Parson’s Nose

Appears in
Oxford Companion to Food

By Alan Davidson

Published 2014

  • About

parson’s nose has been described with her usual lucidity by Theodora FitzGibbon (1976):

a colloquial English expression for the small fatty joint which holds the tail feathers of poultry. When well crisped after roasting, it is considered a tasty morsel by some people. When the bird concerned is a cooked goose or duck rather than a turkey or a chicken, the joint is called ‘the pope’s nose,’ although, in a general way, Protestant communities are said to use the latter expression and Catholic communities the former!