"At this early date, mete or meat was not restricted in meaning to flesh. It was used to to refer food generally.”

I’m sure this is as coals to Newcastle, or words to Murray, but I’ll mete out a footnote of sorts: Scandinavians still say “takk for maten,” “Thank you for the meal.” This must surely be from the original sense of mat/meat as food generally not just viands.

I’ve been interested to continue encountering “funeral baked meats” in British usage as a sort of term of art for the food following a funeral; in some parts of the U S South people call that “repast,” which I think a lovely survival.

..... “repast,” which I think a lovely survival.

Welcome, offhandmanor --- you don’t sound lke a troll, at any rate.

I think Syntinen Laulu’s “gobbets” is an even lovelier survival. Whenever I see or hear that word (not nearly often enough!), i’m already salivating, even before reaching the second syllable ;-)

"Gobbets” always makes me think of the episode of M*A*S*H, in which Radar reads poetry to a nurse who is attracted to him.  He somehow selects “A Channel Passage” by Rupert Brooke, which describes the poet’s thinking of his beloved in an attempt to ward or seasickness--unsuccessfully. “Brown gobbets up I throw”.

I think Syntinen Laulu’s “gobbets” is an even lovelier survival.

I love medieval cookery terms altogether. Words like ‘trap’ for a baking dish, ‘coffin’ for a pie crust, and ‘meddle’ meaning ‘mix’.  ‘Do hym in a trap, medle hym, bake and serve hym forth’.

Syntinen Laulu: I’m slavering already. A pie-crust for a coffin would suit me just fine ;-) (I’m sure the worms would love it, too - Lionello au naturel, with flaky pastry, please)

Dr. Techie: I enjoyed (won’t say savoured) the Brooke sonnet, too (didn’t know it before you brought it up - no pun intended). But I have tough guts - it would take more than Rupert’s “brown gobbets” and “acrid return and slimy” to turn my stomach.  I even read without (well, almost without) a qualm what the starving Union prisoners in a Confederate prison camp were reduced to eating (M. Kantor, Andersonville).