Regency Food - Part III

Well, RWA was wonderful. The drive to Washington DC from Toronto was long, but beautiful scenery and lots of conversation, during which time a short story came to fruition.

The best part of the conference was meeting writers and editors in person who I talk to on line all the time. Here you see Tessa Shapcott from HM&B and the famous Julia Justiss, and of course me. We had a fascinating discussion at lunch.


I also attended some interesting workshops, some about the business side of things, some on craft and then of course we partied. Oh how we partied. But was happens at RWA ..... well you know.

Partying reminded me of food. Which reminded me of a promise to put up more information about regency food.

I decided to look up all of the food in Georgette Heyer's books and provide the information as a regular monthly feature. Today's reference comes from The Talisman Ring.

THE GREEN GOOSE
As we know from our Regency slang, all things "green" are young and innocent. For example a "green girl" might well be taken in by a rake. Or a "green'un" would be fleeced by a card sharp.

So it is with our goose. If the goose is a green, it is young, about four months old. Its feathers were probably white. They would most likely be eaten in May, June, and July i.e. later in spring, before they grew up. Mention of a green goose for Sunday dinner appears in Samuel Pepys' diary for July 3, 1664, so this goes way back.

In case you wondered, an older goose would be known as a fat goose.

Here is a recipe from The British Housewife or, the Cook, Housekeeper and Gardiner’s (sic) Companion (1756)

Chop some sweet Herbs, and grate some Bread: grate in some Nutmeg among the Herbs and strew upon them some Salt and Pepper; moisten the Bread with rich Cream and mix all these together.
Then cut small the Liver of the Green Goose, mince some fine Bacon, mix these together and add them to the rest; when all is mixed fill the body of the Goose with the stuffing then spit it and warp it round with Bacon ; lay it down at some distance from the fire and when it is nearly enough, strew over it Crumbs of Bread and brown it up. The proper sauce is very rich gravy; and see it be sent up throughly hot.

And there we are. A new monthly feature for you to look forward to and lots of reading and re-reading for me. Until next time ~ Happy Rambles