SC - danish recipes from 1300

[Cindy Renfrow]

Hullo, the list!

I don't seem to be able to find the question from the lady who wanted
more information regarding my reference to the alleged pejorative for
Yorkshiremen of "kicker-eater", so I'm playing it by ear here.

I know I've seen this reference in more than one source, but I don't
seem to be able to find anything more concrete than this at the moment--
I thought it'd be in Andre Simon's Concise Encyclopedia of Gastronomy,
but apparently I was mistaken. In any case, here's what I've been able
to find, after a very brief (brief being what I had time for) search:

"	In pre-Christian times, horsemeat eating in northern Europe figured
prominently in Teutonic religious ceremonies, particularly those
associated  with the worship of the god Odin. So much so, in fact, that
in A.D. 732 Pope Gregory III began a concerted effort to stop this pagan
practice, and it has been said that the Icelandic people specifically
were reluctant to embrace Christianity for some time largely over the
issue of their giving up horsemeat. In Sweden these many years later,
horsemeat still outsells lamb and mutton combined.

"	The Angles of England were among those peoples who regarded the horse
as too holy an animal to eat routinely, reserving it for communion
meals, and some believe that this prohibition has carried over into the
strong prejudices in England today against eating horsemeat. It has, of
course, been reinforced by the value of the animal for draft, transport,
and military use, and these values are confusedly mixed with the
religious (just as they have been in many countries also for cattle).
The one area of England where horsemeat is at all commonly eaten today
is Yorkshire. There it is called "kicker", and "kicker-eater" persists
in the rest of England as a derogatory term for Yorkshireman."

				_Unmentionable Cuisine_, Calvin W. Schwabe, © 1979 Rector and
Visitors of the University of Virginia, pub. 1979 and 1992, University
Press of Virginia, ISBN 0-8139-1162-1

Now, this bit of documentation doesn't necessarily make the statements
contained therein true, nor does anything preclude the possibility that
the other sources I've seen for this information may have taken the
information either from the same unnamed source, or from this book
itself. But, reliable or not, the claim is made.
    
Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
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