[Sca-cooks] The eating of meat in 14th Century Europe

[kingstaste at mindspring.com]

Regina wrote:
  In fact I might have a better chance of dieing of Bubonic plague (I
understand there are about 5 cases a year - supposedly endemic in the golden
ground squirrel population in California.
<snip>

A gentleman from our Barony taught a class at our meeting tonight on the
Black Death outbreak of the mid-14th century this evening.  It was very
interesting.  One of the points he made when discussing the changes that
occurred in the aftermath of the plague was that Europe became a meat-eating
area much more so than it had been.  Mass death caused a shortage of the
labor pool, and as a result, more people could live off of pasturage than
could work an equivalent amount of tillage.  Less labor for higher gain in
raising livestock over crops.  I had never considered this aspect, and
wonder about looking at recipes from say, 1360 onward to see if there are
more meat recipes (although our sources for northern Europe earlier than
that aren't very plentiful).
Thought I'd throw it out here for the gristmill,
Christianna