Food Terms We Loathe/Misuse

[Fat Guy]

Yeah, gelatinous and drizzle seem like useful words to me. Ditto unctuous and mouthfeel. Those don't seem hackneyed to me. I also can't understand the objection to beverages, or to fine dining.

[divalasvegas]

Even worse than drizzle, I've heard a lot of TV chefs use the word "dribble" in its place. Really. Now that's simultaneously stupid and nauseating.

Another annoyance for me is calling an entirely new concoction/recipe by the name of a traditional dish. Best recent example of this is Food TV's Robin Miller who created a Roasted Garlic Artichoke Hummus dish which looks like it might be quite tasty. This recipe also contains white beans. I'm sure I'm very alone on this one, but to me hummus is a very specific dish traditionally made with chick peas, lemon, garlic, and tahini. I just don't understand the need to call any old concoction by the name of a traditionally made dish. Why not just call it garlic artichoke spread or dip?

[insomniac]

I also can't understand the objection to beverages.

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why waste four syllables when one will do? Drinks...isn't that neater? Actually I think it is an English/American language difference...if I hear someone talk about beverages I want to giggle.....poshifying a normal word.....

Edited October 2, 2007 by insomniac (log)

[JAZ]

Yeah, gelatinous and drizzle seem like useful words to me. Ditto unctuous and mouthfeel. Those don't seem hackneyed to me.

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"Mouthfeel" -- while admittedly isn't the most elegant term -- describes something important that isn't covered by another term. I do think it's overused, though.

My vote for food words that make me want to cover my ears and scream: "veggie(s)." Please, please, please use the extra three letters. Is that so difficult?

[tim]

Hi,

"Melted" as in the melted fennel sauce I chose not to try in St. Louis. I asked the waiter how to melt fennel.

I think you need acetone.

Tim

[divalasvegas]

My vote for food words that make me want to cover my ears and scream: "veggie(s)." Please, please, please use the extra three letters. Is that so difficult?

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Yes, yes, a thousands times yes!!! What's next, "fruities" for fruit? Add to that: "sammies" for sandwiches, "breakie" for breakfast (pronounced as if it were spelled "brecky"), "delish" for delicious, and many more examples of the dumbing down of the English language that I can't think of right now. I haven't been in elementary school for many years now and would appreciate not being spoken to as if I were.

[TAPrice]

"Mouthfeel" -- while admittedly isn't the most elegant term -- describes something important that isn't covered by another term. I do think it's overused, though.

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Yeah, mouthfeel seems like very specific, useful term. It also, though, sounds like jargon. I try to avoid it when writing, but it doesn't offend me when I read (and I'm happy to use it in conversation).

[petite tête de chou]

I hate the term "food porn" for being simultaneously coy and vulgar.

Ban it.

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Absolutely. When I'm looking at a great food photo the LAST thing on my mind is pornography.

[Pontormo]

So good it tastes like crack.

[Pontormo]

Authentic

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Agreed. It's a bit like "trust me..."

Artisan--used as either noun or adjective.

[TAPrice]

So good it tastes like crack.

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Good one. I've got to figure crack actually does taste that good. If it did, people would eat it instead of smoking it.

[Pebs]

There's that guy on Food TV that will dig into some big gooey dish and say "That's Money!" Who the hell wants to eat money? Yummo! I'll take a scoop of quarters please!

[Verjuice]

Melty.

Just dumb.

[Pyewacket]

I know it's a useful word, but I really hate "moist", and especailly seeing "moistness" on menus ( isn't the proper term "moisture" anyway?)

It always makes me think of really sweaty people-not something to be associated with food.

Ooooo-how about a '"gelatinous drizzle" to really make your day!

Edited October 2, 2007 by Pyewacket (log)

[TAPrice]

Ooooo-how about a '"gelatinous drizzle" to really make your day!

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That sounds sinfully orgasmic!

[Doodad]

Ok, I have to jump in. Maybe as the father of a teenager I just hear such things more, but I swear it has crept into the hip congnoscenti.

-licious as a suffix. As in "gravylicious."

[Basildog]

" to die for"

NO! it's food, not my family

[TAPrice]

Ok, I have to jump in.  Maybe as the father of a teenager I just hear such things more, but I swear it has crept into the hip congnoscenti.

-licious as a suffix.  As in "gravylicious."

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That's fine for 15 year olds, but anyone old enough to drink ought to know better. And that brings up a whole register I can't stand--food writers who desperately try to sound younger or hipper than they are.

[Jane Die]

Someone mentioned "authentic", I think maybe it was Fat Guy. I can see how this might be overused, but I do admit to searching for recipes or ingredients that are as close to authentic (perhaps "traditional" is a better word?) as I can find, especially when attempting to recreate an old recipe. So I'm keeping "authentic" in my repertoire of acceptable words to use.

The McRib : Authentic Down Home Smokehouse Flavor or Fake Industrial Food?

[dockhl]

**droool**

as a post in topics

(wipe your chin......)

[maggiethecat]

My vote for food words that make me want to cover my ears and scream: "veggie(s)." Please, please, please use the extra three letters. Is that so difficult?

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Yes, yes, a thousands times yes!!! What's next, "fruities" for fruit? Add to that: "sammies" for sandwiches, "breakie" for breakfast (pronounced as if it were spelled "brecky"), "delish" for delicious, and many more examples of the dumbing down of the English language that I can't think of right now. I haven't been in elementary school for many years now and would appreciate not being spoken to as if I were.

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Although I can't be sure, I'm betting that neither of you ladies have a Granny straight from Lancashire. Veggies (or veg), sammie (or sarnie or sam) brekky -- they are classic British slang, and I don't mind them because of my association with Nana. (There's "pikky" for hospital too.)

Thing is, most of the words we've mentioned are fine words. The problem lies with the writer. Eschew the cliched, the trendy, the easy word. And run like hell from the twee.

[racheld]

One of my own pet peeves is when a recipe is referred to as "Aunt Sally's Cheesecake".

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Now, Daniel, Darlin', we two are gonna have to disagree on this one. There are whole generations and centuries of good Southern women whose lives were lived quietly, unobtrusively, uncelebrated save for their way with a cake, a pie, a recipe for chowchow or preserves or perhaps a sublime custard which, when cranked and iced and stirred in the old wooden ice cream freezer, became the food of gods.

Books and drawers and albums and files are filled with handwritten receipts; little boxes of quaint cards are inscribed with measures and methods of a time far ago, testament to the perseverance of family favorites. And a good half of the pages bear the names of the creators, the copiers, the carriers-on of a tradition older than memory---the naming of a recipe for the hands which created the original.

And for most, that one bit of history is the only claim to lasting remembrance for these women---the homesteaders, the keepers of the gardens and stys and springhouses, of kitchens plank-floored and bare save for a scarred wooden table and a few wall-hooks for utensils. And the years of rationing, of doing without and making-do with what could be had---ingenuity triumphed in those times, and families were fed. Who is to remember and celebrate those cooks, if we do not?

My own great cluttered drawer of clippings and lined paper and curled brown bits of sack and calendar holds myriad recipes named for an aunt, a friend, a church lady whose dishes caused gridlock when she set down her tray. Mrs. Thornton's Watermelon Preserves, Miz Prysock's Hot Water Cake, Mammaw's Pineapple Layer cake---they're all there, along with Maw's Lime Pickle (always referred to in the singular by her, and the name is sacred in the family annals), Aunt Mary's Creamed Corn, Aunt Lucy's Candied Sweet Potatoes (and they WERE---nearly pound-for-pound with sugar in the syrup; they would almost stand in for fudge), and Miss Millie's Karo Pecan Pie.

Perhaps my strong feelings on this subject have come too much to the fore, as I have been working hard on getting a book ready for all the children and grandchildren for Christmas---all the family remembrances and recipes and little wisps of where-we-come-from to pass on to the new families taking up the kitchen torch. I've just been so immersed in all the remembering---it's very important to me to hand down whatever I can to enrich the heritage of all our family.

So, I'll just keep referring to all the old recipes and the old ways by their proper names---the names of the women who originated them, and whose names would now be lost to time, save for their talent in the kitchen.

I will not let their work and their names be lost.

[The Old Foodie]

One of my own pet peeves is when a recipe is referred to as "Aunt Sally's Cheesecake".

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Now, Daniel, Darlin', we two are gonna have to disagree on this one. There are whole generations and centuries of good Southern women whose lives were lived quietly, unobtrusively, uncelebrated save for their way with a cake, a pie, a recipe for chowchow or preserves or perhaps a sublime custard which, when cranked and iced and stirred in the old wooden ice cream freezer, became the food of gods.

........

Perhaps my strong feelings on this subject have come too much to the fore, as I have been working hard on getting a book ready for all the children and grandchildren for Christmas---all the family remembrances and recipes and little wisps of where-we-come-from to pass on to the new families taking up the kitchen torch. I've just been so immersed in all the remembering---it's very important to me to hand down whatever I can to enrich the heritage of all our family.

So, I'll just keep referring to all the old recipes and the old ways by their proper names---the names of the women who originated them, and whose names would now be lost to time, save for their talent in the kitchen.

I will not let their work and their names be lost.

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Hear! Hear! Rachel. I couldn't agree more - although (perhaps this is what you were referring to, Daniel?) these sort of recipe titles are meaningless in a "public" cookbook - they only have meaning when they are part of your own personal family heritage.

My first reaction to this post (and thankyou for triggering this thought, Rachel) was - which of my recipes will endure and end up with my name attached to it on scraps of paper in the drawers (or more likely in computer files) of my (as yet unborn) grandchildren and great-grandchildren?

This is probably another thread, but I'd be interested to know what everyone here would like to be remembered for, recipe-wise. Or what they think they will be remembered for, which may be a different thing.

[JAZ]

"Eatery" (pl. "eateries). What's wrong with "restaurant," "cafe," "diner," or any of the other more precise and less odious synonyms?

[Pierogi]

Just thought of another one, widely, all TOO widely disseminated on the network everyone loves to hate, Food Network:

And I quote many FN hosts........."ewwie-goooey".

Not sure on the spelling, but that's roughly how they pronounce it. Usually in reference to melted cheese, or dripping chocolate or caramel.

"Ewwwwwwww" is usually what I say when something's truely disgusting. (where's that puke icon when you need it??). As in, "ewwwwwwwww, WHAT did you step in???

"Gooey" is not an adjective that sounds appetizing to me.

Put 'em together and it really is not something I want to put in my mouth.

And in comment to previous responses, what the hell is "toothsome" anyway? My teeth generally don't provide many sensations, unless I bite into something too cold. Its a phrase I've never understood, and yet one which makes me slightly grossed out.