/ck/ - Food & Cooking

A GOOSE ROASTED ALIVE
Giambatissta della Porta’s Magia Naturalis,1558

A Goose Roasted Alive. A little before our times, a Goose was wont to be brought to the table of the King of Aragon, that was roasted alive, as I have heard by old men of credit. And when I went to try it, my company were so hasty, that we ate him up before he was quite roasted. He was alive, and the upper part of him, on the outside, was excellent well roasted. The rule to do it is thus.

Take a Duck, or a Goose, or some such lusty creature, but the Goose is best for this purpose. Pull all the Feathers from his body, leaving his head and his neck. Then make a circle of fire round about him, not too narrow, lest the smoke choke him, or the fire should roast him too soon. Set the fire not too wide, lest he escape unroasted. Inside the fire boundary, set everywhere little pots full of water, and put Salt and Meum [our wild herb baldmoney, Meum anthamanticum] in them. Let the Goose be smeared all over with Suet, and well Larded, that he may be the better meat, and roast the better. Light the fire about the goose, but do not let it burn in haste. When the Goose begins to roast, he will walk about, and cannot get forth, for the fire stops him.

When he is weary, he quenches his thirst by drinking the water, by cooling his heart, and the rest of his internal parts. The force of the Medicament loosens and cleans his belly, so that he grows empty. And when he his very hot, it roasts his inner parts. Continually moisten his head and heart with a Sponge. But when you see him run mad up and down, and to stumble (his heart then wants moisture), wherefore you take him away, and set him on the table to your guests, who will cry as you pull off his parts. And you shall eat him up before he is dead.