[Sca-cooks] fetal rabbits

[Mark.S Harris]

Alban asked:
> >Meatless or Lenten feasts
> > could include fish, fetal rabbits and certain species of birds.
>
> I have to ask. Fetal rabbits? What was the thinking behind
> fetal rabbits not being meat, if regular rabbits were?

There are several comments on this in the fasts-msg file in the
Florilegium as well as (I think) the bestiaries-msg file in the
ANIMALS section.

Here is one of the messages from the fasts-msg file:
> Date: Thu, 10 Feb 2000 20:18:11 EST
> From: LrdRas at aol.com
> Subject: Re: SC - beavers
>
> A thought....
>
> The Catholic faith during the middle ages did NOT classify either beavers,
> barnacle geese or sea mammals as fish. The 'guidelines' merely stated that
> animals from the sea were considered as appropriate food for meatless days.
> There is no indication that they were thought of as fish that I am aware of.
> The key requirement was creatures living in water. The animal kingdom that
> water creatures belonged to was irrelevant. It is by this logic that things
> like fetal or new born animals such as fetal or newborn rabbits were also
> 'kosher' for meatless days.
>
> BTW, newborn animals have virtually no taste while the flavor of fetal
> (e.g., unborn) animals can best be described as having the slightest hint of
> liver flavor to them. All in all, the service of such animals would be most
> appreciated by feasters that have extremely sensitive palates.
>
> Ras

Stefan li Rous
stefan at texas.net