[Sca-cooks] horse recipes

[UlfR]

Stefan li Rous <StefanliRous at austin.rr.com> [2005.02.02] wrote:
> Thank you! I think I've got a single European recipe for horsemeat in 
> this file. Many more from Asia, but not much from Europe. This is 
> further proof that horsemeat *was* eaten in Europe by others than the 
> poor, even if it might not have been common.

In Anne Hagens "Anglo-Saxon Food and Drink: Production and Distribution"
(Anglo-Saxon Books, 1995) we can read "After William's campaigns there
was in 1069 a great dearth 'whereby many were forced to eat horses,
dogs, cats, rats and other vermin; yea, some abstained not from the
flesh of men'." (p. 187). Later on the same page she also writes
"...tabooed foods in Anglo-Saxon England included 'horses, dogs, cats,
rats and other loatsome and vile vermin'.". On the following page she
reports that in 733 Gregory III was trying to get Boniface to stamp out
the practice of Germans of eating horses, and that in 893 the Danes were
condemned for eating horses (even if they at that time experienced a
famine!). Much of the early opposition came from the connection with
pagan sacrificial customs, which by the time of Rumpolt might have
passed by as serious concerns.

Anyone who from the above infers that it is a documentable practice to
eat fellow SCAdians if the banquet is very late if totally on their own.
I surmise that young fighers might be the most tender, not that I would
ever countenance such a practice except in the dearest of emergencies,
and perhaps not even then.  For health reasons one should cook the meat
thorougly in such a case, and avoid all parts of the nervous system, but
it would still be an evil act, regardless of any delays in serving the
third course.

UlfR

-- 
UlfR Ketilson                               ulfr at hunter-gatherer.org
Freedom begins when you tell Mrs. Grundy to go fly a kite.  (Lazarus Long)