What Happens When You Put Meat Into Honey Like Medieval Peasants Did

From Medieval Way

You probably see honey as something you drizzle on toast or stir into tea. A luxury sweetener. A nice treat when you're feeling fancy. You might even think of it as expensive compared to regular sugar. But for a 14th-century English peasant, honey wasn't a treat. It was a weapon. A biological defence system that could keep meat from rotting for an entire year without refrigeration, without electricity, without anything modern science would recognise as preservation. In 1390, the master cooks of King Richard II wrote down a recipe called Egredouce, sweet and sour pork. But this wasn't just about flavour. They were submerging meat in honey and vinegar because they understood something we've completely forgotten. That amber liquid sitting in your pantry can mummify bacteria, produce its own antiseptic chemicals, and create an environment so hostile to decay that meat stored inside it stays edible longer than the stuff in your fridge.