"We all look on with anxious eyes When father carves the duck, And mother almost always sighs When father carves the duck. Then all of us prepare to rise And hold our bibs before our eyes And be prepared for some surprise When father carves the duck.
"He braces up and grabs a fork Whene'er he carves a duck, And won't allow a soul to talk Until he's carved the duck. The fork is jabbed into the sides, Across the breast the knife he slides, And every careful person hides From flying chips of duck.
"The platter always seems to slip When father carves a duck, And how it makes the dishes skip, Potatoes fly amuck-- The squash and cabbage leap in space, We get some gravy on our face, And father mutters Hindu grace Whene'er he carves a duck.
"We thus have learned to walk around The dining-room, and pluck From off the window-sills and walls Our share of father's duck; While father growls and blows and jaws, And swears the knife was full of flaws, And mother jaws at him because He couldn't carve a duck."
In the "Kalendare de Potages dyuers" appears this recipe for _A goos in hogepotte_: "Take a Goos, & make hure clene, & hacke hyre to gobettys, & put yn a potte, & Water to, & sethe togederys; than take Pepir & Brennyd brede or Blode y-boylyd, & grynd y-fere Gyngere & Galyngale & Comyn, & temper vppe with Ale, and putte it ther-to; & mynce Oynonys, & frye hem in freysshe grece, & do ther-to a porcyon of Wyne."
A strange entremets was one termed _Vyolette_, accompanied by these directions: "Take Flourys of Vyolet, boyle hem, presse hem, bray hem smal, temper hem vppe with Almaunde mylke, or gode Cowe Mylke, a-lye it with Amyndown or Flowre of Rys; take Sugre y-now, an putte ther-to, or hony in defaute; coloure it with the same that the flowrys be on y'peynted a-boue."
That excellent dish civet of hare was termed Harys in Cyueye, saffron, ale, and vinegar being then utilised in its preparation. _Pain perdu_ figured as Payn pur-dew, and may have been as useful then as now for a simple dessert where a saving of time and material entered into consideration, the olden recipe being not unlike that of modern times. Oysters are presented as Oystres in cevey, Oystres in grauey bastard, and Oystres in bruette. There are also Fylettys en Galentyne, Lange Wortys de chare, Blamanger of Fysshe, Ruschewys of Marw, Pety permantes, Chawettys a-forsed, Flathonys, and similar curious compounds. Meat- and fish-pies were known by the French appellation "crustade," the favourite English pork-pie being apparently unfamiliar to very olden writers, or else so disguised as to be unrecognisable.