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Fake Fish
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Ashton Place retirement community will be learning about a Lenten tradition from the Dutch dating back the end of the fifteenth century.
"Fake fish": Medieval apple pie during Lent
During Lent, not only was meat prohibited, but also milk, butter, cheese and eggs were banned from the table. In February and March, at the end of the winter, supplies ran low, and what was left of fruit and vegetables, was old, wrinkled and mouldy. The staple diet consisted of bread, porridge or gruel made of grain, peas or beans, salted or dried vegetables, fish, onions, leeks, old apples, nuts, and for the wealthy dried dates, figs, raisins and currants and almonds. Almonds were very important because these were the basis for almond milk, almond butter, and even almond cheese. All of these were used as replacement for forbidden dairy products. Around the Mediterranean, Lent was less drastic, because in those regions the basic cooking ingredient was olive oil, not butter or animal fat.
When you think of it, a period of six weeks in which all you get to eat besides fruit and vegetables is fish, fish and again fish is rather wearisome. A simple explanation for allowing fish during lent is that during the Biblical Flood, meant to punish mankind for its sins, all fish survived! It was clear that fish were free of all sin. When you lived near the coast,, seafish was easy to come by. But if you lived inland, you had to rely on freshwater fish. So, what did the Dutch do? They came up with a recipe for apple pie in the form of a fake fish to be served during Lent. The recipe is written down in a Middle Dutch manuscript from the end of the fifteenth century.
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