Burgoo (1806, 1844, 1846, 1850)

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   I was asked about "burgoo."
   DARE has 1830 for the "oatmeal-like gruel," and 1853 for the stew we now associate with Kentucky.  I think the latter was requested, so I'll give that first.


(ANCESTRY.COM)
   30 October 1844, LORAIN REPUBLICAN (Elyria, Ohio), pg. 2, col. 4:
      LEXINGTON (Kentucky--ed.), Sept. 3rd, 1841.
   Sir:--Your letter of the 2d of September, last, was handed me from the Post Office.  In it you say:  Having heard that I was present at a _burgoo feast_ neat Lexington, on the of 4th July, 1843, at which Mr. Clay was a guest, you request me to state whether he (Mr. Clay) played cards on that occasion _for money_.


(MAKING OF AMERICA-CORNELL; AMERICAN PERIODICAL SERIES)
  PAPERS OF AN OLD DARTMOOR PRISONER.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE. The United States Magazine, and Democratic Review (1837-1851). New York: May 1846. Vol. 18, Iss. 95; p. 360 (9 pages)
Pg. 365:
  The cries of "hot plum-gudgeons! who'll buy a plum-gudgeon? hot freco! hot freco! lobscouse, nice and hot! hot coffee! hot coffee! burgoo, nice burgoo!" were continually resounding through the prisons.  Some of these dainties have, I dare say, never before been heard of by my readers; and, for their instruction, as they are not to be found in any cook's oracle, from Mrs. Glass down to Dr. Kitchener, I will explain them.   Plum-gudgeon was a compound of salt fish and potatoes, or rather of potatoes and fish; for the fish was something liek a grain of wheat in a bushel of chaff; you might search all day till you found it, and then it was not worth the trouble of the search.   This mass formed into obtuse pointed cones, about as large as a tea-saucer, and fried in a little, very little butter.  Each plum-gudgeon solf for a penny, and made a very decent mess for breakfast.  Freco was a stew, made of the marron and fat of bones, boiled out, with a few small pieces of meat and some potatoes, and thickened with barley; water being, by an almost infinite degree, the predominant ingredient.   When well and cleanly made, it was not unpalatable, and a pint might be bought for two pence.  Lobscouse was a thicker stew, made with a larger proportion of meat, part of which had been salted, and it sold at about double the price of freco.  Burgoo is, I believe, better known; it is a hasty-pudding made of oat-meal, and eaten with butter or molasses, called, in Dartmoor, "trickles" a corruption of treacle.   Coffee, or rather a pretty good substitute for it, was made from burnt peas, or burnt crusts of bread;and as it required little capital, besides a kettle and a tin-pot, to set up a coffee-merchant, and as the beverage was much in demand, it was the occupation, and a thriving one, too, of a great many of the prisoners.


(AMERICAN PERIODICAL SERIES)
Selected poetry
J F Stanfield. The Weekly Visitant; Moral, Poetical, Humorous, &c. (1806-1806). Salem: Dec 1806. Vol. 1, Iss. 000048; p. 383 (2 pages)
Pg. 384:
(...)
To go down below I expressed a great wish--
Where they live under water like so many fish:
I was put in the mess with some more of the crew;
But they said 'twas Banyan day--so gave me burgoo:


(MAKING OF AMERICA--CORNELL)
Rattlin The Reefer's Dream: pp. 31-35
p. 31 2 matches of 'burgoo'
 in: Title: Harper's new monthly magazine. / Volume 2, Issue 7
Publisher: Harper & Bros. Publication Date: December 1850
  *Burgoo, or skilligalee, is the sea-term for what is in Scotland is called "parrtich," and in Ireland "stirabout," namely, oatmeal boiled in water.