05

Mar

Macaroon vs. Macaron

Macaroon vs. macaron.  Chunky coconut cookie vs. sophisticated French cookie.  These desserts strike me as so different it is hard to believe, but they actually share a common ancestor.  Both started out in Italy as flourless, unleavened cookies made from almond paste.  Then the evolution of the cookie split and took two simultaneous paths.  One path resulted in the substitution of shredded coconut for almond paste.  The other resulted in ground almond flour instead of almond paste.

The words both have their roots in ammaccare, which is Italian for “to crush”.  And if you think about it they aren’t so different from one another.  Both are meringue based and chewy deliciousness.

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01

Mar

Entrée

In French, an entrée is what comes just before the main course.  The word, just like hors d’oeuvre, was borrowed from music.  Entrée is the first suite of music, or the intro piece.  American’s once used this word correctly to mean an appetizer also.  But this was back before WWI when it was common for upper class Americans to eat a multi-course meal comprised of soup, an entrée, a main meal and dessert.  

During the war, rationing made it difficult for these Americans to follow this regiment and so the word entrée began to mean the main course.  Perhaps they were being sarcastic by calling their main course the ‘entrée’, or maybe they really though of what they were eating as their entrée.  Who knows?  But we do know that we use it in this way still today.  

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19

Feb

From Soup to Nuts

From soup to nuts is an expression meaning ‘from A to Z’.  But soup and nuts?  The origin comes from a full course meal in which you start with a soup and end with a dessert of nuts.  In Latin there is a similar expression, “ab ovo usque ad mala” meaning from egg to apple, reflecting the progression of courses for the Romans.

In the 1500s the English would say ‘from potage to cheese‘ depicting their meal sequence also.

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12

Feb

Toast to your health

The custom of toasting began with wishing good health to young maidens.  You would repeat their name and some sort of utterance of health as you sipped from your beverage.  The word toast to honor someone comes from the old tradition of flavoring drinks with spiced toast.  The honor was a metaphorical flavoring for your drink.

Spiced toast was often placed in the bottom of wine and beer way back in the day.  Not only did it spice the drink, it also soaked up the dregs from poorly filtered drinks.

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07

Feb

Brut

If a champagne is ‘brut‘ it means that it is dry and not sweet.  But wait.  Doesn’t sec mean dry in French?  What does brut mean? Brut actually means raw or crude.  To get an overview, let’s look at the different categories of sweet in sparkling wine or champagne.

  • Extra Brut (less than 6 grams of residual sugar per litre)
  • Brut (less than 12 grams)
  • Extra Dry (between 12 and 17 grams)
  • Sec (between 17 and 32 grams)
  • Demi-sec (between 32 and 50 grams)
  • Doux (50 grams)

Brut is more dry than extra dry.  Today, sparkling wine drinkers tend towards the drier end of the spectrum.  But that wasn’t always the case.  At the turn of the century, sparkling wine palates preferred the sec to demi-sec.  So when producers started making them even more dry they needed a new nomenclature, hence the brut and extra brut.  Raw suggests the Champagnes are in their natural state and indeed that is the idea, with there being very little sugar added.

It is like the Starbuck’s incident of tall being their smallest size.  At one point tall was….well…tall. Sec was once the driest but now it its middle of the road even though it means dry.

On a side note, our word brute for a person of lesser manners and intelligence comes from this word brut meaning raw and crude.

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06

Feb

Decant

Decant is a term left from the times of alchemy.  It came into use in French in the 1630’s.  It means “pour off the clear liquid from a solution by gently tipping the vessel”.  The second part of the word -cant comes from Medieval Latin canthus “corner, lip of a jug,” from Latin cantus, canthus “iron rim around a carriage wheel.”

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05

Feb

Lady Godiva

Who is this Lady Godiva?  And why is she riding this horse naked?  Her name was originally from Old English, spelled Godgifu or Godgyfu, meaning gift of God.  Godiva is the Latinized version of the word.  I’m going to spoil this story right up front for you.  The famous naked ride she took through the town is a legend.  Most agree that it never happened since nothing was written about it until after her death.  But non-the-less, it is a good story and one worth naming a chocolate company after.

Lady Godiva did exist.  She was the wife of powerful Nobleman Leofric of Coventry, England.  The legend says that the people of this town pleaded to Leofric to lower their taxes, but he paid no head.  Godiva then pleaded on their behalf.  Finally, Leofric made the offer that if she were to ride around town, midday, naked on a horse he would consider their pleas.  She did, but forbade the towns people to watch.  One man, now known as Peeping Tom, did not oblige her wish and was struck blind. After her ride their taxes were lowered.

Why this story was invented is unknown.  But it is a good one and has lasted through the test of time.

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28

Jan

Gewürztraminer

What is with this name?!  If you have a hard time pronouncing it, think about the sentence “Girls are meaner.”  This helps you role this tongue twister out of your mouth a little more readily.  Gewurztraminer literally means “spice traminer”.  Traminer is a family of grape from Tramin, Italy (a German speaking providence). This Gewurztraminer is a more spicy and aromatic grape of this family.

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17

Jan

Buffalo Wings

French toast doesn’t originate in France, nor do French fries for that matter.  But Buffalo wings actually has it right! (What?  You thought they were from buffalos?)  Yes, Buffalo, New York is the proud home of ‘wings’ as they are apt to call it.  They would never say ‘Buffalo wing’.  This is one story that ends the way it is supposed to. 

 

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15

Jan

Souffle

Vive le vent, vive le vent,
vive le vent d’hiver
qui s’en va sifflant, soufflant
dans les grands sapins verts.

Long live the wind, long live the wind,
Long live the winter wind,
Which goes whistling, blowing
In the big green Christmas trees!

These are the words to the French version of Jingle Bells.  Notice the word soufflant.  This is related to the popular french food, the souffle.  Souffler means ‘to blow up’.  This, of course, is exactly what a souffle does.  Sometimes not knowing is better.  Souffle used to sound elegant to me too.

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