That's what I would have thought but the article mentioned it was probably put there for storage. If that's the case how long can it be placed in that type of container, in that type of environment and remain edible? I've read that Incan potatos that were freeze dried by a combination of thawing and freezing can still be theoretically edible, so I'm curious.
My poor joke aside, the article said that the butter hade turned into adipocere, also called "grave wax" since it usually happens with the body fat on corpses. So no, it probably wasn't rancid (or not anymore), but edible? A matter of definition and opinion, I'd say...
I'd be interested in knowing if that's a viable method of preserving butter for long periods. Possibly reducing the exposure to oxygen would help with the preservation, since it's mostly the contact with oxygen (and heat) that leads to butter going rancid. Also, removing as much of the not-fat ingredients in butter (milk proteins and so on) as you can helps it keep longer (as when you make ghee from butter). It doesn't say much in the article about the composition of the butter, but perhaps it's not very easy to find that out after 3000 years...
I have eaten one year old butter and a pizza which expired 5 years before (really!), and ca 2000 we found rice which expired in 1979 or something (thus older than a member of our party, who promply came up with the "I won't eat anything older than myself!"-rule) at our mountain farm (but it looked fine, really), but 3000 years old butter beats all that.
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Date: 2009-08-19 09:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-20 12:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-20 04:52 am (UTC)Thanks for posting that. Thats an amazing piece of archeology.
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Date: 2009-08-20 07:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-21 12:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-21 12:34 pm (UTC)I'd be interested in knowing if that's a viable method of preserving butter for long periods. Possibly reducing the exposure to oxygen would help with the preservation, since it's mostly the contact with oxygen (and heat) that leads to butter going rancid. Also, removing as much of the not-fat ingredients in butter (milk proteins and so on) as you can helps it keep longer (as when you make ghee from butter). It doesn't say much in the article about the composition of the butter, but perhaps it's not very easy to find that out after 3000 years...
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Date: 2009-08-20 07:12 am (UTC)I have eaten one year old butter and a pizza which expired 5 years before (really!), and ca 2000 we found rice which expired in 1979 or something (thus older than a member of our party, who promply came up with the "I won't eat anything older than myself!"-rule) at our mountain farm (but it looked fine, really), but 3000 years old butter beats all that.
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Date: 2009-08-23 06:42 pm (UTC)Exellent read. Thansk for posting it!