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So called from the resemblance of this fatty extremity to the human nose, the expression parson’s nose designates the fatty extremity of the rump of a goose, fowl, etc., especially when prepared for the table.
The earlier synonymous expression pope’s nose was first recorded as follows by the English antiquary and lexicographer Francis Grose (1731-1791) in A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (London: Printed for S. Hooper, 1788):
Pope’s Nose. The rump of a turkey.
—Note: Similarly, so called from the resemblance of this circular area of fat to the human eye, the expression pope’s eye, dating back to the 17th century, designates a circular area of fat in the thigh of a sheep or other hoofed mammal, formerly regarded as a delicacy.—Cf., below, the expression pope’s eye in quotations 1 & 2.
—Cf. also:
– the French expression sot-l’y-laisse [literally: (the) fool leaves it there], designating the oyster-shaped piece of meat contained in a depression on each side of the pelvic bone of a fowl;
– the English nouns merrythought and wishbone, designating the furcula, i.e., the forked bone between the neck and breast of a bird.
These are, in chronological order, the earliest occurrences of the expression parson’s nose that I have found:
1-: From the column On Dits, published in the Kent & Essex Mercury (London, England) of Tuesday 3rd October 1826 [page 4, column 4]:
We hear it said that since a great personage has expressed his taste in so marked a way for the homely dish of bacon and greens, several eminent characters have affected to have similar predilections. Mr. Haynes affects green pea soup. Sir Mark Wood and Judge Kenrick have taken to hasty pudding. Love-apples are a favorite supper with the Duke of St. Alban’s and Mrs. Coutts. Mr. Peter Moore indulges in puffs. Rook-pie, roast pigeons, and flat fish, are the favorite dishes at the Fishmonger’s. Toad-in-the-hole is, we hear, the dish selected by the Scotch Admiralty Ultras. According to Sir C. Flower, nothing is equal to goose and sage sauce: while Sir P. Laurie decides in favor of saddle of mutton. Hughes Ball declares for vol-a-vent, as a compliment to Opera dancing. Flummery is a favorite dish with courtiers—trotters with gentlemen of the turf, and preserves with the country gentlemen. Messrs. Shiel and O’Connell rejoice in the Pope’s eye. A sheep’s eye is equally approved by the Rev. Messrs. Fletcher and Irving; while Dr. Owen vehemently declares for the gastronical [sic] luxury of a Parson’s nose.
2-: From The Masquerade Supper, a poem written on the occasion of “the Masquerade and splendid Venetian Carnival, which is to take place on Tuesday next, at the Royal Gardens, Brighton”, published in The Age (London, England) of Sunday 24th August 1828 [page 270, column 2]:
The Baron de Bœuf was called to the chair,
A Baron of portly sight;
Each guest was appointed a dish to serve,
According to rank and right:
Sir Loin was first chosen to rule the roast,
A round ruddy Monk the boil’d;
A pursy old Nun sat supreme of stews;
Old Nick was to fork the broil’d.The capons were under a Parson’s nose,
Old Jonah was head of fish;
A Pope’s-eye was seen in the legs of lambs,
But looking at every dish;
The turtle was under an Alderman’s thumb,
His finger was in the pies;
To goose and to cabbage a Tailor served;
A Lawyer the game supplies.[&c.]
3-: From The Tithes, published in The Atlas. A General Newspaper and Journal of Literature (London, England) of Sunday 7th February 1830 [page 89, column 1]:
The land, during the war, or under certain circumstances, could support three persons according to a style of living which they conceived to be their due—to wit, the farmer, the landlord, and the parson. Under the present circumstances, it can support only two out of the three. Well, say that the parson is excluded (or curtailed at least) as the interloper? What then hinders the other two from falling back to their old jog-trot way of settling matters? Nothing but the theory of the political economists, which, by a mathematical process, gives the landlord all he can get, and something more into the bargain. There are two persons sitting down to a roast pullet with greens and bacon; a knock is heard at the door, it is the clergyman of the place; they deny themselves to the new and uninvited guest, and finish their repast amicably, though the squire may be helped to the breast and wings, and the farmer be contented with the legs and parson’s nose. Had the rector been had in, there would have been enough for none of the party.
4-: From The Bill—And the Principles of the Bill, published in the Kentish Chronicle (Canterbury, Kent, England) of Tuesday 5th July 1831 [page 4, column 3]:
Why, no, saith the Reverend articler—for verily, if the agriculturist is reduced to his small beer and broiled bacon,—well in truth may it be doubted whether in his clerical capacity the reverend articler could then sport his wit inspiring burgundy, or sapience distilling claret! For when the agriculturist dies of want, the Parson’s tithe, like Pharoah’s lean kine, will be lean indeed: and his reverence, though a Tory, will have little cause to laugh, unless he can industriously scrape a little picking from the bare columns of his Gazette!
Ak [?] me at home, no more he’ll pick,
The Parson’s nose of tender chick!
5-: From The Western Coast of Africa. Journal of an Officer under Captain Owen. Records of a Voyage in the Ship Dryad, in 1830, 1831, and 1832. By Peter Leonard, Surgeon of the British Navy (Philadelphia: Edward C. Mielke, 1833) [chapter 3, page 69]:
At their balls, also, the society is, if possible, still less select. They are the “dignity” exhibitions of the West, which the few respectable females of the colony deprecate and avoid, and to which every sable goddess in the vicinity is necessarily pressed attendance. Ye gods! what would the delicate Medician nymph, of pure red and white, say—the tender fair who sips Nature’s distillation alone, and would shudder at the bare mention of the word “malt”—were she told—but I could not tell her—that an African beauty on these occasions, will drink five or six bottles of ale in the course of any evening?—that, at the supper table, if you ask her what part of a fowl you shall have the pleasure of sending her, she will perhaps tell you, “a leg and a wing, and de bubby part,”—meaning the breast, and that, if, for the sake of the joke, you accompany it with the parson’s nose, you will overturn her equanimity, and perhaps have the whole thrown at your head, or, at least, a volley of reproaches, together with several very equivocal allusions to your indelicacy.
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