Tainted meat rendered good by pickling it in potash water, then a quick dip in vinegar.
Put fresh meat in a close vessel containing vinegar, which will preserve it a considerable time. Tainted meet may be rendered good by pickling it in potash water for some time; before it is cooked however, it should be dipped in vinegar a short time, and then salted in brine.
A New Collection of Genuine Receipts, 1831. Public domain; transcription unaltered.
Potash water is an alkaline lye solution. It will strip the surface slime and neutralise the smell, and it will do nothing about the bacteria through the meat or the toxins they have already made.
The vinegar dip is a rinse for the palate, not for the pathogens. What you have at the end is spoiled meat that no longer announces itself.
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Read the original page →Marrow from “animals, freshly killed,” administered to bloodless patients “to stimulate their fresh blood formation.” The logic is that marrow makes blood, so eat marrow.
Meals Medicinal · 1905
Meat going off? Suspend it over a bowl of salt, add two ounces of sulphuric acid by degrees, and let the fumes work. “Care must be taken not to breathe them.”
Household Discoveries and Mrs. Curtis's Cook Book · 1914
Chop the pickle into ammonia and watch for deep blue — proof it was “cooked in brass or copper kettles.” A routine kitchen test, because it happened constantly.
Household Discoveries and Mrs. Curtis's Cook Book · 1914