[Sca-cooks] Need help finding sources

[Decker, Terry D.]

It is probably true, but may be difficult to document.  Presumably, during
the Middle Ages, the Church declared rabbit fetuses and newly born rabbits
to not be meat, allowing them to be eaten by asectic monastic orders and
during Lent.  This is probably more 'Lanie's area of expertise.

Cindy Renfrow looked at this issue some time ago and couldn't find any
references to the practice in her cookbooks.  She did not touch the Roman
sources, and Apicius does have a number of rabbit recipes, but I am not
familiar enough with the work to tell you whether or not there is a recipe
for rabbit fetuses.

In the same vein, the "Seven Advices" of Mei Cheng (Han dynasty, roughly
contemporary with the end of the Roman Republic) is said to record
domesticated leopard fetuses as a delicacy eaten by the court.

Bear


> I'm coming to the fine gentles on this list to ask for a bit
> of help.  Today
> I was asked a question about the eating of rabbit fetuses.
> Someone I know
> had seen it in an article her son was reading for a school
> report, and was
> wondering if this was true.  I repeated the information I had
> gleaned from
> past discussions here on the list that yes this was a common
> practice, but
> then she asked if I knew of any primary sources for that
> information. (Her
> son thought it might be interesting to have in his report.)
> After much
> searching on the internet (some of it from work, bad Noemi,
> no biscuit) all I
> have been able to find is articles that mention the practice
> in passing and
> the portions of the Florigium where the members of this list
> discuss it.
>
> Can anyone point me in the correct direction?  This is really
> starting to
> bother me.
>
> Many thanks!
>
> Noemi  "trying not to pull her hair out"