Interestingly, that actually depends on what you call "unspoiled food". There were no refrigerators or grossery stores then. The best you could do was salt you

Interestingly, that actually depends on what you call "unspoiled food". There were no refrigerators or grossery stores then. The best you could do was salt your meat and place it in a larder. Also, taking the meat straight off of a recently slaughtered animal happens about as often as it does today. Which is to say not that often. The bulk of a cow, for instance, is so hard it's essentially uneatable as is unless you slow-cook it in a stew. That's part of what made ground beef so revolutionary and transformative -- women could go working instead of cooking all day. The remaining parts of the carcasse need about two weeks for enzymes to properly soften the meat. [1] Technically, tender, tasty meat is in fact "slightly spoiled" -- in good conditions, of course. http://www.quora.com/How-long-after-a-cow-is-killed-does-it-take-for-the-meat-from-the-cow-to-reach-the-supermarket http://www.quora.com/How-long-after-a-cow-is-killed-does-it-...