SC - butterkase?

[marcharit@juno.com]

Allison opined:
> Since there seems to be a negative reaction among a number of cooks in
> regard to accomodating vegetarians, can we just forget that word?  We
> have menus from period that list fast day type of food for church
> members.  'Ecclesiastical' is a bit much to type constantly, and 'fast
> food', while punny to most of us, may confuse newcomers.  What term might
> people like?  Church food?  Priest dish?  Perhaps this would make this
> preparation more 'palatable' to us, the Kitchen Stewards.
> 
Unfortunately, fast day food is not always possible as a vegetarian
alternative either. Much fast day food is really just the same meals with
fish instead of meat, and almond milk instead of dairy. Some Vegetarians do
not eat fish (to say nothing of the period use of porpoise and whale meat on
"fish days"!!). 
Personally, I think that a few vegetarians trying to set the agenda for the
rest of us is a bit arrogant, regardless of the purity of their motivations.
If a vegetarian does not want to eat meat at a feast, they can always bring
a bag of carrots, and munch "off board". 
It is just that, predominately, in period, there was a preponderance of
meats in the feast menus, and the assumption is therefore made that on
non-feast times, people ate very little meat. (if they ate like that at
every meal, then they would have died of heart failure very early!!).
Unfortunately, for Vegetarians, we are recreating feast menus, not everyday
food. Anyway, feast food seems to be what survived in books which we can use
as sources.
See what I mean, in this menu from a 14th century manuscript at the Beineke
Library at Yale:
(idiomatic language translated to modern English)
For the knights table, the first course: Venison with frumente, Viand Bruce,
Boars Head, Swan Roasted, Pike in sauce, Custard Lumbard, and a soteltie,
The second Course: a pottage called gelly, and pottage blanc de sore, Roast
pig, Roast Kid, Chickens Endored, Bream in sauce, tartes, Brawn bruse,
Roasted Coneys, and a soteltie. The third course: Bruet of almayne, Stewed
Lumbard, Roast venison, roast peacocks, roast partridge, pidgeons, rabbits,
Roast larks, Payne Puffe, Boiled partridge, a dish of jelly, Long Frittore.

- --- 10 meats, 7 birds, 3 fish by my count and none without some kind of meat
or fish product used in the preparation.
(Not to mention the kings table which has even more meat dishes in it.)

The point of this is that there would be little place at our table for
vegetarians if we were truly "in period". I think that vegetarians should
just accept the fact that what we are recreating was not the Vegetarian
Middle Ages, but the European Middle Ages, Where if it was alive, and did
not talk back to you, you could eat it, and often did!!! 

References:
An Ordinance of Pottage     By Constance Heiatt
Pleyn Delite                       By Constance Heiatt
All Manners of Food           By Stephen Mennell


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