This recipe was first published in the nineteenth century. While the game laws were in force unreformed, no one would have dared to admit that such a dish was ever made.

It is a stew or pottage rather than a soup in our terms and is a complete meal.

This recipe is given by Mrs Johnstone, who published The Cook and Housewife’s Manual in 1826 under the pseudonym Meg Dods of the Clerkum Inn, taken from Scott’s novel St Ronan’s Well.