[Sca-cooks] Fish at feasts

[Christiane]

> OK, steering this all back on topic:  what about Christian dietary laws
> and why don't we ever seem to bother with them in the SCA?  I keep trying
> to serve fish during Lent and all I get are complaints.  O Tempura, O
> Morays! <grin, duck, run really fast!>

i think i found the answer to that.  it is not your fish they dislike, but 
the memories of all the bad fish they have eaten thru their lives.  oh, and 
the reproving looks they have gotten from a baked fish with its head still 
on.

it is quite the sin what some folk can do to a good piece of fish! ;)

cailte

It's also a matter of the type of fish they had growing up.

If Fridays during Lent were associated with stronger-smelling oily fish such as a sardines, anchovies, cod, herring, or mackerel, or tuna or salmon casserole made from canned fish, or with bland fare such as fish sticks, no wonder why so many people don't like fish. This is what my mom grew up with. Hence, there was no fish on Fridays during Lent in our house. Fridays were cheese pizza nights.

I myself am more of a fan of shellfish than true fish, but a good tuna steak grilled with soy and wasabi or salmon poached with dll and topped with a dill, lemon, butter, and caper sauce -- such things makes me happy, indeed. 

Keep in mind so many of the medieval Lenten recipes call for dried, salted fish, too. I can't stand the smell of soaking baccala, and plunk herring in front of me and I'll turn green. Again, it's the smell. I have only recently begun to appreciate anchovy -- but only one or two pieces in a Greek-style salad, please. I like anchovy better cooked.

Gianotta ("Please pass the calamari!")