SAMPLE ENTRIES FROM DEVILSFOODDICTIONARY.COM:

8 January 2007

amuse-bouche  From the French word for "mouth," this is another name for the wind-up chattering plastic teeth sold in some novelty stores.
It is traditional in expensive French restaurants, on certain holidays, to glue a set of these teeth shut with caramelized sugar and then
 surreptitiously submerge them in a tureen of hot soup. When the soup melts the caramel, the teeth begin to chatter and bounce up and down
 in the dish, splashing the diners' clothing with soup. Both customers and staff find this very "amusing."

curing  A time-consuming process by which a food that started out raw (such as ham, cheese, or fish) is painstakingly brought to a stage at which it is uncooked.
millet  A tiny, protein-rich grain that is considered a staple in large areas of Asia and Africa. This is because a paste made of millet will firmly hold together the corners
of two sheets of paper, much like the metal staple better known to Westerners.
quinoa  A venerable South American grain named after the capital of Ecuador.
vitamins  A range of nutritious elements that were once found in many commonly eaten foods, then disappeared from nearly all commonly eaten foods for a while,
and are now once again found in commonly eaten foods by virtue of being added as supplements or genetically engineered into them. Originally
given women's names, like hurricanes, vitamins are currently designated by the letters A, B, C, D, E, and K, with the less-appetizing F, G, H, I, and J
understandably omitted. It goes without saying that foods from cultures that do not write in Roman letters, such as Chinese and Arabic, contain no vitamins.


11 January 2007

fish sauce  A condiment much used in Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines, made of the liquid from fermented fish. A similar concoction called garum
was a favorite of the ancient Romans. They carried it to the farthest fringes of their empire, where the Celtic tribes returned the favor by
creating a sauce made of the liquid from fermenting Romans. Fish sauce imparts a distinctly non-American character to any food,
and fans of beans 'n' franks, for example, or key lime pie, will find it an unwelcome addition to those dishes.
saffron  Tiny red filaments that lend both flavor and color to such celebrated dishes as France's bouillabaisse and the Italian risotto alla Milanese.
Perhaps the most famous vehicle for saffron is Spain's paella, which is fitting, since that country supplies most of the world's stock of the
ingredient. Saffron is often described as threadlike, but this is a misnomer, since it consists quite literally of threads. These come--either
by deliberate plucking or through abrasion due to wear-and-tear--from the stout crimson rope, hundreds of kilometers long, that traces the
traditional pilgrimage route honoring St. James and terminating in the Spanish city of Santiago de Compostela. By royal license
dating to medieval times, only the nuns of the Convent of Santa Zafarana are legally entitled to harvest saffron. But recent years have seen a
troubling rise in poaching, leaving the rope threadbare in spots, even to the point of periodic breakage. One well-publicized break in 1992
caused a group of Polish pilgrims to stray far off course, ending up at a topless nightclub just outside Bilbao.


15 January 2007

comfort food  1) Any type of food that you would prefer your friends did not see you enjoy; 2) the fortifying, familiar, and satisfying
fare that killed your grandparents. Note: Comfort food's opposite, discomfort food, is outlawed by the Geneva Conventions.
Parmesan cheese  A northern Italian cow's-milk cheese, popular on pasta, that becomes so dense and heavy with aging that it eventually cannot be
moved. A wheel of the most flavorful type, Parmigiano-Reggiano, is light enough to carry when first produced, but within a year it easily
tops the 11,000-pound mark, requiring storage facilities constructed atop pure bedrock. Transport is made possibly only by pulverizing
the cheese with a diamond-tipped grating device or some sort of explosive, and then shipping it in powdered form. Overall production of Parmesan
is low, since a single highly concentrated chunk provides a nearly inexhaustible supply: A single wheel allotted to the country of Canada
in the early 1970s, for example, is expected to meet the entire population's needs for at least ten more years.


19 January 2007

marshmallow  A puffy, pillowy sponge of springy stuff that, with all its sweet taste, snowy whiteness, and lovely melting qualities over
a campfire, cannot help but remind you of one thing or another. For an idea of just how insubstantial the average marshmallow
is with its air removed, consider the fact that only four times each year, the entire supply of marshmallows for the western
United States leaves the Pennsylvania factory in a single truck, compressed into a globe roughly the size of a basketball that
weighs some seven tons. Escorted by state troopers, the cargo makes its way to a mammoth warehouse outside of Denver,
where, in a kind of controlled detonation, the marshmallows are released for packaging and final distribution. The awesome
amount of energy unleashed in these sugary explosions has not gone unnoticed by scientists, who speculate that the
advent of the nonpolluting, marshmallow-powered automobile may be just around the corner.
ragù  A thick pasta sauce containing ground meat. The tomato-heavy version known as "Bolognese" is the world's most popular
pasta sauce and perhaps Italy's chief export. At one time an elaborate network of pipelines carried Bolognese sauce directly
 from the Emilia-Romagna region to nearly every European country. But the system was dismantled in 1983, after a leak in northern
Germany destroyed thousands of hectares of sensitive wetlands. Subsequent legislation mandated that all Bolognese sauce be biodegradable.


22 January 2007

citrus fruit  An often-hybridized family that includes oranges, grapefruit, lemons, limes, kumquats, clementines, citrons, tangerines, pomelos, tangelos, ugli
fruit, lemrons, graperines, citfruit, clemtangs, kumelos, pomorangs, limanges, quatfruit, grapelos, tangetrons, lemontines, ugclemps, kumerines,
limoquats, lemoquats, grapoquats, citroquats, clemoquats, pomoquats, tangoquats, ugliquats, quats, fruitfruit, pomrons, quadroons, poontangs,
ugli poontangs, pompoms, pomeranians, and sitcoms. Native to southern and southeastern Asia, they were first brought by Arab traders to Africa and
the Middle East, then made their way to Europe during the Arab occupation of Spain. Christopher Columbus carried citrus fruits to the New World,
hoping to trade them for gold, but was disappointed to find them already there, transported eons before by visitors from another galaxy. Faced with
the prospect of six tons of fruit rotting in his ship's hold, he attempted to  teach the making of refreshing ade drinks to the local Taino Indians, along
with the appropriate marketing skills. Alas, the natives lacked the entrepreneurial spirit, and the explorer's dream of a lucrative chain of lemonade
stands down the length of the island of Hispaniola never materialized. Columbus's supply of citrus fruit eventually spoiled, and he died a broken man,
having lost his zest for life.
fudge  A cloyingly sweet, pasty confection beloved by children. Fudge consists largely of sugar; its nutritional value is often enhanced by the addition
 of half a walnut. Fudge is made in many flavors, of which the most popular by far is chocolate. Tied for least popular are cartilage and WD-40®.


26 January 2007

celebrity chef  An accomplished chef who, because his food's prices have reached their conceivable upper limit, is forced to host TV series, appear on
culinary cruises, and open proxy establishments in Las Vegas in order to avoid income stagnation. Celebrity chefs are believed to have better
and more frequent sex than regular chefs.
eel Half fish and half snake (these proportions are reversed below the equator), the eel is a source of rich, succulent meat enjoyed by many
nationalities, though not Americans, who prefer peanut butter. Eels have notoriously slippery skin, and a good deal of expertise is
required when handling and butchering them. In countries such as Japan, the slime is removed mechanically, for use in the manufacture of okra.
egg  An ideal all-around food, the egg was first brought to Europe from the New World by 16th-century Spanish explorers. There it rapidly
replaced many venerable native European protein sources, such as pinecones in Greece and tapestries in the Flemish courts. Delicious
and adaptable to nearly any style of cooking, eggs sadly became extinct shortly after the First World War.


30 January 2007

shad  Past tense of shid.
smorgasbord  also smörgasbord; smorgäsbord; smorgasbörd; smörgasbörd; smörgäsbord; smorgäsbörd; smörgäsbörd; smörgäsbörrd

A lavish Swedish buffet traditionally consisting of four courses plus dessert. The first course is always herring, the undisputed king of Scandinavian

foods. This can include pickled, smoked, and/or fried herring, as well as pickled smoked herring, pickled fried herring, and fried smoked herring.
The second course moves on to other types of seafood, such as salmon in herring sauce, herring-smoked eels, and jellied sprats (a relative of the
herring). Third come meats such as veal and beef in various delectable forms, but the unpopularity of those dishes--owing to their lack of
herring--usually results in their being donated to Somali refugee centers. The fourth course features traditional hot dishes, such as sprat gratin
(herring can be substituted), baked onions stuffed with herring paste, and/or meatballs molded in the shape of a herring (or a sprat). The dessert lineup
is enshrined in tradition and unfailingly includes herringberry coffee cake, creamy cheesecake from which all herring (or sprat) bones have been
painstakingly removed, and s'mores, the chocolate-marshmallow-graham cracker confection after which the smorgasbord is named.
tuna  Perhaps the king of all edible saltwater fish, ranging in weight from the single digits to as much as a thousand pounds. Excellent raw, cooked in
any way, or canned, this sleek, majestic, powerful animal is so delicious that we have decided not to waste any of it on future generations.


2 February 2007

bacalao  A type of dried, salted cod popular in Italy, France, Spain, and the Caribbean. The flavor of this fish, after rehydration by long
soaking in water, is reminiscent of a combination of salt and cod.
fruits-and-vegetables  A highly decorative component of the food spectrum that many people find enjoyable, though it boasts only a fraction of the nutritive value of
meat or bran.
steak tartare  Also known as tarte Tatin, this is chopped or ground beef that is seasoned and served raw. The modern version is accompanied by parsley,
onions, and capers, but the dish's originators, the Central Asian Tartars (or Tatars), insisted that another of their own inventions, tartar sauce, was the
only appropriate condiment. Likewise, the only side dish they deemed suitable was a potato preparation called Tatar Tots, the recipe for which has
unfortunately been lost. Consumption of steak tartare by this nomadic people declined when it was found to contribute to high levels of dental tartar,
which the Tartars sought to remedy with a primitive kind of toothpaste containing cream of tartar, which, incidentally, contains neither cream nor Tartars.


6 February 2007

cooking  The intentional preparation of edible substances for human consumption. Dictionary definitions usually link cooking with the use
of heat, but this is misleading: A cook is likely to prepare many dishes that require no "cooking." Indeed, a cook who would cook a
dish such as sashimi, coleslaw, or trail mix would be considered a bad cook. Conversely, a rabbit that accidentally fell into a
 campfire could end up cooked, without anyone having cooked it! Such distinctions are a source of endless fascination for gourmets.
All known human cuisines can be seen as variations on three basic approaches, namely, French cooking, Chinese
cooking, and Indian cooking. The three are reducible to the following formulas:

FRENCH COOKING: Fry a thing in butter in a pan. Remove it and set it aside on a warm platter. Add wine to the hot pan and boil, stirring, to
thicken. Swirl an additional stick of butter into the reduced liquid, and pour the liquid over the fried thing. Serve with potatoes and wine; eat with silverware.
CHINESE COOKING: Cut a variety of colorful things into small pieces. Heat a large quantity of oil in a wok over high heat. Add the cut-up things
and stir frantically. Add cornstarch solution, stir again, and remove from the heat just before the colors fade. Serve with rice and tea; eat with chopsticks.
INDIAN COOKING: Heat one cup ghee in a pan. Add one cup chopped onions, one cup chopped garlic, one cup chopped vegetables and/or
meat, and one cup spices. Cook gently until liquefied. Serve with rice or bread and yogurt; eat with fingers.

Given the nearly limitless number of possible permutations and combinations of these cooking styles, it is easy to see why food
 writers deserve far higher wages than they are currently being paid.

squab  A very young, tender pigeon. Most squabs are slaughtered before they learn to fly, eliminating the possibility of their ever becoming

courier squabs. The amount of meat on a squab is meager, and disputes frequently erupt at the dinner table over the choicest morsels.
These conflicts are called squabbles.


9 February 2007

baguette  France's contribution to the world of yard-long, narrow cylindrical breads with crisp crusts, and a kind of universal symbol of
French culture. A truly good baguette is extremely rare outside France, probably because few other countries'
bicyclettes sport the kind of basket in which a baguette is most photogenic.
The seeming straightforwardness of this bread is deceptive: As many as 108 separate steps go into the production of a single
 high-quality baguette, some 60 of which are closely guarded secrets of the Brotherhood of Crumbs and Heels, a French guild in
 existence since the Middle Ages. At-home baking of baguettes is thus discouraged, as it invites both disappointing results and a visit during the night
by the Brotherhood's enforcers, known in France simply as "the men who inflict pain."
Unlike softer breads such as croissants and brioches, baguettes can form hazardously sharp, jagged edges when torn and must be
 handled with care, particularly around les enfants. When bicycling, always store a baguette in the basket or panier with the torn end downward.
spoon, wooden  A rudimentary utensil that was a fixture of every kitchen before the advent of the ladle. Yesteryear's cooks faced many hazards,
but perhaps the worst of them was the risk of poisoning due to splinters from wooden spoons that had come into contact with uncooked food.
Furthermore, since wood's ignition point is far below that of most foods, a wooden spoon was liable to simply burst into flames in the midst of
stirring, for example, a pot of cock-a-leekie. The wooden spoon's demise leaves the modern kitchen a far safer place, and it is unlikely to be missed. Relieved
cooks can now turn their attention to the hundreds of bleeding deaths caused annually by the jagged edges of torn baguettes.


12 February 2007

caviar  The edible roe of various fish, including sturgeon, lumpfish, and salmon. Caviar ranges in color and size from the tiny golden
Sterlet to the huge Beluga (up to 2 inches in diameter), the latter of which is the rare, jet-black egg of the Beluga whale. Caviar is highly
temperature-sensitive: If not kept on a bed of ice, the eggs have been known to hatch, quickly covering the buffet table with wriggling minnows.
Even so, the outer membrane is quite tough, making a well-maintained caviar slicer a must for entertaining.
fugu The Japanese name for any of the various blowfish or puffers. Fugu is considered a delicacy, but it is a hazardous one:
The liver and ovaries contain tetrodotoxin, a poison so potent that those organs must be removed before the fish can be served, preferably before it has
even been born. Most Japanese are aware that only an officially licensed person may do this; sadly, far fewer realize that the license in question should
apply specifically to preparation of fugu--a podiatrist's license, for example, or a manicurist's, will not do. Hundreds die each year as a result of this
all-too-common misunderstanding.
water  A clear, odorless fluid employed in cooking tofu "hot dogs." Water can also be used for diluting cocktails.


16 February 2007

Foody Guthrie  Called the "Poet Laureate of Potlikker" and the "Harmonizin' Homer of Hominy," folksinger Foody Guthrie (1905-1984) is
celebrated for his well-crafted, plain-spoken songs in praise of the American dinner table. Compositions such as "This Lamb Is Your Lamb,"
"Kaiser Roll On Columbia," and "So Long, It's Been Good to Know Ya Have Some Fish Sauce in the Pantry for When You're in the Mood
for a Stir-Fry" are pillars of the American folk music canon. Guthrie's son Merlot (b. 1946) is a famous musician in his own right, best known
for another food-related song, his 1967 hit, "Alicia's Luncheonette" ("Ain't a thing that you can't get / At Alicia's Luncheonette").
microwave oven  An adaptation of an outdated audio technology called the phonograph or record player, by which food placed on a rotating
turntable is cooked through exposure to a combination of whirring, rumbling, and beeping noises.


20 February 2007

cinnamon  A spice consisting of the reddish-brown, dried inner bark of a tree, which is often ground into powder. For centuries
the distinctive cinnamon taste was thought to be obtainable from only two types of tree, Cinnamomum zeylanicum and Cinnamomum
cassia, and indeed, the fates of nations have hinged on trade in this commodity, with countless lives lost. The recent discovery that
the inner bark of virtually every tree tastes like cinnamon came as a bitter disappointment to many in the spice business.

clove A nail-shaped, brown flower bud used whole or ground as a spice. Individual cloves have a powerful magnetic charge

and, if not handled carefully, will collect in hard-to-manage clumps. They can be kept apart by jamming them firmly into a canned ham.
peppercorn  Once a rare commodity worth their weight in gold, peppercorns are now so plentiful that they constitute as much
as 18 percent of some urban landfills. They are considered highly peppery and contain no corn.


23 February 2007

confit  Most commonly, a piece of meat or poultry, such as a duck leg, that has been seasoned and then cooked slowly in its own
fat. The meat is cooled in the fat and left there, preserving it and enhancing its flavor. Confit is in greater demand among the svelte people of France
than on this side of the Atlantic, since at least one pair of legs encased in their own fat is already a feature of nearly every American household.

France The celebrated European homeland of a people known for their preoccupation with food. Before the arrival of the modern

French, the area was occupied by Celts, called "Gauls" by their Roman rulers. Not surprisingly, this period constituted France's gastronomical
Dark Ages (the Celts' only known sauce at the time was an emulsion of milk and wool). And indeed, the Celts, eventually driven northwestward,
would add to their portfolio by stunting the culinary development of at least four more countries, while attempting to make up for it with their catchy
music. The French talent for both preparing and enjoying food is legendary, and it is a given among scholars that French cooking might well
have become the world's gold standard, if only the Chinese had never been invented.


27 February 2007

broccoli  A nutritious, dark-green cool-weather vegetable related to cabbage. Individual stalks of broccoli bear a strong resemblance to
miniature trees, each with a central "trunk" and an upper portion that looks like a very dense cluster of leafy branches. Despite
this similarity, it is not true that they can be tapped with tiny spigots to make "broccoli syrup."
maize An intricate, intentionally confusing network of pathways cut into a field of corn.
vanilla The other flavor besides chocolate and strawberry. Vanilla begins as a thin sap tapped from Madagascar's vanilla trees in the
still-snowy days of early spring, which is then reduced to its familiar concentration by hours of boiling. This liquid figures so prominently
in Madagascarian culture that the national hockey team is called the Antananarivo Vanilla Leafs, and a vanilla leaf adorns the national flag.


2 March 2007

cooking oil  Since time immemorial, foods have been cooked in oils that occur naturally in various plants, nuts, seeds, etc. These oils--from common
ones such as canola, olive, coconut, corn, almond, sunflower, sesame, and peanut to lesser-known types like dandelion and plywood
oil--are extracted either through chemical methods or by a combination of heat and pressure. In their unadulterated state they
differ greatly in taste, aroma, and other properties, and the conscientious cook owes it to him/herself to know these differences.
What home cooks seldom realize, however, is that all cooking oils (and indeed animal fats as well) are so similar in molecular
structure that they are easily convertible from one type to another. The following recipes will enable a cook of any skill level to perform
some of the most useful oil and fat conversions:

CORN OIL INTO CANOLA OIL: Soak 2 large canolas (approx. 3 pounds each) overnight in 1 gallon of corn oil. Remove the
canolas and stir in 3 drops of Dr. Scholl's Corn Remover and 1/2 teaspoon of dry vermouth. Makes 2 gallons.
SUNFLOWER OIL INTO TOASTED SESAME OIL: Line a colander with 4 layers of cheesecloth. Fill it to the brim with raw sesame
seeds, and filter 1/2 gallon of sunflower oil through the seeds into a saucepan. Warm the oil over medium heat. NOTE: For
color, flavor, and aroma (optional), use a cotton swab to scour the remaining 2-3 drops from a nearly empty sesame oil bottle.
Wring the sesame oil from the cotton tip into the pan. Mix well and let cool.
CRISCO® SHORTENING INTO EXTRA-VIRGIN OLIVE OIL: Liquefy 1 can of shortening in a food processor. Add 1 bunch
of organic Italian flat-leaf parsley and a jar of pimiento-stuffed olives (well drained). Pulse until transparent.
COCONUT OIL INTO LARD: Soak 5 pounds of sweet potatoes in 3 quarts of coconut oil. Sprinkle 2 cups of dark brown sugar and
1/2 pound of golden raisins over the mixture. Feed every day for 6 to 7 months. Butcher and render by the standard methods.


6 March 2007

omelet pan  A pan somewhat larger than an omelet, often with an omelet in it.
omelet-and-sausage pan A pan somewhat larger than an OMELET PAN, but smaller than an OMELET-SAUSAGE-AND-FRIED-POTATOES PAN.
lobster Probably the best-known member of the lobster family, and very likely the animal after which that family is named. The lobster is a
crustacean, with flesh as succulent as--and to some people more delicious than--that of its cousin the prawn. But getting to that meat, while
rewarding, can be difficult: As a defense mechanism, the lobster adopts a "playing dead" posture after about five minutes in rapidly boiling water,
including a chameleonlike change in the color of its shell. It is said to be capable of maintaining this immobile state almost indefinitely.
Early European arrivals in North America reported finding lobsters six feet in length along the northern Atlantic Coast.
The lobsters, on the other hand, put the colonists at about five-foot-six, tops.

16 March 2007

fig Known as "Nature's racy metaphor," the fig is a luscious tree fruit that, at its ripest and most succulent, has a disreputable air of
wantonness and sensuality. Figs can be dried into a tasty, durable snack food or incorporated, either dried or fresh, into works of fiction.
Adam and Eve are said to have employed fig leaves to "cover their shame" after their expulsion from Eden. Sometime later, their son Cain murdered
his brother Abel after the latter publicly joked that a whole leaf was not necessary to cover Cain's shame, but merely a single fig.
genetically engineered foods Food plants or animals subjected to innovative scientific techniques that introduce characteristics across
species lines, in ways that could not occur under natural conditions. Genetic engineering began as a response to widespread complaints
from consumers that supermarket tomatoes simply didn't contain enough flounder genes. Obliging researchers soon remedied that problem,
and by the first few years of the 21st century the list of GE (also called GM, genetically modified) foods had expanded to include canola, corn,
papaya, soybeans, beets, and even salmon. Sadly, the march toward the glorious future promised by genetic engineering was interrupted in
November 2006, when all the scientists involved were suddenly transported by legions of cackling, scaly demons straight to Hell.


20 March 2007

Marx, Groucho American comedian (1895-1977) who, when inviting the blond bombshell up to his room in the film
A Day at the Races (1937) with the line, "We could have a midnight snack--a nice little steak between us," may not have been referring to beef.

orzo A type of small pasta named after the least-known of cinema's Marx Brothers, who was reportedly very fond of it. Ira "Orzo" Marx died in 1963.

terroir Properties of a particular plot of land or region that are thought to influence the character of that land's animal and vegetable products. Many
factors influence terroir, including soil acidity, average annual precipitation (the so-called "rain of terroir"), and proximity to Chernobyl.


23 March 2007

Irish stew An earthy traditional dish based on a small number of basic ingredients, namely potatoes, onions, and mutton. Irish
stew is known for the narrow band of the color spectrum that it occupies, extending from, roughly, whitish to grayish. It
was not always this drab: The original version, believed to have migrated with the Celts from the south of France,
featured more colorful ingredients, but the loss of these to successive famines necessitated the substitution of
whatever products remained available, however dreary in appearance. The potato, for example, was introduced only
in the wake of the Great Tomato Famine of 1712. The ruinous 1779 Great Fish Famine, followed by the devastating Great
Shellfish Famine two years later, led to mutton's inclusion in place of a rich assortment of seafood. Onions found their way into
the recipe after the catastrophic Great Garlic Famine of 1825. Even salt and pepper might not have entered the picture had it not been for the
Great White Wine and Saffron Famine of 1839. As for olive oil, lost to its own famine in the mid-1840s, it was simply never replaced.
As if Ireland had not suffered enough, one final indignity remained, in the form of the Great Dishware Famine of 1882, which forced
peasants to eat the now-pallid stew out of their bare hands. For many of them this was the last straw, and a final wave of emigration
left the island nearly uninhabited. Happily, conditions are much improved since then, and Ireland and its people are now optimistic, prosperous,
and well fed. In a holdover from leaner times, however, it is still customary for foreign visitors to that country to pack a lunch.


27 March 2007

pâté A cooked sausage that is not stuffed into a casing. Experts in topology, a branch of mathematics related to geometry, tell us
that in the absence of external boundaries delineated by a casing, a pâté could be produced that is, at least hypothetically speaking, infinitely
large. All agree that this would be difficult to do. Probably not as difficult, though, as breeding an infinitely large CORNICHON to serve on the side.
cornichon The dyspeptic runt of the pickle world. Cornichons are pimply, anemic, laughably puny cucumbers that undergo a painstaking
process of marination aimed at replacing any discernible flavor with a monochromatic sourness. They are considered a flattering accompaniment to
PÂTÉ, as well as various meats and fish. In fact, it is fair to say that after a bite of cornichon, nearly anything will taste delicious, even GNOCCHI made with LINT.
lint A common household substance that is rarely, if ever, used to make GNOCCHI.
gnocchi Small Italian dumplings that can be made of potatoes or flour, but rarely, if ever, of such ingredients as LINT. People with
highly discerning palates are said to be able to distinguish between good gnocchi and bad ones.


30 March 2007

tea A beverage made by steeping leaves of the shrub Camellia sinensis in hot water. Tea is available in a wide variety of types,
but the precise correspondence between flavor and price can be difficult to determine. For example, a very rare Asian tea, worth
hundreds of dollars a pound, may have virtually no taste at all, although it does boast a lovely fragrance and lends the water an
attractive weedy tint. The more robust "black" tea, frequently drunk with milk and sugar, has been a staple of life in Great
Britain since the 18th century, often constituting the very first drink an Englishman reached for after his morning gin-and-tonic.
tisane A popular type of steeped beverage that Americans call "herb tea." Tisanes contain flowers, spices, and other
herbaceous ingredients (known in culinary circles as "lawn clippings"), but no actual tea leaves and thus no caffeine.
This provides an effective safeguard against flavor, alertness, and scintillating conversation.
X The number of ingredients in the ancient Romans' famous Ten-Ingredient Casserole.


6 April 2007

caramel A sweet, sticky brown substance that oozes from the skin of an apple and provides a water- and shock-resistant
shield for the crisp, juicy interior. The fruit's natural caramel coating can make it messy to hold; remedies for this include
wrapping the apple in a dry, nontoxic jacket of chopped nuts and inserting a stick into its core.
polenta A finely ground northern Italian cornmeal mush that was little known by Americans before 1937, the year blues singer
Leadbelly recorded his million-selling "Po-Lenter (Where You Been So Long?)." It has remained little-known ever since.
sweet, sour, salty, bitter  Once considered, simply, the four flavors, these underwent a change in status following the Western world's discovery
of umami, the so-called fifth flavor. They are now correctly referred to as "the first four flavors," "the four Caucasian flavors," or "umami's little helpers."


10 April 2007

barbecue An extremely vague term for one or another of several approaches to cooking one or another type of food, usually
meat except when it is something else, which make use of one or another cooking technique that most often involves smoke, though not
always, and in which a sauce of one sort or another plays either an essential, a prominent, or a negligible role. Barbecue has a nearly fanatical
following in North America, particularly in the southern United States, where it carries a lore rich in history, culture, and the sort of factionalism
that can often lead to gunplay. Indeed, history documents some legendary feuds over what constituted "authentic" barbecue, most of which
ended with the victors slowly roasting their vanquished enemies over hickory, cherry, or mesquite embers (depending on the state where the
conflict took place) and then basting or dipping them in a sauce that was either sweet, vinegary, or spicy (also depending on location),
and serving them with white bread at stock-car races.
jerk seasoning A spice blend from Jamaica, used to flavor grilled meat and poultry. It is named for its inventor, Chef Winston Walcott (1892-
1961) of Kingston's Palm Grove Hotel, who was, by all accounts, "a real jerk."
Swede A globular root vegetable named after the rutabaga. Famous rutabagas have included Alfred Nobel and the filmmaker Ingmar Bergman.


13 April 2007

appetizer; starter The first course of a meal and, in better restaurants, the one most likely to be smaller than its garnish.
hors d'oeuvre An appetizer that is eaten standing up.
entrée A French word whose definition differs from one region of the world to another. In the United States, for example, it is applied to the
main course of a meal, while in certain areas of the Pacific Ocean, among certain large seagoing mammals, it refers to vast shoals of krill.
snack A small quantity of food eaten at any hour of the day or night, not for enjoyment or the fulfillment of some kind of craving, but strictly in
the interest of good health: A stomach not kept in a state of continual readiness by frequent snacking may prove incapable of efficiently
digesting the upcoming meal. Of all the types of food that can be used to accomplish this, the category most highly recommended by scientists
is "crisp, salty fried things in a bag."


17 April 2007

salt  The nearly universal food seasoning, a crystal found both in vast underground deposits and dissolved in seawater, and a nutrient necessary
to human life. The word salary is derived from the Latin word for salt, owing to the salty tears shed by Roman centurions every payday when
they realized how little of their pay remained once deductions were made to buy food seasonings. The words salad, salami, and sauce also
have "salt" as their root. Salesgirl, saloon, and sailfish do not.
Salt is celebrated as a food preservative as well as a flavoring agent. Indeed, many items purchased from fast-food restaurants are so intensely
salty that an unaccustomed eater would find them inedible, which would result in their preservation, probably in the original packaging. Overall,
salt is of vital importance to the fast-food industry, whose fare, in the absence of generous salting, would taste like what it is actually made of.
For the home cook, salt is simple to use and presents few challenges. Those doing the eating, on the other hand, face a trickier situation: Care must
be taken not to invert the salt shaker before it is positioned directly above the food to be seasoned. Stains to clothing or tablecloths from spilled
salt are removable only by vigorous rubbing with mulberry juice or a paste made of turmeric and red wine. Preempt the creation of salt marks in the
first place by having a magnet handy for picking up stray grains before they have a chance to stain.


20 April 2007

focaccia  An oiled, salted Italian bread whose name would be much harder to pronounce if it were spelled cfacciocai.
foie gras The greatly enlarged liver of a duck or goose that has been force-fed for four to five months. Rich and delicious, foie gras underwent a
decline in popularity at the beginning of the 21st century due to the efforts of animal rights activists, only to have its fortunes reversed when a
French veterinarian produced a duck liver so large it could be transplanted into human beings.
mandoline A device for thinly slicing vegetables. Favored by French cooks, this is one of a large body of culinary materials whose names evoke
musical associations. They include the Italian chitarra (a pasta-making apparatus), the champagne flute, fiddlehead ferns, chicken drumsticks,
'cellophane noodles, bell peppers, key limes, organ meats, and, of course, beans ("the musical fruit").



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