Suggested contemporary picnic fare for jane Austen includes many dishes requiring extensive preparation. We know who does the eating, but who does the prepping and the cooking?
Broccoli (served hot or cold)
Salmagundi
Oysters, Stewed and in Loaves
A Pretty Dish of Eggs
Sliced hard-boiled eggs quick-fried in butter seasoned with salt, pepper, nutmeg, and a white wine sauce with shallots (served hot)
Wine-roasted Gammon
Veal or Venison ‘Cake’
Veal baked in layers of ham, hard-boiled eggs, and parsley
Pigeon Pie
Pigeon, ham, steak mushrooms, carrots, shallots, eggs in a puff pastry
Chicken Baskets (Patties of chicken in a pastry shell with a handle)
Gingerbread Cakes
See The Jane Austen Cookbook, Recipes by Maggie Black, and Introduction by Deidre Le Faye (London, 1995).