Kettner's Book of the Table

Every food on the Victorian table gets its history, its etymology and a strong opinion — the wittiest cookery book of 1877, written in secret by a Times leader-writer and named for London's most fashionable restaurant.

HomeG › Grog

Grog

It would be scarcely necessary to say anything about this, but that the French have seized upon the word, and given it a currency which it was fast losing in England. The French seem to use the word quite seriously; in England the word has almost always carried with it a humorous under-meaning-a disparagement of the drink. There was an Admiral Vernon who was called Old Grog by the sailors because in rough weather he used to pace Gurnard the quarterdeck encased in a grogram or grogran cloak, in French gros grain, a coarse stuff made of silk and mohair. He it was who first served out rum on board ship mixed with water. The sailors after him called the mixture Grog.

GROUSE-the finest of all winged game: nothing to approach it. We cannot have everything; and when we lament the lack of ortolans and becaficos let us remember that we have something still better in England-the grouse. To be roasted like the partridge, and served on bread toasted and buttered.

← GrillGudgeon →