[Sca-cooks] Mrs Levy again

[jenne at fiedlerfamily.net]

> I was a little curious about that, myself. You'll note that there's a
> _relative_ scarcity in Medieval European cookery of dishes that mix
> fish and meat, but the rationale in the Middle Ages, with Lent,
> Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays taking up a really large chunk of
> the year, seems to have been, "There are so many days when we
> essentially _have to_ eat fish, why on earth would we on the days
> when we don't?" (Note that the aformentioned days are meatless,
> depending on specific time, place, and interpretation, but not
> necessarily "fish" or even fast days.)

When I looked at Western European medieval menus, I found a lot of
fish dishes in the meat menus. Not RECIPES that mix meat and fish, though.
Just menus. Enough to make me feel a bit wierd about doing fishless
Western European medieval meals (though Dembinska claims that surviving
meat menus from Poland didn't include fish).

I don't know if that was to accomodate those fasting, the way we serve
vegetarian dishes, or what.

I know I looked at other menus than those in Le Menagier but I'm not sure
which ones.

-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa
jenne at fiedlerfamily.net OR jenne at tulgey.browser.net OR jahb at lehigh.edu
	"Index your brain."