[Sca-cooks] Another look at a Florilegium entry...

[Patricia Collum]

Well, I spent some time going through Ann Hagan's Anglo-Saxon Food and
Drink. It lists horse as a taboo food, likely to only be eaten in times of
want or dearth, such as the time right after the battle of Hastings. Eating
horses was also linked to pagan custom and discouraged by the church, as was
the maiming of horses. It lists the part about German's being discouraged
from their custom of eating horses, and that horses as food were also linked
to Danish custom. Horses were considered too valuable even from a political
and tactical standpoint to be used as food unless no other source of food
was available.

Cecily
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Phlip" <phlip at 99main.com>
To: "SCA-Cooks" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>; "SPCA"
<spca-wascaerfrig at yahoogroups.com>; <sca-equine at midrealm.org>
Sent: Sunday, May 16, 2004 2:15 PM
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Another look at a Florilegium entry...


> Selene, Stefan, In the Florilegium, Selene has the following note posted:
>
>
> Ene bichizh ogsen baina shuu...
>
> Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1998 11:43:05 -0800
>
> From: Susan Fox-Davis <selene at earthlink.net>
>
> Subject: Re: SC - Fw: [Mid] Society Equestrian Newsletter! (fwd)
>
> I really have to worry when the equestrian notices show up on the cooks'
> list.
> We just voted against use of horses for human consumption here in
> California.Okay, it's period. The Bayeaux Tapestry has a panel showing a
> cook leading
> several animals off to the rotisserie, and one of the food-beasts is
clearly
> a
> horse. A fat little pony, clearly not a Knight's Charger. However... just
> because it's period, doesn't mean I want to eat it.
>
> Lady Selene Colfox, Caid
>
> not an equivore
>
> selene at earthlink.net
>
> That letter has just come up on the SCA-Equestrian List, in a discussion
on
> the usage of horses in period, and several people are objecting to that
> interpretation, since the small horse/pony in question is apparently
> carrying a pack similar to the packs larger horses are carrying elsewhere
on
> the tapestry. Think we want to look at that again (if we can find a
picture
> of it) and reconsider our interpretations? I would tend to think, not
having
> seen the picture, that if the poiny is loaded like that, it might not _be_
a
> foodstuff, but rather be _carrying_ a foodstuff, but I haven't seen that
> section yet, since I'm not into the Tapestry, that when/where, or fiber
> arts.
>
> Now, insofar as using horses for meat, I tend to be resistant as I would
be
> for dogs or cats, but I know it's done, and I have actually tasted horse
> meat, but at the very least, we might want to put an addendum into trhe
> Florilegium, stating that that interpretation, at least in that particular
> case, is being contested.
>
> Anybody who wants to go look at the Florilegium, the entry is:
>
> http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD-MEATS/horse-recipes-msg.html
>
>
> Saint Phlip,
> CoDoLDS
>
> "When in doubt, heat it up and hit it with a hammer."
>  Blacksmith's credo.
>
>  If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it is probably not a
> cat.
>
> Never a horse that cain't be rode,
> And never a rider who cain't be throwed....
>
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