Meat & Fish
While meat and fish were -- and are -- not always a daily part of the diet of many people, these foods have long been an important source of protein. Throughout history they have been subject to an abundance of laws and regulations. Most of the material displayed here is concerned with weights and measures, sanitation, food quality, packing guidelines, etc. and includes eighteenth century Parisian sanitation codes for butchers, Board of Health rules from early nineteenth century Boston, and an illustration of the variety of Russian fish nets.
Bairische Lanndtzordnung. [s.l. : s.n.], 1553.
These magnificent woodcuts of a carp, pike and a schied (a type of carp native to middle and eastern Europe) illustrate the size restrictions imposed on Bavarian fishermen. The sizes shown in these pages represent the actual minimum sizes of fish allowed to be taken from ponds, lakes and streams.
England, statutes. Anno XXXIII. Henrici octavi. [London : Thomas Berthelet, ca. 1546]
33 Henry VIII, chapter 11:
An acte for bouchers to sell at their libertie by weight or otherwise.
This statute repealed two acts, passed several years earlier, which had required the butchers of England to sell beef, pork, mutton and veal by weight only, had required all butchers to have scales and weights, had set the price per pound at which these meats could be sold, and had established fines for failure to comply. Spokesmen for the fellowship of butchers argued that continuing to abide by these regulations "shoulde be the utter undoing [of the butchers] forever". With the passage of the act shown here, butchers, their wives or their assistants were able to "sell their vittailes from time to time by themselves ... to all manner of persones that will bie the same, in like manner" as they had prior to the two unpopular statutes.
Massachusetts, laws. An act, to prevent fraud and deception in curing and packing smoaked fish, and to regulate the size and quality of boxes, and the exportation thereof from this commonwealth. [Boston : s.n., 1808]
In addition to specifying the details of packing and labeling boxes of smoked fish (specifically alewives and herring), this act of January 1808 established two grades of smoked fish.
"First sort" shall consist of all the largest and best cured fish; the "Second sort" of the smaller, but well cured fish. And in all cases shall be taken out as Refuse; all those which are belly broken, tainted, scorched, or burnt, slack salted, or not sufficiently smoaked...
Each box of fish was to be branded with its grade, the inspector's name and "MASS "for Massachusetts.
Sentence de Police, du troisiéme juin 1718. Paris : la veuve Saugrain, [1718].
Obviously concerned with sanitation, this ruling prohibits the butchers of Paris from letting blood run from their premises into the streets, at least during daytime hours. They are directed to keep the blood resulting from their work in scalding tubs which are to be drained only between the hours of seven in the evening and two in the morning. Evidently these were drained into the street, but the butchers are enjoined to flush the street of blood with quantities of clean water until no traces remain. Likewise tripiers (tripe-sellers) living near the Seine are prohibited from throwing offal from their windows into the river. Offal was to be carted away before seven in the morning.
Ordonnance de Messieurs les prevost des marchands & echevins de la ville de Paris. Du dix juin 1721. Paris : Joseph Saugrain, [1721].
Sanitation was still apparently a problem three years later when this second ordonnance was issued. It notes that offal was sometimes left for days, emitting foul vapors and eventually causing various illnesses in the quartier.
Butchers are here enjoined to send out offal between the hours of five and seven in the morning. It was to be transported by boats leaving from the Quay de Gevres, and dumped further down the river, on pain of whipping. To ensure that butchers complied, a person was appointed to remind them by walking through the neighborhood ringing a bell.
Zhurnal Ministerstva vnutrennikh del. (Journal of the Ministry of the Interior) part 27. St. Petersburg : The Ministry, 1838.
This fine hand colored engraving, illustrating an article on fishing in Russia, shows the use of various kinds of nets such as drift nets, driving nets, sweep nets, and a "spoon bait" snare for ice fishing.
The by-laws and orders of the town of Boston, ... together with the rules and regulations of the board of health. Boston : Manning & Loring, 1801.
Many of the rules and regulations of the Board of Health pertain to the preparation, storage, sale and disposal of various types of food. Note the regulations regarding oysters (no. 2), fish (nos. 3, 4, 5, and 6), and the stalls at Fanueil Hall (no. 7).
Acts passed at the first session of the legislative council of the territory of Orleans. New Orleans : James M. Bradford, 1805.
Chapter 45:
An act regulating the inspection of flour, beef and pork.
In this bilingual edition of the laws of New Orleans, the regulations for packing and inspecting flour, beef and pork are spelled out on facing pages. Of particular interest here are the guidelines for marking inspected barrels of beef and pork for shipment, with the best quality beef or pork being labeled "mess," the lesser marked "prime." Inspectors are enjoined from purchasing more beef or pork than needed for their own personal use; those who did faced a penalty of four hundred dollars.