Question

the time travelers guide to elizabethan england
by ian mortimer
chapter one
the landscape
different societies see landscapes differently. you may look at elizabethan england and see a predominantly green land, characterized by large open fields and woodlands, but an elizabethan yeoman will describe his homeland to you in terms of cities, towns, ports, great houses, bridges, and roads. in your eyes it may be a sparsely populated land - the average density being less than sixty people per square mile in 1561 (compared with well over a thousand today) - but a contemporary description will mention overcrowding and the problems of population expansion. describing a landscape is thus a matter of perspective: your priorities affect what you see. asked to describe their county, most devonians will mention the great city of exeter, the ports of dartmouth, plymouth, and barnstaple, and the dozens of market towns. they will generally neglect to mention that the region is dominated by a great moor, dartmoor, two thousand feet high in places and over two hundred square miles in expanse. there are no roads across this wasteland, only track ways. elizabethans see it as good for nothing but pasture, tin mining, and the steady water supply it provides by way of the rivers that rise there. many people are afraid of such moors and forests. they are the ruthless, vast and gloomy woods... by nature made for murders and for rapes, as be soothed in summer to keep it fresh, then kept in a cool cellar, soaked in vinegar with juniper seeds and salt. most yeomen will have vats and presses for making cheeses - a valuable source of protein in the long winter season. similarly, most livestock owners have troughs for salting meat or allowing it to steep in brine.
what is the authors purpose in this excerpt?
to explain how the proper way to store food was taught to elizabethan cooks
to explain the complexities of proper food storage during elizabethan times
to explain the errors people made trying to store food properly during elizabethan times
to explain how easy it was to store food properly during elizabethan times

Explanation:

The text describes methods like keeping food in a cool cellar, soaking in vinegar with juniper seeds and salt, using vats and presses for cheeses, and troughs for salting meat. It details the complexity of proper food storage during Elizabethan times, such as the steps and tools involved.

Answer:

to explain the complexities of proper food storage during Elizabethan times