SC - Butter-oops

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Terry Nutter wrote:
> Butter is explicitly suggested as an Ember Day alternative to sausage.
> Ember Days are not fish days.  They are specific dieting days that are
> less restricted, but that still do not permit flesh.  (Ember days are
> also relatively rare; twelve in a year, as I recall.)

True. I'm not entirely up on the implications of the various different
meatless days, particularly since observation differs according to time
and place. This is why I was pretty careful to specify meatless days,
rather than attempting to distinguish between fast days, fish days, and
ember days. They do appear to be rare, though, compared to the other
days.
> 
> I'm not certain that butter was permitted on fish days.  I don't recall
> it offhand in any fish dishes through the 15th century.  I do, however,
> know of recipes that include both butter and marrow.  If you can use
> marrow, you can use white grease (that is, if the religious dietary
> restrictions permit the first, they also permit the second).

I think butter was generally more of a fast-day thing, rather than a
fish-day food. Same for eggs, for part of our period, although not all,
since, as I say, the rules appear to have changed once or twice during
the time in question. 
 
> Butter occurs in custardy dishes reasonably often.  Grease does not.
> The strong implication is that it was preferred in those dishes.

I believe this is an inference, not an implication. It may be that
butter was preferred over white grease for its flavor, but if I had to
make a generalization (which I hate to do), I would still think that
butter, as well as  some of the egg dishes, may have been associated
with non-meat days, in the same way that many Jews generally avoid
matzoh like the plague when it isn't Passover, and in the same way that
fish dishes seem to be a bit less prevalent outside of the hundred or so
fish days in the calendar year, in spite of the occasional custard laced
with marrow and butter ;  ).

Adamantius  
> Cheers,
> 
> -- Katerine/Terry