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Article: Pike with Pudding in the Belly

Pike with Pudding in the Belly - JaneAusten.co.uk
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Pike with Pudding in the Belly

In his diary (1752-1802) Parson Woodforde recounts, with a gastronome's delight, the details of many a meal. These peeks into the past give a wonderful feeling of what life must have been like for the Austen family, social as well as historical contemporaries of the parson. The following entry from June 4, 1777, describes one such meal: pike

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In his diaries, Woodforde often mentions fishing and Pike were often caught. This large, carnivorous fish is considered particularly good sport among anglers and is still sought after, today. Elizabeth Moxon's 1764 cookbook, English Housewifry: Exemplified in Above Four Hundred and Fifty Receipts Giving Directions in Most Parts of Cookery ... with an Appendix Containing Upwards of Sixty Receipts, offers the following recipe for this dish:
How to roast a Pike with a Pudding in the Belly Take a large pike, scale and clean it, draw it at the gills. To make a pudding for the Pike, take a large handful of breadcrumbs, as much beef -suet shred fine, two eggs, a little pepper and salt, a little grated nutmeg, a little parsley, sweet marjoram and lemon peel shred fine; so mix it altogether, put it into the belly of your pike, skewer it all around, place it in an earthen dish with a lump of butter over it, a little salt and flour, so set it in the oven. An hour will roast it.
 

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