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On the domestication of rabbits.
One of my greatest fascinations is with the history of the development of domestic animals (and the natural history of these animals.) A few moments ago, quite by accident, I discovered this (emphasis mine):
Credit for the actual domestication of rabbits goes to the early French Catholic monks. Because they lived in seclusion, the monks appreciated an easily obtainable meat supply. Their need to find a food suitable for Lent caused them to fall back on an item much loved by the Romans - unborn or newly born rabbits, which are called “Laurices.” (Laurice was officially classified as “fish” in 600 A.D. by Pope Gregory I, and thus permissible during Lent.) This strange taste, combined with the need to keep rabbits within the monastery walls, created the conditions that led to proper domestication and the inevitable selection of breeding stock for various characteristics and traits.
From the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy website.
(On a related tangent, I read some time ago that capybara is (was?) eaten during lent in South America, because it was considered to be "fish". But I hadn't heard about fetal rabbits.)
Credit for the actual domestication of rabbits goes to the early French Catholic monks. Because they lived in seclusion, the monks appreciated an easily obtainable meat supply. Their need to find a food suitable for Lent caused them to fall back on an item much loved by the Romans - unborn or newly born rabbits, which are called “Laurices.” (Laurice was officially classified as “fish” in 600 A.D. by Pope Gregory I, and thus permissible during Lent.) This strange taste, combined with the need to keep rabbits within the monastery walls, created the conditions that led to proper domestication and the inevitable selection of breeding stock for various characteristics and traits.
From the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy website.
(On a related tangent, I read some time ago that capybara is (was?) eaten during lent in South America, because it was considered to be "fish". But I hadn't heard about fetal rabbits.)
Re: Hmm...
No whale? Too new. :->
Re: Hmm...
questions that come to mind
How long ago was it, that you could go to the butchers and get a couple pounds of whale meat?
Was all whale meat more or less the same, or was there a preference for one kind over another (oh, heavens, no--never use pilot whale!)?
In Futurama, have they simply come full circle, with their cans of "tuna safe dolphin"?