Obs. [a. OF. char (mod.F. chair):—L. carn-em flesh.]
1. Flesh, meat. (Only in French names of dishes.)
c. 1450. Courses of a Meal, in Eliz. Acad., 92. Graunte chare.
1461–83. Liber Niger Edw. IV., in Househ. Ord. (1790), 30. For his yoman … he taketh dayly, one payne, one messe gros chare [elsewhere ‘gret flessh,’ ‘great meat’].
2. ‘Flesh’ or pulp of fruit, as in the following:
† Chare de quince. Obs. Also 5 chardecoynes, -qweyns, charequynses, 6 chardequynce. [F. *chair de coings (OF. cooins) pulp of quinces: see QUINCE.] A preserve made of the pulp of quinces.
c. 1440. Douce MS. 55 fol. 28 b. In maner as men seth chare de quincys.
c. 1440. Anc. Cookery, in Househ. Ord. (1790), 455. A halfe pounde of chardecoynes.
1452. Marg. Paston, Lett., 182, I. 245. I pray yow that ye wol send me a booke wyth chardeqweyns that I may have or in the monynggs, for the eyeres be nat holsom in this town.
1469. Househ. Ord. (1790), 95. Empty pottes of grene gynger, bagges, bookes of charequynses, boxes of comfettes. Ibid., 103. Charequynses, 10lb. the boke, vs.—2l. 10s.
1513. Bk. Keruynge, in Babees Bk. (1868), 266. Loke ye haue in all seasons butter, chese, apples, peres, nottes … compost, grene gynger and chardequynce.
† Chare de wardon. Obs. A preserve made of the pulp of Warden pears.
a. 1422. Dinner to Hen. V., in Q. Eliz. Acad., 91.
c. 1425. 15th c. Cookery Bk. (Harl. MS. 279), § 34. Chardewardon.—Take Pere Wardonys, sethe hem in Wyne or in fayre Water.
Chare sb.5, obs. f. CHAR sb.3 a fish.
