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Kitchen Tools With Descriptive Names


weinoo

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Over in Amirault's topic about chicken liver paté, I describe how my grandmother would use a kitchen tool she had to make her chopped liver.

That tool was called a hockmeisser, which is, I believe, the Yiddish word for the half-moon shaped chopping blade.

I just think it's a greatly descriptive word for that tool, (similar to an Italian mezzaluna).

What other great, descriptive names (English, Yiddish, whatever) are there for our kitchen tools?

Mitch Weinstein aka "weinoo"

Tasty Travails - My Blog

My eGullet FoodBog - A Tale of Two Boroughs

Was it you baby...or just a Brilliant Disguise?

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Potato masher, basher and etc.

Herb chopper, mincer.

Honey dripper.

Salad spinner.

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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Chitarra, or guitar as my Aunt Anna would say.

That's one.

I think the Danish rivejern (Danish for a 'grater', and also, I've been told, an abrasive woman) sounds incredibly raspy and evocative of the tool.

That's another.

Mitch Weinstein aka "weinoo"

Tasty Travails - My Blog

My eGullet FoodBog - A Tale of Two Boroughs

Was it you baby...or just a Brilliant Disguise?

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That tool was called a hockmeisser, which is, I believe, the Yiddish word for the half-moon shaped chopping blade.

I just think it's a greatly descriptive word for that tool, (similar to an Italian mezzaluna).

Another similar tool is the Alaskan Ulu. Inuit for "woman's knife", it describes who uses it rather than what it does...which is just about everything in the hands of the skilled.

I'll add:

Meat grinder

Sausage stuffer

Sausage/casing pricker

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How about batticarne? Direct translation from the Italian: meat pounder.

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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