SC - list newbie/seasonal food
Vincent Cuenca
bootkiller at hotmail.com
Wed Feb 28 21:23:08 PST 2001
>
>Such restrictions could, in fact, be a good outlet for creativity. How
>would you work around those restrictions to present a delightful dining
>experience to the guests of your master when that special dinner just
>happened to fall in Lent or another fast day?
IIRC, the feast days of saints and Sundays were not counted in the forty
days of Lent, and were therefore exempt from the usual dietary restrictions.
So you can have your corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick's Day. Also,
they had different ideas about what constituted "meat". Whales, dolphins
and seals could be eaten, as they were aquatic creatures and therefore not
"flesh animals". By that same logic, beaver tail could be eaten, as it had
scales and was more fishlike. Some religious authorities argued that the
white flesh of birds was more pure than other meat, and so could be eaten
during fast periods. "Fast and Feast" goes on a fair bit about this.
I remember a story of one archprelate who threw a banquet on Ash Wednesday,
consisting of forty separate dishes. The next day, he served thirty-nine,
then thirty-eight, and so on until Easter.
Of course, there's a lot one can do with fish, particularly fresh tuna and
swordfish....
Vicente
(tuna steaks....oooohhhh)
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