Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
-
Cecils
In the early nineteenth century a dish named Cecils was often concocted by mixing minced meat with bread crumbs and seasonings, rolling the resulting thick paste into small balls, and frying those balls in oil. The fact that Cecils is spelt not only with a capital C but also with what appears to be the…
-
Cayenne pepper
Cayenne pepper is a seasoning made of powdered chili peppers and salt. It acquired the present spelling of its name from Cayenne Island, located off the northeast coast of South America, where the seasoning was once thought to have originated (in fact, the seasoning came from the South American mainland). The mistaken belief that cayenne…
-
Caviar
Although the word caviar has existed in French since the early fifteenth century, and in English since the late sixteenth century, the actual item—sturgeon eggs—was not always considered a high-brow delicacy: in nineteenth-century American saloons, it was given away like peanuts to stimulate a thirst for beer. Later, in the 1920s, Russian princes who had…
-
Cauliflower
If forced to wear a vegetable on your lapel, you would probably choose cauliflower because it—more than any other legume, stem, or tuber—actually resembles a flowery corsage. Not surprisingly, therefore, the name of this vegetable means cabbage flower, having derived from the Italian cavoli, meaning cabbage, and fiori, meaning flower. The Italian cavoli in turn…
-
Catillation
Although the Old Testament does not explicitly say so, there is a good chance that some of Noah’s naughty neighbours were punished because they had, among other things, engaged in catillation, that is, the unseemly licking of plates. This word, which does not apply to the bowls in which my mother makes her chocolate icing,…
-
Caterer
Before the middle of the eighteenth century, restaurants did not exist, and inns, which provided lodgings as well as food, were not considered places that respectable people patronized. Accordingly, if you were hungry and wealthy but too tired to order your servants to prepare a meal, you ordered your servants to hire someone to prepare…
-
Cate
A cate is a delicacy, a dainty, a treat, a choice morsel, a tidbit. Because no one in their right mind ever buys a single tidbit, cate is almost always used in the plural, cates. Like the word caterer to which it is related, cate derives from the French verb acheter, meaning to purchase. In…
-
Cashew
Although it is native to Brazil, the cashew was introduced in the sixteenth century to other tropical countries, including India where the acrid oil from the nut is rubbed into floors to repel attacks by white ants. The name of the nut also originated in Brazil where the tree upon which it grows is called,…
-
Carve
Before it came to mean the act of cutting up meat, poultry, or fish at the dinner table, the word carve signified the act of cutting designs or words into stone or wood. The word carve is, in fact, a cousin of the Greek word graphein, meaning to write, both words having derived from the…
-
Carrot
Although the carrot gets its name from an ancient Greek source, the ancients did not cultivate it as a kitchen vegetable, consuming the wild variety only occasionally as an aphrodisiac. Prior to the sixteenth century, carrots were also not eaten as food in England, although women did use their fern-like leaves as hair decorations. In…
Got any book recommendations?