ANST - Period ... tofu?

[Mark.S Harris]

Isabeau de Murcia commented:
> It might be
> interesting to figure out how to incorperate tofu into the life of 13th
> century Spain. 

I think this is going to be difficult if you wish to maintain accuracy, but
no one is forcing you to do this as the level of authenticity you choose
is your own.

> I think that it would be wonderful if there were more
> choices of nonmeat dishes at feasts. I am almost embarssed to keep asking
> what's in this or were any pork products used to make this dish.  

I think there are several solutions to this. The easiest excuse/explanation
to give is that you have given up meat as repentance or personal fast. If
you look in the period menus you will often see meat dishes served to some
and non-meat dishes served to others, particularly clergy, even on meat
days. Then there are the large number of meatless days on the medieval
calender. Through the SCA time period, this varied considerably and from
country to country.

For more info on fast and fast days take a look at this file in the 
FOOD section of my Florilegium:
fasts-msg         (16K)  5/29/98    Fasts and fastdays. Food restrictions.

For some useful medieval dishes for vegetarians take a look at these files,
also in this section:
vegetables-msg   (144K) 10/20/98    Period vegetables. Recipes.
vegetarian-msg    (45K)  8/26/98    Medieval vegetarianism. Lenten foods.

For vegetarians or those just interested in period side dishes, these files
might also be of interest:
almond-milk-msg   (39K)  1/25/99    Making almond milk. Recipes. Deskinning nuts
beans-msg        (111K)  1/29/99    Medieval, old-world beans. Recipes.
fruits-msg       (174K)  8/31/98    Medieval fruits and fruit dishes. Recipes.
fruit-apples-msg  (30K)  8/28/98    Period apples and apple recipes.
fruit-pears-msg   (21K)  8/31/98    Period pears and pear recipes.
fruit-quinces-msg (24K)  6/24/98    Period uses and recipes for quinces.

peas-msg          (56K)  2/16/99    Period peas. Pea broth. Recipes.
rec-leeks-msg     (18K) 11/ 5/98    Recipes for dishes using leeks.
root-veg-msg      (80K)  9/15/98    Medieval and period root vegetables.
salads-msg        (94K) 11/30/98    Period salads. lettuce, greens.
tomato-hist-art   (18K)  2/ 1/99    "You say tomato I say Xitomatl" by Lord
                                       Xaviar the Eccentric.
tomatoes-msg      (19K)  1/29/99    Tomatoes in period.
turnips-msg       (38K)  2/25/99    Turnips in period. Recipes.

I don't know what level of vegetarian you are, so these might or might not be
of interest:
cheese-msg        (72K)  6/12/98    Medieval cheese. Recipes.
Cheese-Making-art (30K)  9/29/97    "Cheese Making for the Compleat Novice" by
                                       Lady Aoife Finn.
cheesemaking-msg  (28K) 11/ 6/98    Comments and info. on cheesemaking. Recipes.
dairy-prod-msg    (56K)  1/27/99    Dairy products. milk, butter, curds, cream.
eggs-msg          (95K)  8/21/98    Egg storage. Recipes. Substitutions.

Isabeau, this file might also be of interest to you since you mentioned Spain:
fd-Spain-msg      (13K) 11/11/98    Food of medieval Spain. Cookbooks.

Hope this gives you some useful ideas and referances.

My Florilegium can be found at: http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/rialto/rialto.html

Lord Stefan li Rous
Barony of Bryn Gwlad
stefan at texas.net
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