Nooks and Corners of English Life, Past and PresentTimbs, John
History
Nooks and Corners of English Life, Past and Present
Timbs, John
England -- Social life and customs
The banquets given by princes or nobles were much more important
affairs. They were served in this manner:--First the grand sallet was to
be marshalled in by gentlemen and yeomen-waiters, then green sallets,
boiled sallets, and compound sallets; these were followed by all the
fricassees, such as collops, rashers, &c.; then by boiled meats and
fowls; then by the roasted beef, mutton, goose, swans, veal, pig, and
capon; next were ushered in the hot baked meats, such as fallow-deer in
pasty, chicken or calves'-foot pie, and dowset; then the cold baked
pheasants, partridges, turkey, goose, and woodcocks; lastly, carbonadoes
both simple and compound. These were all arranged upon the table in such
a manner that before each trencher stood a salad, a fricassee, a boiled
meat, a roasted meat, a baked meat, and a carbonado,--a profusion that
must have been almost overwhelming. The second course comprised the
lesser wild and land fowl, which were again followed up with the larger
kinds, as herons, shovellers, cranes, bustards, peacocks, &c.; and these
by cold baked red-deer, hare-pie, gammon of bacon pie, wild boar,
roe-pie; and scattered among these were the "conceited secrets" in the
way of confectionery and sweet pastry, which were the pride of the good
housewife's heart; besides whatever fish was available, which was to be
distributed according to the manner in which it was dressed, with the
respective courses, the fried with the fricassees, the broiled with the
carbonadoes, the dry with the roast meats, and those stewed in broths
with the boiled meats. The carbonadoes consisted of any meat scotched
on both sides and sprinkled with seasonings in various combinations, and
then either broiled over the fire or before it. Roasted geese were
stuffed with gooseberries--hence the term; and, if we were to enter into
the given details of the various modes of dressing these numerous
dishes, we could mention many as long disused. Some of the terms
employed are as startling to modern ears as the ingredients: to take one
instance, pie-dishes were called coffins.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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