SC - the menu was Bidding for Feast - Winner's comments

[grizly at mindspring.com]

sca-cooks at ansteorra.org wrote:
> On  Tue, 27 Mar 2001 10:42:27 -0800 "Bonne of Traquair"  wrote:
<<< Uhhmmm, If a person is trying to follow the medieval lenten fast - they would not have had egg or dairy.  And, I think that Morgan was trying to recreate a lenten version that would have been served in medieval times.  

The almond milk in the first course, the lentils in the second course, and various nuts in the third course actually meet a person's protein requirements without resorting to a fish dish.  >>>>>>

Would "without resorting to fish" actually recreate the lenten diet, though?  Sure, substituting nuts and the odd almond milk avoids forbidden meats, but there is no indication that abstinance from animal products was the norm.  Water creatures seem to be mentioned regularly in at least several English sources and maybe the Italian corpi (corpuses?) in reference to lent.  A cook's personal choice to serve a menu at an SCA without animalish proteins is right on . . . I would be interested in the literary support for such a menu as recreation of regular medieval lenten practice.  I am really serious as I am building a collection of such for my personna files.

niccolo difrancesco