Copyright 2005 by Jeff Suzuki
When I was starting in Carolingia, you couldn't get people to take up heavy list with a stick. The Carolingian Pike Company was the "official" army of Carolingia, and consisted of its Captain and a few other fighters. Of course, such a group had to have a marching song, and the Captain (I won't mention his name, as he has subsequently gone on to politics in the real world, and I don't want to bring up any potentially detrimental associations) wrote "The Pike Company Atrocity Song" to "Men of Harlech". As it's not mine, I won't post it (nor do I know where it can be found).
I had "Men of Harlech" on my mind, and in the free association phase of my filking, this mutated into "Cooks of Garlic", and thence to the idea of a cooking song. After several permutations, here's what emerged. The tune is "Men of Harlech", which might be a period tune (it falls into the vague "traditional" dating).
The tune is Men of Harlech.
Mince the garlic, boil the marrow! Get me two cups tongue of sparrow! Cut the lozenge thin and narrow! Hear them coming down! Tis the tramp of hungry fencers, Hungry fighters, hungry dancers, Be they knights or knaves or masters, We will feed them now! Meat they'll want aplenty! They won't eat frumenty! The table's high with piled up pie And bread and cheese and hedgehogs for one twenty! Pile on saffron, pile on garlic, Don't use rue--it's rather toxic, Add some nutmeg, mace and and turmeric, Boldly serve it forth!