[Sca-cooks] snake

[Laura C. Minnick]

At 05:18 PM 5/6/02 -0400, you wrote:
>Actually the association is to the snake in
>the Garden of Eden and the Expulsion...

Yes, I am well aware of that- could help but be, as I had to read sermons
by Jerome and Origen and... yeah. Not to mention 30-odd years in
fundementalist churches.

The reference I made was more food- specific. Peter had a vision in Acts
10:9-16, in which a 'great sheet' full of nasty things is lowered and he is
encouraged to eat- and he refuses, because the animals, reptiles, etc, are
unclean. And it occurred to me that this is just the sort of thing that
would have been used as an argument against eating slimy things.;-)

 but
>the cookery answer is that yes they ate them.
>There's an article by Jennifer Stead in PPC 51
>on "Viper soup, viper broth, viper wine."
>They were thought to be medicinal, as Galen thought
>they cured ulcers. She mentions that they were
>eaten in Italy and England.

Could you be more specific about her sources? I don't get PPC and I don't
have ready access. And because medicinal and culinary aren't always
compatable. (And Galen said a great many things...:-)

'Lainie
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Sometimes Life makes drastic changes without our permission...