mealful

plural mealsful

1. Enough for a meal.

   He’s luring the salmon to rise at the fly, / He’s catching the trout by the creelful; / He’s shooting the pheasant to put in the pie, / And of wild-duck he’s getting a mealful.

   1884 August 9, “The Member’s Nightmare”, in Vanity Fair: A Weekly Show of Political, Social, & Literary Wares, volume XXXII, London, page 95, column 1

   2 more examples

   The most startlingly dreadful was imitation mozzarella by Universal Foods Corp. of Madison, Wis. At the first bite, I felt my throat close in a protective reflex I should have respected. Much denser and more solid than the true, gently squeezable Italian original, the flavor of this imposter is metallic, saline, and medicinal; it was a flavor that only a mealful of chili-fired Thai food could eradicate.

   1977 February 3, Mimi Sheraton, “Fake Cheeses Rate ‘Yucks’”, in The Tennessean, volume 71, number 301, Nashville, Tenn., page 68, column 1

   When we admitted to her that we had never tasted squirrel, after dismissing the possibility of snagging a few in Central Park, where, we decided, they would be overindulged and not taste at all like their country cousins, Edna insisted that her brother in Virginia shoot a mealful of real Freetown squirrels and parcel-post them to us.

   2007, Judith Jones, “American Cooking”, in The Tenth Muse: My Life in Food, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, →ISBN, page 119