Common Food Mispronunciations and Misnomers

[Hassouni]

ditto Parmesan vs. Parmigiana, and the whole pizza is not a pie thing.

I mean really, Parmesan is a perfectly valid English word. We don't say Parisien with a French accent, we say Parisian.

I don't know how pizza came to be known as a pie...

in my book pies are sweet!

*preparing for onslaught of devout English and otherwise savoury pie fans...*

[Shalmanese]

Also, pizza and pie are two very different things, they are not interchangeable.

This is one matter in which I'll join Public Enemy and fight the power. A pie involves a pastry lid and braised meat (or, if you're so inclined, stewed fruit). A pizza is ... pizza. One of these things is not like the other. I do not understand people--and there are many here--who deem a baked disk of bread topped with cheese, tomato, et al to be pie.

Structurally, a pecan pie and a Chicago deep dish sausage pizza have a lot in common with each other.

[David A. Goldfarb]

Interestingly, the Italian-Americans at our local pizzeria in Queens, New York, generally refer to what they sell as "pies" and not as "pizzas" or even "pizza pies." I'll ask for a "medium pizza, half plain, half pepperoni and mushrooms," and the guy behind the counter will confirm, "medium pie,..."

I'd chalk that up to assimilationism from two or three generations ago, when they started calling tomato sauce "red gravy" or "Sunday gravy," because that's what working-class Americans called any kind of sauce at the time. I remember the first time I heard an old Italian guy from Brooklyn talking about the family dinners they made when he was growing up with "gravy" on everything, and I thought it really strange that they were having brown sauce on their pasta, fried fish, etc.

[JeanneCake]

I'd chalk that up to assimilationism from two or three generations ago, when they started calling tomato sauce "red gravy" or "Sunday gravy," because that's what working-class Americans called any kind of sauce at the time. I remember the first time I heard an old Italian guy from Brooklyn talking about the family dinners they made when he was growing up with "gravy" on everything, and I thought it really strange that they were having brown sauce on their pasta, fried fish, etc.

It wasn't until I was in grade school that I learned "gravy" could be something other than the red sauce we had all the time, and especially on Sundays!

[Hassouni]

I find it rather quaint when I see curries described as having a gravy...

[BadRabbit]

Also, pizza and pie are two very different things, they are not interchangeable.

This is one matter in which I'll join Public Enemy and fight the power. A pie involves a pastry lid and braised meat (or, if you're so inclined, stewed fruit). A pizza is ... pizza. One of these things is not like the other. I do not understand people--and there are many here--who deem a baked disk of bread topped with cheese, tomato, et al to be pie.

I can easily name 30 (possibly 100) pies that have no pastry lid that noone would argue aren't pies.

Chess pie

Chocolate pie

Banana Cream

Key Lime

...need I go on.

Edited: grammar

Edited February 20, 2012 by BadRabbit (log)

[Charcuterer]

Chess pie is basicly a sugar pie it is kind of weird in that it has vinegar and cornmeal in the filling. It is a staple in southern diners. If I can find my recipe I'll post it. I use a little dark rum to accent the sugar.

I was on the island Bonaire (Netherlands Antilles) a couple years ago and on the menu there was a dish that had Gouda cheese in it. When the waiter was describing the dish he said HOW-duh. I asked him what HOW-duh was and he said, "Well you're American so you would say goo-DA." He was right.

[kayb]

I'd chalk that up to assimilationism from two or three generations ago, when they started calling tomato sauce "red gravy" or "Sunday gravy," because that's what working-class Americans called any kind of sauce at the time. I remember the first time I heard an old Italian guy from Brooklyn talking about the family dinners they made when he was growing up with "gravy" on everything, and I thought it really strange that they were having brown sauce on their pasta, fried fish, etc.

There was a sizeable Italian community in the small Arkansas Delta town where I spent 30 years. Tomato sauce, with meat, was "spaghetti gravy."

[Hassouni]

Chess pie is basicly a sugar pie it is kind of weird in that it has vinegar and cornmeal in the filling. It is a staple in southern diners. If I can find my recipe I'll post it. I use a little dark rum to accent the sugar.

I was on the island Bonaire (Netherlands Antilles) a couple years ago and on the menu there was a dish that had Gouda cheese in it. When the waiter was describing the dish he said HOW-duh. I asked him what HOW-duh was and he said, "Well you're American so you would say goo-DA." He was right.

I dunno how they speak Dutch there, but in Holland it's definitely a guttural KKKHHHow-da sound

[Charcuterer]

Chess pie is basicly a sugar pie it is kind of weird in that it has vinegar and cornmeal in the filling. It is a staple in southern diners. If I can find my recipe I'll post it. I use a little dark rum to accent the sugar.

I was on the island Bonaire (Netherlands Antilles) a couple years ago and on the menu there was a dish that had Gouda cheese in it. When the waiter was describing the dish he said HOW-duh. I asked him what HOW-duh was and he said, "Well you're American so you would say goo-DA." He was right.

I dunno how they speak Dutch there, but in Holland it's definitely a guttural KKKHHHow-da sound

You did it right, I didn't know how to represent the back of the throat sound on the leading H.

[ElsieD]

The G in Gouda is actually more of a hard G, coming from the back of the throat. The ou part is pronounced like the ow in how.

[Hassouni]

Well in proper Dutch, the city is Gouda and the cheese is Goudse, but I don't think that'll get anything but blank stares outside Holland....

[ChrisTaylor]

A sweet pie with no lid is a dirty, dirty tart.

[ElsieD]

Well, I'm Dutch by birth and all my life my parents bought and ate Gouda. I have NEVER heard the cheese referred to as Goudse. I also shop at a Dutch store from time and they call the cheese Gouda as well.

[Hassouni]

Hm, then Wikipedia has been lying I'll take your word for it.

[ruthcooks]

If tomato sauce is "gravy", then what do you call gravy?

I've always wondered about the term "creamed potatoes" in the South, referring to mashed potatoes. Creamed potatoes are boiled potatoes immersed in cream sauce, what do they call them?

Aargh!

[BadRabbit]

If tomato sauce is "gravy", then what do you call gravy?

I've always wondered about the term "creamed potatoes" in the South, referring to mashed potatoes. Creamed potatoes are boiled potatoes immersed in cream sauce, what do they call them?

Aargh!

I'm from the south and have never heard them called creamed. We treat our potatos like we treat buttons in an elevator; we "mash" them.

[BadRabbit]

Speaking of southern pronunciations, most people in the south refer to canned sausages as "VIE-ee-na sausages" though I have never heard anybody mispronounce the name of the city. I'm guessing most people just don't put two and two together on the subject.

Edited February 22, 2012 by BadRabbit (log)

[Charcuterer]

My friends in East Tennessee use the pronunciation VIE-in-ee for the horrible little canned sausages. I can't say that I have ever heard them pronounce the name of the city. But they tend to pronounce the word Italy as IT-Lee.

[Mjx]

Recently (blog post somewhere? can't remember, but I'm racking my brains), I came across 'pasta y fagioli' multiple times in the same place, so, not a typo, and it made me crazy. Should be 'pasta e fagioli' (or I guess you could also have 'pasta y frijoles').

I've also come across 'porchinis', which is even worse than 'porcinis', since not only is it doubly pluralized, but in Italian, it would be pronounced 'por-KEE-neez'. <shudder>

[gfweb]

My friends in East Tennessee use the pronunciation VIE-in-ee for the horrible little canned sausages. I can't say that I have ever heard them pronounce the name of the city. But they tend to pronounce the word Italy as IT-Lee.

Sounds like Granny on the Beverly Hillbillies.

[annabelle]

Nah, they sound like they are from the anywhere in the deep south. People here refer to Israel as "Isruhl" and Italians are Eye-talyuns.

[BrooksNYC]

A frequently mispronounced food-related word is "restaurateur." It's like nails on a blackboard when I hear it mispronounced on the TV Food Network, or by NPR hosts who ought to know better.

"RestauraNteur," they say — that is, they insert an "N" in the middle of a word that has no "N".

The correct anglicized pronunciation is ress-ter-ruh-TUR. . .Dictionary.com has a sound clip:

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/restaurateur

[BadRabbit]

A frequently mispronounced food-related word is "restaurateur." It's like nails on a blackboard when I hear it mispronounced on the TV Food Network, or by NPR hosts who ought to know better.

"RestauraNteur," they say — that is, they insert an "N" in the middle of a word that has no "N".

The correct anglicized pronunciation is ress-ter-ruh-TUR. . .Dictionary.com has a sound clip:

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/restaurateur

I believe that the spelling and pronunciation "restauranteur" has moved past being an error and is becoming the more commonly used spelling. Several dictionaries already list it as an alternate spelling.

Lots of foreign words that are adopted into English eventually get Anglicized.

ETA: Clarification

Edited February 27, 2012 by BadRabbit (log)

[mkayahara]

Recently (blog post somewhere? can't remember, but I'm racking my brains), I came across 'pasta y fagioli' multiple times in the same place, so, not a typo, and it made me crazy. Should be 'pasta e fagioli' (or I guess you could also have 'pasta y frijoles').

Just as you will find many references to "Punt y mes" in these very forums...