Category: T
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Thrive bit
The thrive bit, like the force piece, is what Mr. Manners gets to eat after a meal has ended. In other words, the thrive bit and the force piece are the last tidbit of food left on the table, the food that only the greediest guest would deprive the mythical Mr. Manners of. This untouched…
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Three-threads
At the end of the seventeenth century, a beverage called three-threads became a popular thirst quencher, its name deriving from its being made by mixing three different kinds—or “threads”—of beer. Soon after, some unknown tavern owner decided that, instead of mixing the three beers, it would be easier to brew a single beer that tasted…
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Thible
The rise of ready-made breakfast cereals in the last years of the nineteenth century marked the end of the tyranny of porridge, and with it the demise of the thible, a stick used to stir porridge. The thible is an excellent example of a device that people used for centuries before giving it a name:…
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Thermidor
This dish of cubed lobster mixed with cream, seasoned with mustard, and served in the halves of its shell acquired its name in 1894 when it was invented by a Parisian chef to honour the opening of a play by Victorien Sardou called Thermidor. In turn, the play borrowed its title from the name of…
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Tharf-cake
The Old English word tharf, meaning need or necessity, is first recorded in the early eighth century, and last recorded in the early fourteenth century. Just as it was vanishing as an independent word, however, tharf became part of the compound tharf-cake, a name still in use until the end of the last century. As…
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Tequila
The evil Mexican liquor known as tequila, made by fermenting and then distilling the juice of the blue agave plant, is named after the Mexican town of Tequila, one of the places where it was first produced. The town, in turn, acquired its name from the Nahuatl phrase, tequitl tlan, meaning work place. Let us…
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Teetotaller
Near the city of Preston, located in England’s county of Lancashire, this solemn epitaph is carved upon a grey and mossy tombstone: “Beneath this stone are deposited the remains of Richard Turner, author of the word teetotal as applied to abstinence from all intoxicating liquors, who departed this life on the 27th day of October,…
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Tavern
The words tavern, pub, and bar designate establishments whose primary function is to serve liquor. Of these three words, tavern is by far the oldest; it was adopted at the end of the thirteenth century from French, which had derived it from the Latin taberna, meaning a wooden hut. The Latin taberna also developed the…
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Tartar
The Tartars, a huge army of warriors led by Ghengis Khan in the thirteenth century, were renowned for being rather rambunctious, perhaps even boisterous. Since they passed most of their days pillaging, marauding, and wreaking havoc, they did not have much time to descant upon the gastronomic arts, and yet they did hit upon one…
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Tapioca
Tapioca is a starch derived from the root of the manioc, also known as the cassava, a plant indigenous to Brazil. Brazil is also where the word tapioca originated: in Tupi, a language spoken by one of the native peoples of Brazil, the name of the starch is tipioca, a compound formed from tipi, meaning…