The End of Fasting: A Culinary Experiment
As a historian, I’ve always got an eye cocked for contemporary examples of changing ways of cooking and eating. Often these are creeping and gradual. But every so often something happens that changes food habits overnight or at least within a few years or decades (which counts as overnight for the historian).
There’s a fascinating example right now. Beginning with Pope Paul VI Apostolic Constitution of 1966, the Roman Catholic Church has relaxed the changing but always significant rules of fasting that had regulated believers’ diets for well over a thousand years, and that, with regional variations ruled out meat during the weeks of Lent.
Now all that is required is that members of the Church refrain from meat (but not eggs, milk products or animal fats) on Ash Wednesday and Fridays during Lent, and that only one main meal be taken on Good Friday with a little more in the morning and evening.
Mexico, like many other Catholic countries, has a rich repertoire of non-meat dishes developed over the centuries. Mexico Cooks has enticing photos of some of them. The question is: How long will these survive? How long will they be associated particularly with Lent? Will they be modified.
Thus far many families still refrain from meat throughout Lent. The market is large enough that lots of bakeries, grocery stores, and fast food places cater to it.
Here’s a bakery offering empanadas de vigilia (vigil, abstinence): tuna (canned) cooked with a sauce, tuna with mayonnaise, potatoes and cheese, strips of poblano chile with cheese, and slices of nopales (cactus pads).
And here’s Sam’s Club offering more empanadas de cuaresma (Lent), snapped just before the security guard came and gave me a stern warning about photographing in the store: this time tuna a la vizcaína (Biscay style, that is with tomatoes, onions, and in theory but perhaps not in Sam’s olives and capers) and chicken with mole (chicken conveniently not counting as meat).
And here’s Domino’s with Veggie pizza and four cheeses, again advertized for Lent.
(By the by, if you’re getting the impression that canned tuna is in danger of extinction during Lent, you’re right. Here’s my neighbor’s recipe for tuna pie (and very good it is too). Make a shortcrust pastry, using two cups of flour and a couple of sticks of butter. Lin a rather deep 9 inch pie dish with half the pastry. Chop (se pica, the opening to every other recipe) about half a large white onion and fry it gently in cooking oil until it is golden. Chop three large tomatoes and add them to the mixture along with three drained cans of tuna in oil and chopped chile jalapeño in vinegar to taste (not much). Put this in the pie dish, scatter over a grated melting cheese and top with the rest of the pastry. Brush with beate3n egg. Bake for about 40 minutes. )
But back to the question at hand. How fast are these dishes disappearing or being secularized? Maria remarks that the fasting dishes in Crete (Greek Orthodox I assume not Roman Catholic) are more work than the normal dishes. I have the sense that perhaps that is true for Mexico too, another reason why they may not survive. Has anyone been tracking these changes in Mexico or elsewhere? Any observations?
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Some more seasonal food from blogs I follow. Another take on capirotada from a Saborearte entusiasma. Easter customs in one part of the Philippines by Tangled Noodle. And some Holy Week pastries from Costa Rica.
It’s Holy Wednesday today, one of the strictest fasting days (along with Holy Friday, what is more commonly referred to as Good Friday) in the Greek Orthodox church. Today, apart from refraining from the usual meat, fish (except shellfish), eggs, cheese and milk, even olive oil is excluded from the diet.
of course, this sounds severe, but there are still people who adhere to this diet, notably little old ladies (my 85-year-old mother in law who lives in the house below ours – in typical greek fashion, still fasts like this. she takes no medication whatsoever apart from the odd paracetomol for old people’s aches and pains).
People in Greece are not likely to fast as strictly as this, but i’d say most will refrain from eating meat. in our house, we don’t fast so strictly (i dont avoid milk products) simply because the foods start to become very watery or very dry (dry soaked beans with bread, or soft boiled vegetables!). this is where the difficulty lies: in making interesting meals on a daily basis, especially in a world where we are used to too much variety. here is a post explaining what you could eat during the Holy Week: http://organicallycooked.blogspot.com/2008/04/palm-sunday-and-holy-week.html
the dishes associated with lent in crete will probably not die out easily, as they are very tasty when eaten on a non-daily basis. they are also steeped in tradition, and after my recent trip to athens, i realised why die-hards we are down here on the island. moreover, easter is a traditional time for most greeks; even if religion does not play a major part in their life (my guess is that it is of less significance these days than in the past), family tradtitions don’t actually die out so easily in greece.
i’d say we eat basically lenten meals in my house even during non-fasting periods, supplemented by meat and fish; the sunday roast never gets eaten completely – rather than cook another meat dish during the week, the meat is kept in the fridge to supplement a lenten meal.
i forgot to mention that all greek fast food outlets including macdonalds offer lenten meals – that’s quite a feat if you consider what is not permissible during greek. these meals are offered during all lent periods (easter, christmas and the first 15 days before the dormition of the virgin mary – 15th august)
Thanks Maria for as always very informative posts. I found the comments on who meals get dry or wet thought-provoking. In Catholicism, the wealthy could use nut milks. That does not seem to have been an option in the Orthodox Church.
Thank you for mentioning my Moriones post! My primary source regarding Lenten and Easter meals is my mother who could not name a specific food tied to this holy period although the act of fasting is still closely observed (at least, among her generation).
Interesting observations Rachel. Meat is not allowed, but Tuna is? Eggs i can somewhat agree because many vegetarians eat eggs, but Tuna?
Sure Rajagopal, canned tuna or other fish is fine. Interesting how different cultures and different religions define fasting and how this overlaps (or not) with vegetarianism.
Jack Turner’s book, “Spice The History of a Temptation” has a number of good passages about the labor and spice intensive Lenten dishes. He makes a case that lent in Medieval times was a chance to show off the cooks skills.
It certainly was! But I’d missed this particular reference, Judith, so many thanks.
Many fasting rules don’t follow modern lines of thought on biology. Beaver tail was fine in lent for instance. Having eaten it, I image it was quite a welcome addition when you could get it.
Agreed, Adam. Indeed the arguments for what counts as food and what counts as food for fasting from (at least) Aquinas through the seventeenth century are a quite fascinating glimpse into an earlier world view.
Do not forget the tamales for lent: rajas, chepil, flor de calabaza, etc always …using lard.
But lard is not considered meat is just “fat”
I love the idea that lard is no longer considered a meat product. Do I have dim memories it never was in Mexico, that there was a dispensation due to the lack of alternatives? Have to check this.