A Dictionary of Food

Dictionary of

Food

Dictionary of

Food

International Food and Cooking

Terms from A to Z

Second Edition

Charles Sinclair

A & C Black London

Alyson Cole, Eri Eguchi, Magda Hughes, Sarah Lusznat,

Diane Nicholls, Helen Szirtes, Maureen Teulier

Katy McAdam, Joel Adams, Heather Bateman, Emma Harris

First edition published 1998

as International Dictionary of Food and Cooking

Reprinted 1999

Second edition published 2004 as A Cook’s Dictionary

This paperback edition published 2005

A & C Black Publishers Ltd

37 Soho Square, London W1D 3QZ

©Charles Sinclair 1998

©Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 2004

©A & C Black Publishers Ltd 2005

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publishers.

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library.

eISBN-13: 978-1-4081-0218-3

1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2

A & C Black uses paper produced with elemental chlorine-free pulp, harvested from managed sustainable forests.

Text processed and typeset by A & C Black

Printed and bound in Italy by Legoprint

The language of English cuisine is unusual in that it uses many words of foreign origin, often in their original spelling. The purpose of this dictionary is to give short definitions of these words so that both the practising chef and the amateur enthusiast, the gastronome and the student may quickly determine the meaning. It is not a recipe book or a repertoire, but it does give the ingredients of classic and well-known dishes, together with a brief summary of the cooking processes. A picture of a chef’s hat indicates dishes that the professional or amateur cook could, after a little experimentation, roughly reproduce.

As in all dictionaries, the compiler has had to be selective in the words chosen for inclusion. Even so, the dictionary lists over 24,000 words, of which very few are not in current use somewhere in the English-speaking world. Some entries have been included for historical reasons and the browser will find much of interest. Classic dishes, ingredients, cooking processes, cooking implements and equipment, descriptions of function and details of service are included as well as scientific, botanical, medical, technological, hygienic and nutritional terms. Many single words appertaining to the catering industry from the countries of the European Union are translated, and the dictionary is of use in translating menu items not included. Drinks, wines and spirits are not included except where they are used as flavourings in food and food preparation.

Order of entries

All words are listed in strict alphabetical order, ignoring spaces or hyphens. Thus

comes after and after . Numbers come before letters, so E-numbers such as and come before and . Accented characters are assumed to follow the unaccented characters which they resemble. Thus comes before or , for example.

Verbs are listed as and , for example.

The names of many items in the French repertoire have been taken over wholesale into the English language. For example, is known as , often retaining the French acute accent, and for this reason – and to avoid making the entries too repetitious – this type of entry is listed in reverse order of the words in the dictionary. Thus

	would appear under the heading			; other examples are
	and	. Similar examples occur with whole classes of French
names such as	(butter),	(garnish),	,	(soup),		,
etc. Phrases from French and other European languages beginning with					, ,	, , etc.
are also listed in reverse order:

France An unglazed earthenware cooking pot in two symmetrical halves which when put together resembles a ball with two flat sides and a long handle. Used for cooking chestnuts and vegetables without water either in the oven or on top of the stove. Can be shaken and turned over for even cooking. Kidneys or poussins, split, flattened, grilled and served with sauce diable

France Strongly flavoured with a selection of Worcestershire and Tabasco sauces, mustard, cayenne pepper and vinegar. Also called

England, France A reduction of chopped shallots, white wine, vinegar, cayenne pepper and mignonette pepper simmered with demi-glace, strained and seasoned. Served with fried or grilled fish or meat. Also called

France see

Mexico, Spain Devilled, hot and spicy

France Cheese-flavoured croûtons Christmas crackers

Regional and national dishes

The country or region of origin of words or phrases, if important or not obvious from the definition, is given immediately after the entry. Where a dish is of some regional origin within a country, the region will usually be indicated in the text, whereas the name of the country will be given after the entry:

England A shortcrust pastry incorporating an amount of dried vine fruits equal in weight to the fat, often used for meat or bird pies (NOTE: Figgy is the West Country term for dried vine fruits)

Similarly, where a country is contained within a larger grouping such as Central Europe or West Africa, the text will indicate the country of origin. This style is only used where there are relatively few entries for the country. An exception is made for the original four kingdoms which made up the British Isles: these are treated as separate countries, i.e. England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.

Terms from French and other cuisines which are also used in English cookery are labelled

England, France, for example.

Recipes

In some of the entries, outline recipes are given together with quantities of key ingredients. The usual method of giving quantities is to give the relative proportions by weight in brackets after the list of ingredients. Thus for example is defined as ‘Flour, butter, caster sugar and eggs (2:1:3:5) made up…’ This could be 4 oz of flour, 2 oz of butter, 6 oz of caster sugar and 5 eggs (recalling that a standard egg weighs 2 oz or 60g), or alternatively in metric measure, 24g of flour, 12g of butter and 36g of caster sugar to each egg.

All cooking temperatures are given in °C (degrees centigrade or Celsius). Equivalents in other units (°F or gas mark) can be found in any reasonable recipe book.

Transliteration

The transliterations used from the Greek, Russian, Southeast Asian, Chinese, etc. languages are those adopted in the English translations of the original dishes and terms. Different authorities give different transliterations and, where several are in common use for the same dish, they are all given in their correct alphabetical order, referring back or forwards to the main entry. Chinese terms are transliterated in a variety of ways from either Cantonese or Mandarin according to the source of the entry. Accents indicating tones are not shown for Chinese transliterations, hence they give only a very rough approximation of the spoken word.

Every compiler of a dictionary is indebted to so many written sources that it would be impossible to list them all. Most of the extant dictionaries and encyclopedias of food have been consulted and many hundreds of cookbooks trawled. Quite a few errors in the published literature have been spotted and corrected but it is inevitable that some will not have been detected and it is hoped that correspondents will point these out.

I am eternally indebted to those persons who first inspired me to undertake this work and to those who have given so freely of their time to correct the spellings and definitions of foreign terms. In chronological order, these are Gareth Burgess, at that time Head of the Catering and Hospitality Department of City College, Manchester, whose encouragement and practical help were given freely when it was most needed, and my agent, Chelsey Fox, whose efforts on my behalf were most welcome. The publisher of the first edition, Peter Collin, was a tower of strength and his continuous guidance, help and assistance eased the long path from first to last draft. Faye Carney, the editor for the second edition, and her staff have been extremely helpful and Faye Carney in particular has made many suggestions for improving the dictionary. Lecturing staff and former lecturing staff at the City College, Manchester, in particular Gordon Fotheringham, Mary Cork and Anthony Fallon, have been unstinting in giving me the benefit of their knowledge and experience.

I wish to pay tribute to those students and friends at UMIST and from all over the world who have corrected the entries in their respective mother tongues. Without their help the errors in this dictionary would have been legion; as it is, the ones that remain are solely my responsibility.

In alphabetical order of surname, they are:

Norhafizah Abdullah, Lee Abrams, Cornelia Allen, Christine Biermann, Bao-Dong Chen, Jan Cilliers, George Devarkos, Rosa Maria Dominguez, Tom Dyskowska, Amer El-Hamouz, Claudia Aguilar Garcia, Vipa Jayranaiwachira, Dilys Jones, Brahim and Mrs H. Khalfaoui, Jiri Klemes, Claudia Konscaq, Joan and Bjorn Kristiansen, Asher Kyperstock, Gen Larssen, Nityamo Lian, Emma Marigliano, Ferda Mavituna, David Miller, Gunnar Munksgaard, Mehdi Nemati, Claire O’Beirne, Severino Pandiella, Megan Sinclair, Amita Sitomurni (Adji), David Webb

And finally to my good lady bed companion, Pamela Davis, for whose tolerance and support over the many years that it took to compile, check and type this dictionary I owe an irredeemable debt of gratitude.

° deg	degree centigrade	lb	pound weight
	(Celsius)	m	metre
cm	centimetre	mm	millimetre
deg	degree Fahrenheit	oz	ounce
e.g.	for example	spp.	species
esp.	especially	subsp.	subspecies (in botanical
f	form (in botanical		names)
	names)	var.	variety (in botanical
g	gram		names)
GM	gas mark	x	botanical cross
i.e.	that is to say	>	greater than
kg	kilogram	<	less than

ABCDEFG

AA See arachidonic acid

aachar Indonesia, South Asia Shredded cabbage and other vegetables. See also acar

aahaar Nepal Food aal Netherlands Eel Aal Germany Eel

Aalquappe Germany Eel pout Aalsuppe Germany Eel soup aam South Asia Ripe mango

aamchur South Asia A flavouring similar made from unripe mango. See also amchoor

aam ka achar South Asia A type of mango pickle. Halved unripe mangoes are mixed with fenugreek, turmeric, asafoetida, dried red chillies and salt, allowed to rest, then covered with warm mustard oil and kept warm until matured.

aara South Asia Wholewheat flour aardappel Netherlands Potato aardbei Netherlands Strawberry

aarey South Asia A semi-hard, scalded-curd, rindless cheese similar to Gouda, made in India from buffalo milk

abacate Portugal Avocado abacaxi Portugal Pineapple abadejo Spain Fresh codfish

abaissage France The process of rolling out pastry, etc.

abaisse France Thinly rolled out pastry used as a base for other foods

abaisser France To roll out

abalone A bivalve mollusc, Haliotis tuberculata, and other species of the genus Haliotis, found in warm sea water worldwide. It is larger than the oyster (up to 13 cm). The edible part is the foot; the frilly mantle is discarded. Abalone may be eaten raw if very young, but normally must be tenderized before being braised or sautéed lightly (less than 1 minute). See also blacklip abalone, greenlip abalone, paua, ormer, mutton fish. Also called sea ormer, sea ear, earshell

abalone mushroom Oyster mushroom abats France Offal, internal organs and other

edible parts of an animal from its extremities abatte France A thick, broad, double-edged

knife used to flatten meat

abattis France Poultry offal or giblets

abattis à la bourguignonne France Poultry giblets, excluding livers, which are reserved, are fried in butter with chopped onions and added flour, before being cooked with red wine, stock, bouquet garni and garlic in the oven. The mixture is then drained and placed in a clean pan with fried diced bacon, cooked button onions, the raw sliced livers and the strained reduced cooking liquor, and finished.

abattis aux navets France As abattis à la bourguignonne, but omitting red wine from the stock and small turned pieces of turnip sautéed in butter added with the other ingredients at the final stage

abattis chipolata France As abattis à la bourguignonne, but with white wine replacing red and with grilled chipolata sausage, cooked chestnuts and fried diced salt belly of pork added at the final stage

abattis de volaille aux champignons

France Poultry giblets are cut in pieces, browned in butter, and cooked in a moderate oven with flour, stock, seasoning, skinned tomatoes and bouquet garni for 1 hour. Mushrooms are then added and cooking continues until everything is tender. The cooking liquor is thickened and the dish is served with chopped parsley.

abattis printanier France As abattis à la bourguignonne, but garnished à la printanière with the raw livers replacing the diced bacon and button onions

abattoir A slaughter house, a place where live food animals are killed, desanguinated, gutted, skinned and prepared for sale to the trade

abba Sri Lanka Black mustard seed

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