These are historical documents, not instructions. Do not cook, drink, or apply anything on this site.
Don't Cook That

The goodly terms of Carving

Dismember that heron. Disfigure that peacock. Undertranch that porpoise. Tame that crab.

From
Kettner's Book of the Table
Published
1877
Yikes Scale
Iffy

Exactly as printed, 1877

Wynkyn de Worde printed in the year 1508 "The Booke of Kervinge." Some of the words are curious, and throw light on the names of dishes which Cassis have been corrupted by process of time. Where the meaning is quite plain the spelling is modernised, but not otherwise. "The terms of a carver be as here followeth. Break that deer-lesche (leach) that brawn-rear that gooselift that swan-sauce that capon-spoil that hen-frusche (fruss) that chicken-unbrace that mallard-unlace that coney-dismember that heron-display that crane-disfigure that peacock-unjoint that bittern-untache that curlew-alaye that felande-wing that partridge-wing that quail-mine that plover-thigh that pigeon-border that pasty-thigh that woodcock-thigh all manner small birds-timber that fire-tire that egg-chine that salmon -string that lamprey-splat that pike-sauce that plaice -sauce that tench-splay that bream-side that haddock -tusk that barbel-culpon that trout-fin that chevintrassene that eel-tranch that sturgeon-undertranch that porpoise-tame that crab-barb that lobster. Here endeth the goodly terms of Carving."


Kettner's Book of the Table, 1877. Public domain; transcription unaltered.

So what happens if I make it?

Nothing here will hurt you. It is a list of words, and it is on this site because the words are a menu — heron, peacock, porpoise, crane — of what a great household expected to carve.

The vocabulary is the real artefact. A language that needs a separate verb for dismembering a heron and disfiguring a peacock is a language with a lot of herons and peacocks in it.

Notes from the 21st century

  • Wynkyn de Worde was Caxton's successor. He printed the Booke of Kervinge in 1508, one of the earliest English printed works on table service.
  • Some of the terms survive. “Tame that crab” is gone, but the idea that different creatures need different handling is still how a fishmonger talks.
  • Kettner is being an antiquarian here. The entry is a digression, not a recipe. His book is full of them, which is why it reads better than most.

Also in this book

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