Carne, Vale! or Goodbye Meat! Medieval Lent introduction & recipe

Today is Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent - the most important fasting period in the medieval calendar. Sometime I intend to follow the Lenten dietary strictures of the Middle Ages as an experiment. It's just not going to be this year!

Nowadays it's hard for the average Westerner to comprehend how strong an influence religion was - not only on the medieval mindset, but also on day-to-day dietary habits and the shape of medieval cuisine. Lent is a particularly concentrated example of this.

In brief, Lent is the forty days before Easter Monday, and as with the four weeks of Advent leading up to Christmas, was marked by obligatory fasting throughout the Christian world. The religious motive for these two fasts were converse to one another - Advent was seen as a time to meditate on the joy of the coming of God's grace into the world, Lent as a penance to be endured for man's betrayal of Jesus and a time to seek forgiveness for sin. It was therefore the most strict and rigorous of all the medieval fasting periods.

Contrary to our conception of a fast, the amount of food eaten during a normal medieval fast did not lessen in any way, and there are records scolding housekeepers for using fast days as an excuse to scrimp. Aside from the religious motive of repentance, the basic dietary premise of fasting was abstinence from meat - both quadruped and fowl. No animal or fowl meat could be consumed on a fast day. However, in its place the Church approved fish as a substitute, leading to fast days being known as fish days, a custom that still holds true. As a child I remember calling Fridays 'Fish Day' for that very reason!

In medieval times there were two official meals in a normal day. Dinner which was held at Nones, which is the ninth hour past sunrise, usually between 12 o'clock and 3 o'clock in the afternoon; and Supper, which was held before sunset by good housekeepers, so as to save on candles and lamp-fuel. However unlike at other times, Lenten fasting did mean less food rather than just proscribing animal and fowl meat. Only one meal was permitted per day, and the amount consumed then was not to increase from what was consumed during non-fast days.

Added to the banning of meat in Lent was the banning of all animal and fowl by-products such as eggs and milk - and therefore cream, butter and cheese (although the enforcing of this was slightly less rigorous at different times and in different places in Europe). Originally wine was also banned during Lent, but by the ninth century this proscription had been whittled away (mostly by the clever, and somewhat suspect arguments of various monastic objectors).

Exemptions from Lenten fasting (as with other fasts) were made for the old, the young, the sick and the pregnant. They had to have official dispensation however. Somewhat unsurprisingly, the rich and powerful sometimes found themselves suffering from a 'weak constitution' during Lent. The often-corrupt clergy made a great deal of money from fasting dispensations.

There were always many willing informants against those who broke Lenten dietary strictures. But not only were the public shame and penalties a deterrent, but also the more dangerous suggestion that one was a heretic or Jewish.

Originally the single Lenten meal was held after vespers, around mid afternoon. Every century this crept forward more and more, until it was partaken of during Nones or as the 'noon' meal, as it came to be called. In the early ninth century another detail ceded by the Church was the allowance of a collation before dinner. This was a small snack consisting of usually a glass of wine and piece of bread or similar, to take the edge off hunger before bedtime.

As liquor wasn't forbidden after the ninth century, Lent became a time of alcoholic excess. And as alcohol on an empty stomach was a bad thing, a blind eye was generally turned on the partaking of a small morsel of food. Fare designed for dipping in liquid and associated with Lent were small, wedge-shaped cakes called wigs and hard, twice-baked rusks called crakenel.

Another loophole that people exploited was the consumption of comfits and sweetmeats - little frivolous morsels that did not, by themselves, constitute a 'meal'. A mouthful of marzipan, a dried fruit, a candied flower; all these could be nibbled on and hold the pangs of hunger at bay without blatantly breaking Lenten dietary strictures. They were extremely expensive however, especially in England and the north, where fruit harvest had long since finished. And their price naturally rose during this time of great demand. Dried figs were so popular during the fast they were commonly known as 'Lent figs'.

In addition to religious motivation, Lenten fasting had a more pragmatic side - making a practicality out of necessity. The time of Lent was also the end of winter. Food was scarce. The major slaughter of meat animals would have occurred at Martinmas, just before Christmas. Breeding animals were naturally off the menu, and would now be pregnant anyway. Production of eggs and milk would be scarce to non-existent.

But by the end of Lent, spring was renewing the world. The new shoots and vegetables would be coming into season, the spring lambs and calves being born; all making for a magnificent feast at the end of the fasting. Before this happened however, forty days of no red or poultry meat, no milk, eggs, cream or butter had to be endured. The forty days - an important Biblical number related to Jesus' forty day fast in the desert, the voyage of the Ark, etc - made up a generous tenth of the year. In the Middle Ages, a tenth of a farmer's produce was claimed by his lord or the local parish as tax or 'tithe'. So Lent was often known as the 'tithe days of the year'. And for those who couldn't afford fresh fish or almonds or expensive comfits, those tithe days would have been a long, dreary culinary slog. Much better to have been rich in those days!

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And now, here's a perfect-for-Lent winter vegetable salad, which although it goes by the somewhat unappetising name (to modern ears at any rate) of 'compost' is tasty and sweet, as well as a good keeper. The recipe is originally from a C.14th English cookery text known as "The Form of Curye", which was compiled by the chief master chefs to Richard II.

You can change the ratio and sorts of root vegetables included according to availability and personal preference.

Compost
Form of Curye #103
The original text comes from Constance B. Hieatt & Sharon Butler's book Curye on Inglysch (London: Oxford Early English Text Society, 1985). The translation and redaction are my own.

Original:
Take rote of persel, of pasternak, of rafens, scrape hem and waische hem clene. Take rapes & caboches, ypared and icorue. Take an erthen panne with clene water & set it on the fire; cast alle thise therinne. Whan they buth boiled cast therto peeres, & perboile hem wel. Take alle thise thynges vp & lat it kele on a faire cloth. Do therto salt; whan it is colde, do hit in a cessel; take vinegar & powdour & safroun & do therto, & lat alle thise thynges lye therin al ny3t, other al day. Take wyne greke & hony, clarified togider; take lumbarde mustard & raisouns coraunce, al hoole, & grynde powdour of canel, powdour douce & aneys hole, & fenell seed. Take alle thise thynges & cast togyder in a pot of erthe, & take therof whan thou wilt & serue forth.

Translation:
Take root of parsley, parsnips, radishes, scrape them and wash them clean. Take white turnips and cabbages, pared and cored. Take an earth[enware] pan with clean water and set it on the fire; cast all this therein. When they have boiled cast thereto [in] pears and parboil them well. Take all these things up and let it cool on a fair cloth. Do thereto salt; when it is cold, do [put] it in a vessel; take vinegar and powder [spice mix] and saffron and do thereto, and let all these things lie therein all night, or all day. Take Greek wine and honey, clarified together; take Lumbard Mustard and raisins of Corinth [currents, aka Zante raisins or Zante currents], all whole, and grind powder of cinnamon, powder douce and whole anise and fennel seed. Take all these things and cast together in a pot of earth[enware], and take thereof when you will and serve forth.

Redaction:
2 Parsley roots (you can substitute carrots or ignore them altogether)
2 - 4 Radishes
2 parsnips
2 small or 1 large Turnip
medium Cabbage, shredded
4 Pears, peeled and diced
1/2 cup White Wine Vinegar
1 tsp Powder Forte*
6 or so strands of Saffron
1 cup White Wine
½ cup Honey
1 Tb Lumbard Mustard
100 gm currents
1/4 tsp Aniseed
1/2 tsp Fennel Seed
1/2 tsp Cinnamon powder
1 tsp Powder douce**

1. Cook the peeled parsley root/carrot, parsnips and cabbage in lightly boiling water until almost cooked. Note: The parsnips are important to add sweetness to the dish, so try not to miss them)
2. Add the pears and boil until they are tender.
3. Drain well. I suggest at this time you also dice the root vegetables.
4. Salt the vegetables and pears and leave until cool.
5. Put in a non-metallic container with a lid (Tupperware is ideal) and add the vinegar, powder forte and saffron and mix well. You may want to add ½ cup water, depending on the strength of the vinegar.
6. Leave overnight or for several hours.
7. In a pan, bring the wine and honey to a boil. Clarify them by skimming off the foam that appears on top until it is no longer produced.
8. Mix with the mustard, currents, aniseed, fennel seed, cinnamon and powder douce.
9. Add to the vegetable mix.
10. Will keep for a week or so, especially if refrigerated, and improves with age.

*Powder Forte basic recipe: 2 parts black pepper, 1 part ginger & cinnamon, ½ part cloves & mace. Ground together.
**Powder Douce basic recipe: 2 parts cinnamon, 1 part sugar, 1 part ginger or galingale, ½ part cloves & nutmeg, bay leaf. Ground together.

Bibliography:
HENISCH, Bridget Ann Fast and Feast: Food in Mediaeval Society Penn State University Press 1986, ISBN: 027100424X

HIEATT, Constance B. & BUTLER, Sharon. Curye on Inglysch London: Oxford Early English Text Society, 1985.

WILSON, C.Anne Food and Drink in Britain from the Stone Age to recent times Penguin Books, 1973, reprint 1984 ISBN 0-14-046.546-4

Comments

[Barbara]

That is fascinating to me; as one who grew up nominally Protestant, I have no practical experience with Lent. However, as one who has studied history (specializing in the Northern Rennaisance), I do know a lot about the history of the Catholic Church. However, what one studies in classes and textbooks often does not delve into the practical day to day lives of the people of those times.

Which is why the history of food and cookery is so utterly entrancing to me. It is a look into the way of life that is long past, and it shows us both how different we are now, and yet, how similar as well.

Great post!

[Christina]

Thank you. Yes, studying food does make the everyday life seem more real, doesn't it? :-)

[Barbara]

I figure you will notice this soon enough, but I have tapped you for the Music in my Kitchen meme!

Tag! You're it!

[Neen]

Thanks for the beautiful historical overview of Lenten fasting. I'm always fascinating by the conjucture between food and religious culture -- it seems to have formed so much of our societal "gut-reactions" to food. By the by, what about the differences in Lenten fasting between the Orthodox and the Catholic traditions?

[Christina]

Hi, thanks - I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Unfortunately I don't know anything about Orthodox traditions, all my research is centered on Western Europe.