Mammoth and Other Frozen Meats

摘要

Meat rots. This simple biological fact has dictated how, when, and where humans procure fresh protein for as long as we have been hunting. But the advent of cold storage changed our meat consumption-and trade-profoundly. Once localized to a radius dictated by perishability, by the late 19th century meat traveled from New Zealand to London, feeding the upwardly mobile whose diets adapted accordingly. Because of its organic properties, meat's nascent global economy came with some uncertainties-the most disconcerting of which was food poisoning suffered most often by those who could afford the novelty of imported steaks. Eating meat from cold storage soon attached itself to an era of culinary one-upmanship by gentlemen who anchored experiments in meat eating to their masculinity by tempting safety, challenging technology, and pushing the boundaries of shelf life. Much of the American public did not understand the finer, more molecular points of germ theory, but they certainly had enough sense to know that improperly preserved meat posed a serious threat to their health. By the turn of the century, meat packers in Chicago-the heart of the industry-were sending slaughtered goods across the country to consumers in refrigerated rail cars, and the public contemplated the fact that they could, and increasingly did, eat animals that had died some time ago. Safety concerns permeated national consciousness from events like the "embalmed beef scandal" of 1898 that rocked American troops with dysentery during the Spanish-American War. Rather than source fresh beef from local herds, as per military tradition, low-quality rations came-frozen and canned-by train, and then ship, from the mid-western hub. In particular, the frozen beef "had an odor similar to that of a dead human body after being injected with preservatives," reported Chief Surgeon of US Volunteers William H. Daly. Events like this showed that (aesthetically speaking) frozen meat could look just fine, even if it had already gone putrid.