Green’s Dictionary of Slang

stew or porridge.

[1704		N. Ward ‘The Dutch-Guards Farewel to England’ in Writings (1704) 142: You’ve nothing so Good for a Dutchman to Eat, / As Burgooe, Red-herring, Dry’d Whiting and Scate].
1709		‘Barnaby Slush’ Navy Royal n.p.: [Seldom did my thoughts] soar one inch higher than the steam of my burgoo kettle.
1771		R. King New London Spy 131: [S]o far northward [...] that the burgoo has froze to the bowl.
1805		J. Davis Post Captain (1813) 6: We shall be obliged to breakfast on burgoo.
1818		‘A. Burton’ Adventures of Johnny Newcome II 76: Come, bear a fist, you Mess-boy, Sirrah! And hand us aft the Burgoo-stirrer!
1831		Navy at Home I 270: Toby would find the grog,half and half; and that the burgoo was excellent.
1837		Marryat Snarleyyow I 15: On the table [...] was a white wash-hand basin, nearly half full of burgoo, a composition of boiled oatmeal and water, very wholesome, and very hot.
1844		Lorain Republican (Elyria, OH) 30 Oct. 2/4: 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 near 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.
1850		Harper’s New Monthly Mag. II:7 Dec. 31: Burgoo, or skilligalee, is the sea-term for what is in Scotland is called ‘parrtich,’ and in Ireland ‘stirabout,’ namely, oatmeal boiled in water.
1867		W.H. Smyth Sailor’s Word-Bk (1991) 147: Burgoo. A seafaring dish made of boiled oat-meal seasoned with salt, butter, and sugar.
1871		C. Money Knocking About in N.Z. 112: We had pitched camp [...] and were boiling our billy of burgoo for tea.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 10 Jan. 10/1: No indigestion troubled you / Whose festive fare would be / That palatable dish, burgoo – / And eke the hominy.
1885		Mag. Amer. Hist. Jan. 98/2: Burgoo.—A Southern and Southwestern term akin to barbecue. [...] The feast, however, was furnished by hunters and fishermen—everything, fish, flesh, and fowl, being compounded into a vast stew [DA].
1887		Independent (Footscray, Vic.) 21 May 3/4: Then we have ‘Lob-do-minion,’ ‘Puny-um-jum,’ ‘Cracker Hash,’ ‘Burgoo’ (porridge).
1899		Ade Fables in Sl. (1902) 88: The Dramatic Editor of the Paducah Paper went to a Burgoo Picnic the Day the Actors came to Town.
1900		T.J. Hains Mr Trunnell Mate of the Ship ‘Pirate’ Ch. xxiv: The first burgoo eater what comes along the weather side o’ the poop while I’m on deck will go over the rail.
1904		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 5 Oct. 3/5: ‘Professor Porridge’ [...] is shortly to be matched in a burgo-eating match for the championship with Professor Quakerotez.
1905		Sun. Times (Perth) 8 Jan. 1/1: The inmates of a riverside girls boarding school have a perpetual hunger [and] the maidens are losing their plumpness and erubescence on the salt junk-burgoo regimen.
1914		Bulletin (Sydney) 27 Aug. 24/1: Old Mac., one of the wealthiest squatters in Hawkes Bay, coveted a certain rich slice. After pondering the thing he sent home to the land o’ burgoo for a number of gaudy rugs and blankets.
1917		W. Muir Observations of Orderly 229: A few other slang words which I have come across in the hospital, and which seem to me to bear the mark of the old army as distinct from the new are: [...] ‘burgoo,’ porridge.
1924		(con. WWI) A.G. Pretty Gloss. of Sl. [...] in the A.I.F. 1921–1924 (rev. t/s) n.p.: bergoo. Porridge.
1933		(ref. to 1890–1910) L.G.D. Acland Early Canterbury Runs (1951) 366: Burgoo – Sailors’ word for porridge. Here the word is applied to the oatmeal and water taken to the woolshed or harvest field to be drunk between smoke-ohs.
1938		J. Curtis They Drive by Night 282: I never known a bloke eat his burgew on the morning he’s going out before.
1940		Mail (Adelaide) 22 June 23/1: Members of the new A.I.F. have the same word as the old A.I.F. for porridge [...] burgoo .
1944		Chicago Daily News 4 May 21: Burgoo Stew [...] is such an old and ancient dish in Kentucky that no two people tell the same story of its origin [DA].
1945		Baker Aus. Lang. 82: Burgoo, oatmeal and water, taken to the woolshed or harvest field to be drunk during work.
1958		F.J. Hardy Four-Legged Lottery 46: 7 a.m., breakfast: dry porridge (burgoo, it is called).
1963		C. Wood ‘Spare’ in Cockade (1965) I ii: Twice as thick as a hot burgoo.
1971		(con. WWII) B. Aldiss Soldier Erect 183: I limped into the mess tent just in time to get the last cold ladleful of bergoo.
1981		(con. 1920s) P. Crosbie Your Dinner’s Poured Out! 155: The porridge we ate was made of Indian Meal or Yalla Male as it was called. Another name for it was Burgoo.
1984		B. Ellem Doing Time 37: During my research I was given a regulation breakfast: a plate of porridge known as ‘burgoo’, a mug of black tea, and a mixture of sugar and condensed milk.
1990		Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Burgoo. Prison porridge.
1997		Share Slanguage.