SC - list newbie/Seasonal food.

[Kirrily Robert]

In lists.sca.sca-cooks, you wrote:
>
>>  I, however, have decided that sometime in the future there
>>should be a Lenten feast in my barony; I am starting to plan my research
>>strategy in the back of my brain.
>>
>>Does anyone know any good sources for period Lenten restrictions and
>>recipes? (And no, I haven't looked on the Florilegium yet.)
>
>The medieval European Christian fast-day restrictions were (this is 
>based on reading a lot of period recipes, which often say what to do 
>for a fish day or for a fish day in Lent):
>
>1. On ordinary fast days, also called fish days, you could eat fish 
>but not beasts or fowl.
>
>2. On fast days in Lent, you could still eat fish but could not eat 
>meat (as above), eggs, or dairy products.
>
>3. But--Sundays in Lent are not properly part of Lent (if you count 
>from Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday, you only get the forty days of 
>Lent if you leave out the Sundays), so are not fast days.
>
>I've often thought that these were in part making a virtue out of 
>necessity. By early spring, you aren't getting much eggs, you've 
>eaten the salt meat and the surviving animals are the ones you are 
>keeping to breed, the cows aren't giving milk yet, you've eaten most 
>of the cheeses, and what little you have of these kinds of food you 
>can easily save for Sundays.

I might be going off on a weird tangent here, but I'd like to know
whether they held "feasts" (or, more to the point, whether there were
any festival days or big events which would occasion a bigger-and-more-
impressive-than-usual meal) during Lent?

It seems to me as if the phrase "lenten feast" is a bit of an oxymoron.
Sure, people would still eat communally, and large households (and
especially the huge households attached to a royal court) would eat in a
Great Hall with the a high table and numerous dishes and all that... but 
would they put on a big show of it, or would it be relatively austere?

It seems to me that a lenten feast might be a good opportunity to hold a
smaller, more intimate feast with less pomp and wossname.

But this is based on no actual documentation, just a gut feeling.  I'd
love to see some actual primary source material on it.

K.

- -- 
Kirrily 'Skud' Robert - skud at infotrope.net - http://infotrope.net/
"No, wait!  I need to explain to sharkey what eskimo fuck stick means!"
        -- Penny (from the Netizen quotes file)