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

[Susan Fox-Davis]

Certainly the Saxon taboo is where we get it from.  But this was a Norman
banquet, without that particular prohibition.  Doubtless they shocked the
Saxons silly.

Selene

On 5/16/04 4:44 PM, "Patricia Collum" <pjc2 at cox.net> wrote:

> 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....
>> 
>>