Professor Paul Freedman of Yale, who wrote the definitive academic study on medieval spices, called the rotten meat theory a compelling but false idea that constitutes something of an urban legend, a story so instinctively attractive that mere fact seems unable to wipe it out.Medieval people did not eat rotten meat because they had no reason to. Livestock was slaughtered when needed, not stockpiled. Fish ponds were kept on estates specifically so fish could be caught and eaten the same day.