivate a taste for spoiled meat. Just sayin' that humanity survived for millenia without refrigerators or freezers, and by and large, people didn't die of food poisoning.
Heat kills germs. It does not destroy TOXINS produced by bacteria or fungus, but most of the common ones are not harmful to people. Botulism toxin is one notable exception - but it grows only under certain conditions. In general, meat is safe to eat, even if it does not taste or smell right, as long as it has been cooked really really well.
In a survival situation, having access to some strong seasonings might be helpful...
) and one of the probably 2-3 times I've had food poisoning in my whole life was from a pot of chicken chili made with elderly grocery-store chicken. 
