SC - Nanna's/ Porta's recipe for roasted goose

[Nanna Rögnvaldardóttir]

Thomas wrote:

>according to Wiswe (Kulturgeschichte der Kochkunst, 138) the goose
>recipe you quoted is extant earlier in the works of Giambattista Porta
>and Alessio Piemontese (both 16th c.; there are 17th c. editions, too).
>It seems that this recipe was wandering, it is also reprinted in
>Balthasar Schnurr's 'Hausbuch' (German, 17th c.). And I guess one could
>find still more places. On the one hand, this indicates that the recipe
>was a 'literary' phenomenon, handed down and copied for its
>'strangeness' in the collections of curiosities.

I thought it might be. As far as I recall, I first came across this recipe
in Philippa Pullar's Consuming Passions. I don't have that book and can't
remember whom she was quoting, but I somehow got the idea that this was sort
of a medieval urban legend - but who knows; to beat or torture an animal to
get a more gamey taste was not unknown. The goose will be virtually raw, so
the only purpose of this method - if it was ever used - would be to terrify
the bird and get the somewhat bitter taste characteristic of an animal that
was frightened or in great pain when it died.

Nanna