silversmoke3 asked
Some of the commonest archaeological finds in Ireland are barrels of ancient butter, buried in the bogs. The Norsemen, the Finns, the Icelanders, and the Scots had done the same: they flavored butter heavily with garlic, knuckled it into a wooden firkin, and buried it for years in the bogs for so long that people were known to plant trees to mark the butter's burial site. The longer it was left, the more delicious it became. A further advantage was doubtless the safety of supplies from robbers, or enemies in wartime. Most of the Irish archaeological specimens date from the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Although some of our sources imply that bog butter turned red, the firkins in the Irish National Museum contain 'a grayish cheese-like substance, partially hardened, not much like butter, and quite free from putrefaction' because of the cool, antiseptic, anaerobic, and acidic properties of peat bogs --------------- In some instances, this butter is available for tasting to those who wish to have the experience.
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