Brined meat from the Oeconomia (meat preservation part 2)

Wet salted, in a cask.

Of Pehkelfleisch or Sulperfleisch (brined meat)

(marginalia: Pehkelfleisch, how to prepare it properly)

Pehkelfleisch is what they call the fresh, newly slaughtered meat that is laid into brine (Pehkel) so that it can be cooked one (piece) after another like fresh meat here in the Marck (i.e. Brandenburg), in Silesia and Meissen (i.e. Saxony). One commonly takes the meat that is around the bone for this, together with the bone, which is otherwise not suited for smoking.

It is prepared thus: You put the meat into a whole tun, (in size) according to how much you wish to brine, and salt it well, and close it up on top, lay it in the cellar and turn it around once a day so that the brine flows all over it (daß es nur der Lake begossen wird). When you wish to cook some of it, you take it out and close it up again, and so forth.

We still call it Pökelfleisch. It’s not a favourite (and probably was not even back then), but the technique is basic. I am still trying to tease out whether there is a technical difference between Pehkel/Pökel, La(h)ke and Sal(t)zwasser e.g. in concentration or temperature, but I suspect they are names for the same thing and you just knew how strong to make it.

Johann Coler’s Oeconomia ruralis et domestica was a popular book on the topic of managing a wealthy household. It is based largely on previous writings by Coler and first appeared between 1596 and 1601. Repeatedly reprinted for decades, it became one of the most influential early works of Hausväterliteratur. I am working from a 1645 edition.

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