SC - COKAGRYS OR COCKENTRICE

[TG]

<< why was such a dish condoned by the church? >>

What are the reasons why such a dish should cause problems? I guess the
scholastically trained churchmen saw the big difference between
_create(god)_ and _create(cook)_ and therefore did not see a problem
here. People _created_ new things all the time in the Middle Ages (e.g.
spectacles, gunpowder). Anybody building a house would have had to face
the same problem ("but houses are not mentioned amongst the creations of
god; you want to be like god creating something new"). In addition I do
not think that the churchmen spent much energy on the ideological
control of cookbooks ;-) 

As for the relation of "cokagris" and "cockentrice", it seems that the
former is based on the two words "cock" and "gris/grice" 'pig, suckling
pig', whereas the latter is used to refer to the Basilisk, a creature
that does not have any piggy elements! It seems that there might be some
misunderstandings or "perversions" of the word (OED: "cockagrice. Obs.
[f. cock + grice pig.] In early cookery, a dish consisting of an old
cock and a pig boiled and roasted together. Also called cokentrice,
cokyntryce, -tryche, app. perversions of the word. ...")

TH.