Bloody Mary

What do you imagine if I say to you that I like Bloody Mary? Would you call the police? Or a psychologist? Before doing it, please hang up the phone and let me tell you that it is one of the most famous and consumed cocktails in the world.

A Bloody Mary is a popular cocktail containing vodka, tomato juice, Worcestershire sauce, Peri-Peri Sauce, Tabasco sauce, beef consomme, celery, olive, black pepper, cayenne pepper, lemon juice and salt among other ingredients. As you can imagine, it is one of "the world's most complex cocktails”.

The Bloody Mary's origin is unclear. Fernand Petiot claimed to have invented the drink in 1921 while working in Harry's New York Bar, in Paris. However, the first printed document dates from 1939 and affirms that George Jessel created the drink . 

The name "Bloody Mary" has 3 different theories about its origins:

The first one, as the bartender Ferdinand Petiot, "one of the boys suggested we call the drink 'Bloody Mary' because it reminded him of the Bucket of Blood Club in Chicago, and a girl there named Mary."

 The second one is associated with the historical figure Queen Mary I of England. She was queen regnant of England and Ireland from July 1553 until her death on 17 November 1558. She was the only surviving child born Henry VIII and his first wife Catherine of Aragon. Her younger half-brother, Edward VI, succeeded Henry in 1547. On his death, their cousin Lady Jane Grey was, at first, proclaimed queen. Mary assembled a force in East Anglia, and successfully deposed Jane, who was ultimately beheaded. In 1554, Mary married Philip of Spain, and as a result became queen consort of Habsburg Spain on his accession in 1556. Mary is remembered for her restoration of Roman Catholicism. During her five year reign, she had over 280 religious dissenters burned at the stake in the Marian Persecutions. Her Protestant opponents gave her the sobriquet of "Bloody Mary". 

The third theory deals with a popular tale. This story talks about an evil spirit who will scratch your eyes out when it is summoned by chanting "Bloody Mary" into a mirror in a darkened room lit only by a candle. She was supposed to be a woman named Mary Worth, who was horribly disfigured in a car crash or a witch who was burned at the stake and has returned for revenge.

In conclusion, as my previous entry in the blog, the origins of the name are not clear but now I suppose you will not be confused if you hear about a person that loves the Bloody Mary. Thanks for reading it and don´t be scared at the middle.

Postscript: Please, don´t try the chanting of Bloody Mary in front of a mirror at home. This entry accepts no responsibility.

A magical dessert!

Have you ever seen those coloured muffins people cook and decorate with different forms and ingredients? I am sure you have and for those who haven´t, they are called fairy cakes and you just have to look to the right side of this blog to see a little bird with one of them.

To begin with, I am going to explain briefly what a fairy cake is in order to everyone can understand what I am talking about. A fairy cake is a small cake for one single person, baked in a small, thin paper or in an aluminium or silicone cup just as a muffin. They can be of different colours, flavours and shapes depending on the frostings, sprinkles and other decorations you want to put on them.

Now that everyone has got the idea and can have a mental image of it, let´s think about its name. Obviously, fairies don´t exist (sorry for those who think otherwise) and therefore, they could not make nor even invent this kind of cake, then why this name and not simply “small cake” or something similar? The reason is that the name “fairy cake” is a fanciful description of its size, which would be appropriate for a party of tiny fairies. As we all know, fairies are generally very small creatures, so this cake to them would have the same size as a regular one to us. Besides, according to A Dictionary of Fairies, the fairies “bake small, delicious cakes which they give to their benefactors”. So it´s like we were eating one cake baked by one of these little creatures.

An American variant of this dessert is the cupcake, a name more common in Spain than the previous one. The difference between the English fairy cakes and the American cupcakes is that the English ones are smaller and rarely topped with elaborated icing.

This name, as you can notice, is also a curious one and its origin has two different theories: The first one is that these cakes were originally baked in cups, as some cookbooks mention sometimes. These cups may have been earthenware tea cups or other small clay baking pans in order to put them on the oven and produce individual-size cakes. And the second one is that the ingredients used to make the cupcakes were measured out by the cup, that is, one cup of butter, two cups of sugar, three cups of flour, one cup of milk, and so on.

Nowadays, these cakes have become a trend in the culinary world and there are cookbooks, as the one of the TV presenter Martha Stewart, blogs and magazines specifically dedicated to them. There are cupcakes shops as well, like “Magnolia Bakery”, which has gained publicity thanks to its appearances on popular television shows like HBO´s “Sex and the City”.

In addition to all this and as a conclusion, they are ideal for children´s birthday parties. Just imagine a magically themed princess party with fairy cakes as the main dessert, it would look perfect!

Hope you enjoyed it!

A shining mushroom!!

Why have I said such a stupid thing? Well, let me tell you that this is not any nonsense. Firstly, I want to explain why the mushrooms are called so. That name comes from "John Mussheron", from 1327, the first person who discovered an edible mushroom. Then, it was derivated from Anglo-French mixing word musherun, and addapted to the English with the fonetic features of the word. So, there´s no any relation with a "mushed room" as we would say literaly in spanish.

Now, we are going to talk about the proper name of this peculiar mushroom, and for this, you must know some information about Anglo-Saxon tradition.

A legend tells how Jack, a wily farmer with a sinful conduct, made a pact with the devil forcing him to swear to never take his soul to hell. So, when Jack died, his soul couldn´t go neither hell, nor heaven (due to his sinful life). Jack had nowhere to go nor light to see (neither the hell´s one nor the heaven´s one). Suddenly, the devil threw him, as a joke, a flame of hell that would never stop burning. So Jack hollowed one of his turnips (his favourite food) , put the flame inside (as a lantern) and he began to wander aimlessly forever throughout the world looking for a place to finally rest. Then he became known as “Jack of the lantern” or “Jack O´Lantern”. The Jack´s flashlight in Ireland and Scotland was a carved turnip with the supposed dark side of Jack, which used to be collocated in windows to ward off the devil and every evil spirit from their homes.

Nowadays, the famous Halloween pumpkins are the result of this legend, whose real name is not “Halloween pumpkins”, but Jack O´Lantern. Here the relation with our mushroom in question, which is called the Jack O´Lantern mushroom. It´s a poisonous mushroom that contains the toxin muscarine which causes severe crumps and diarrhea.

According to every field guide, and every other source of literature available about the species, the mushroom gets its name because it´s a vegetal and it glows in darkness like the Halloween pumpkins. If you don´t believe me, wait until night, keep all light out of a room, get into, close the door, close the door, and wait five minutes until your eyes adjust completely to the darkness. Then you will see the gills glowing pale-green; this is due to an enzyme substance called luciferase.

The problem is that the mushroom is mistaken during the day for certain types of gourmet´s chanterelles (a delicious mushroom) poisoning themselves. So... be careful!!

Hot Dog; for us, more than one meaning!

Leaving aside the delicious fried eggs of the previous post, this time we will speak about one of the most typical fast food which is consumed everywhere nowadays.

Yes!! We are referring to the Hot Dog!! It is a sausage served in a sliced bun and commonly garnished with mustard, ketchup, onions, mayonnaise, and so on.

Its origin is difficult to know, as, before the hot dog became so famous, sausages were still placed in some types of bread or bun like a finger food, but it is believed to be from United States.

The special thing about the hot dog is that the normal sausage used to prepare it comes from the German term “Frankfurter”, most known as Frankfurt sausage.

This sausage is differently composed depending on the country; on the one hand, we have the “Wiener” or “Vienna sausage”, a variation of the Frankfurt one which mixes pork and beef, and which is known in Austria, North America and other countries as if it was the real Frankfurter sausage. On the other hand, however, we have the original Frankfurter sausage, native from the city of Frankfurt, and whose composition is only pork. This last is the one used in Germany and Switzerland to prepare hot dogs.

Despite of the different kinds of sausages, the hot dog is always a hot dog, here and there, but there’re some places where this term is used in a totally different way from its “American” meaning. One of them is, for example, New Zealand, where the concept “hot dog” makes reference to the “battered sausages”, something quite distinct from hot dogs as the sausage here is not served in a bun but it’s dipped in batter and served with chips.

Something curious is that, though we know the concept by its whole composition (the sausage in bread with condiments); it really makes reference only to the sausage! “Hot”, of course, is related to the temperature of this, and “dog” to the many accusations which pointed to dog as the kind of meat used in the sausages belonging to the 19th century period. This fact appeared in many newspapers and the term became as common as it is nowadays. This is the main hypothesis about why this food is called so and about the cause of the analogy between the dachshund (a breed of dog whose body is very long) and sausages. Ted Dorgan represented this analogy in his cartoons.

As we can normally see, hot dogs are fully recognized all over the world and they use to be commercialized at street portable stands known as “hot dog carts”. They are normally sold in high congregation areas too, as the baseball stadiums in the U.S. are.

Bit by bit their marketing through portable stands has become more typical and there is a massive commercialization in certain urban areas of the world, coming into existence very popular streets.

A food that you are most likely to have tasted, and if not, I encourage you to do it! It's worthy!

HOPE YOU ENJOYED!!

The PAVLOVA

The Pavlova consists on a base made of meringue and whipped cream and completed by several fruits such as kiwis, oranges, bananas, pineapples (do you remember why pineapples are called this way? Just see an older entry in this blog!!), etc which give the cake a delicious and tropical flavour.

The dessert was created in honour of the famous ballet dancer Anna Pavlova who visited Australia and New Zealand in the 1920s. Curiously, the name of this dessert is pronounced /pævloʊvə/ or /pɑvloʊvə/ while the name of the famous artist was pronounced /pɑvləvə/ or /pævləvə/.

Precisely, both countries claim to have invented this dessert because it is an important part of their national cuisine and it is frequently served during festivals or celebrations.

Keith Money, who wrote the Pavlova´s biography, said in his book Anna Pavlova: Her Life and Art written in 1982 that a chef at a hotel in Wellington (New Zealand) created the dish in honour of Anna Pavlova when she visited his hotel in 1926.

In New Zealand, a cookbook published in 1926 by E. Futter titled Home Cookery for New Zealand contained a similar recipe for Pavlova but instead of using the name Pavlova, they used the name "Meringue with Fruit Filling".

Professor Helen Leach, a culinary anthropologist, published a book The Pavlova Story: A Slice of New Zealand’s Culinary History, in which stated that the first Australian pavlova recipe was created in 1935 while in New Zealand it already existed.

Against this hypothesis, a Harbert Sachse´s relative affirms that his predecessor created the dish at the Esplanade Hotel in Australia in 1935 in order to be served as a tea dessert for the Hotel’s afternoon teas. In order to claim the dish, a Sachse's relative wrote to Leach suggesting that Sachse had accidentally dated the recipe incorrectly. Leach replied they would not find evidence for that "because it's just not showing up in the cookbooks until really the 1940s in Australia."Taking into account such arguments, Matthew Evans, a food critic said that it was unlikely that a definitive answer about the pavlova's origins would ever be found.

The first known recorded recipe named "pavlova" was published in the fifth Australian edition of Davis Dainty Dishes in 1926. However this recipe was not similar to the one we actually have.

In conclusion, we can see here the influence of famous people in society. Probably you have wondered why the Pavlova is called so; it has a simple answer. Look at the first picture, Doesn´t it seem a tutu?. In case of you didn´t get it, I will explain you. It has the form of a tutu decorated with fruits. Can you see it now? On the other hand I want to focus on the international issue. Both countries want the recognition of the creation of the Pavlova, but my question is: If the cake is so delicious, why we don´t just eat it? Forget about the differences that separe you and just savour it!! 

Postscript: warning! Please don´t see the pictures if you are hungry!

Victoria Sponge

This delicious dessert is a cake which has flour, sugar and eggs as main ingredients. It was originally known as the "Sponge Cake", why Sponge? This is quite simple, it has this name due to it´s similarity to a Sea Sponge.

One of the variations of this initial "Sponge Cake" is the "Victoria Sponge", which was obviously named after Queen Victoria, who used to have this tempting cake during her afternoon tea. The main differences from the first "Sponge Cake" would be the addition of raspberry jam and either whipped double cream or vanilla cream, in other words it is way less healthy than the first one, but seems much more delicious.

Other names for this "royal" dessert would be "Victorian Sandwich", which is named this way because of the fact that the jam and the cream are both sandwiched between two pieces of this cake, which are normally covered in sugar as we can see in the picture; and it can be also known as the "Victorian Cake", although this term is less common.



Something curious about this cake is that, as it is very sensitive for cooking times and temperatures, most of the oven manufacturers usually use this recipe in order to test their products!

Macaroons, macarons or macaroni?

What would you imagine in your mind if I mention the word “macaroon” or “macaron”? I am sure some of you have thought of that kind of pasta which has become so popular all over the world. I am sorry to tell you are wrong. In English, the term macaroon is to refer to a small cake you can find in any bakery. They are also called meringue-like cookies and they are made up of white eggs and some seeds, usually accompanied by coconut (a recipe very common in Scotland).

The historical and also etymological origin of this sweet baked confection is an Italian monastery in the sixteen century, where some nuns produce them. They traveled to France, where the Italian label “maccherone” became “macaron”, a famous Parisian recipe which has some variations from the English one and became popular during the French Revolution, since it was very cheap and easy to do. This French little cake is recognizable because of its shape, similar to a hamburguer (see photo).

As you know, the English are not very proud of having taken so many words from the French, so they added another “o” so that its name sounded diferent. That way, the macaroons spread throughout England and America, whereas many of us will be deceived again, thinking they are macaroni, the real Italian pasta that all of us have tasted at least once.

An apple that grows on pines?

Have you ever wondered why are pineapples called so? What prompted people to call a pineapple this way and not something else?

Obviously, there must be a reason behind this name, though at first sight it could be misleading. In fact, there is no resemblance at all of a pineapple to an apple nor the pineapple is an apple that grows on pines. Then, let´s go back in history to understand this choice.

In 1493, when Christopher Columbus returned to Spain from his voyage to the Caribbean, he brought the pineapple with him to give it to Queen Isabella. The fruit was new in Spain, so at first they named it “Pine of the Indies” due to its abrasive, segmented exterior, which resembled a pine cone.

After, the pineapple spread to England and the English realized that the fruit had a firm interior pulp like an apple and that tasted like a fresh green one as well, so the name “pineapple” is a mixture of the Spanish name “pine” and the English one “apple”.

Another curious thing about this name is that, though the English took the Spanish label “pine” and combined it with their own one, we didn´t take “apple” and use just our word.

Finally, the next time you see a friend drinking a pineapple juice, you can surprise him or her by telling the origin of this fruit's name.

Hope you enjoyed it!

French fries which are not french.

The origin of the French fries is not very clear. Most people locate the first chips in Belgium (then, the Spanish Netherlands).

Their history starts in Andenne (Namur), whose inhabitants had the habit of fishing in the Meuse river in order to get small fishes. After doing that, they fried and ate them. However, when the river was frozen and fishing became so much complicated, they cut some potatoes imitating the form of those small fishes and put them in a fryer, that is, the inhabitants employed the same process they did with the small fishes but with these potatoes.

Nevertheless, this question remains unanswered, why are they called "French fries"? The term "French" was introduced when the American soldiers arrived in Belgium during the World War I. They tasted Belgian fries and called them "French", as it was the official languaje of the Belgian Army.

Other people speculate that the dish may have been invented in Spain, because it was the first European country in which the potatoe appeared via the New World Colonies, and then, it was spread to the rest of the countries, further to the Spanish Netherlands.

Nowadays, the French fries is one of the most eaten dishes in the world, and it´s perfect to accompany other foods like for example... a sandwich!! :D

Sunny-side up eggs; the perfect fried eggs

Still considering the word "egg" since the previous post, part of a word which had nothing to do with its referent, this time it truly reappears in one of its forms; the fried egg.

Cooking eggs in this way, as its name indicates, consists on frying them only on one side, the yolk remains intact and uppermost, and the colour resembles the sun. It is the reason why they are called "Sunny-side up eggs".

Although there're different techniques to fry or cook eggs, and also to eat them, because "there're no fixed rules about tastes", they are considered the perfect fried eggs for their way of being prepared and their result.

Depending on the country, they are eaten either for breakfast or at other times of the day, and its consummation began centuries ago; the "Old Woman Cooking Eggs" is a painting from Velazquez of 1618, and it proves that this cuisine was already known at that time.

"Sunny-side up eggs" experienced a decline in popularity in the US as fears of salmonella egg poisoning became more prevalent but, however, this style is still highly popular as it is carried out a more rigorous control of eggs and hens and because of the simplicity of its recipe.

There is a variety of this dish, the "eggs int he basket", with the only difference that eggs are introduced into slices of bread that have been bored previously through the centre, making a kind of window, and then fried by both of their sides. It's an original way to prepare eggs, because they remain fully adhered to the bread, performing this last element the role of a basket.

This way of cooking them is also known by other names, such as "the elephant eye", as the result resembles this.

It's one of the most traditional and simple dishes to make and, at the same time, one of the most delicious!

Hope you enjoyed! =)

HP Sauce

Today, we are going to talk about a popular sauce in UK. Most of you probably know it but others will think: What is this about? 

 

HP Sauce is a brown sauce made of vinegar, tomatoes, tamarind extract, molasses and some secret spices. It is used as a condiment with hot or cold food, or as an ingredient in soups. It is produced by H.J. Heinz. Recently, this American company was obliged to change the recipe in order to reduce the salt content.

It was created by Frederick Gibson Garton or at least it is what the company affirms. As the company says, Frederick registered the name H.P. Sauce in 1895 because he has seen that there was a restaurant in the Houses of Parliament that was serving an almost equal sauce.

However, some stories suggest that the letter HP comes from Harry Palmer, its real creator. Palmer began to sell his product as "Harry Palmer's Famous Epsom Sauce" but he had to sell his recipe to Frederick Gibson Garton in order to pay off some debts. But this is a rumor and no one can evidence the existence of Palmer as the creator of the HP sauce.

In conclusion, it is a extremely known and bought sauce that have a dark story... but people are not interested in its history, but in its flavour. I have upload an advertising from the 80´s. Enjoy it!

Cottage Pie

The Cottage Pie is a traditional British dish created at the end of the 18th century which consists on a meat pie with a crust of mashed potato, though it can be also covered by cheese. Beef was the type of meat used in this dish.

Its name comes from the fact that it was connected with the poor people who lived in small cottages. Potatoes were the only crops they could afford, so that´s why it is one of its main ingredients.

Something curious about this pie is that it has many variants, as for example the Shepherd´s Pie, which has exactly the same ingredients as the Cottage one, only changing the original beef meat for lamb. Other variants of this original Cottage Pie could be the Fisherman´s Pie (using fish meat) or the Shepherdess Pie (which replaces the meat for vegetables)

Allioli - An international sauce with different labels.

Taking a quick look at some of the most commonly known sauces, we find a very interesting variation in the terminology of what we call “allioli”, being “alioli” or “garlic mayonnaise” in English, since it is composed of eggs, oil and garlic in its original recipe.

Although its origins are said to be in the Roman period, or even in the ancient Egypt, this simple recipe settled down in Catalonia, where it was expanded throughout the Mediterranean coasts becoming a typical accompainment for plenty of dishes.

But what is interesting about its name is that, every single person in southern or central regions of Spain calls this sauce “allioli” (which is a Catalan label meaning “alli i oli”, in English garlic and oil) whereas in Catalonia and the regions where Catalan is spoken, the label to name the recipe is “ajoaceite”, the same two words but in Spanish language.

But what has this peculiarity to do with English then? The answer is as the allioli, very simple. As you know English language tends to simplify and make new words by others which already exist, even taking them from another languages. It happens with many dishes and recipes, as the eggplant (explained in a post below), labeling them depending on their shape or their ingredients, but in the case of the allioli English has not committed the same mistake of the two regions said before. Although English has taken the word from the Catalan, turning it into “alioli” with just one “l”, the most common name for this sauce in England is more intelligent and exact than the Catalan or Spanish ones, since it refers to what exactly the alioli is (not only garlic and oil), that is, a kind of mayonnaise (another word taken from the French). More Exactly, the kind of mayonnaise made up of garlic, and that’s why, the clever English language labels this as garlic mayonnaise.

A fruit which is not a grape!

It´s interesting how the names of the food put us in a certain perspective towards the food itself and towards how we imagine it. If a person says “grapefruit”, you probably think about a fruit which looks like a grape in shape, colour or even flavour. Unfortunately, you would be completely wrong. If we go back to its etymology it´s true that it is a compound formed by “grape” + “fruit”, but this food has nothing to do with grapes in appearance, so why this name?

The grapefruit is a hybrid between the pummelo and the sweet orange. One story about its origin is that the Captain Shaddock brought pummelo seeds to Jamaica and bred it, that´s the reason why it was known as the “shaddock” until the 19^th century. However, the name changed, turned into another one. Why?

There are two theories about the choice of this weird name: The first one and also the more usual is that in the 19^th century a naturalist noticed that the fruits appeared to grow in clusters, like grapes do, and decided that it would be appropriate to call them this way. 

The second one comes from Ciardi, an American etymologist, who stated that the pummelo´s botanical name is “Citrus grandi”, meaning great citrus and that “it would be natural to call the new pummelo variety a “greatfruit”. After saying this name a few times, it sounds like “grapefruit”, unless you make an effort to pronounce it in the right way. That could be the reason why it changed to that form. This last suggestion is merely speculative, there´s nothing that ensures, supports or attests it.

Now it´s up to you to decide which of these theories is more accurate or seems more reasonable for you.

Hope you enjoyed it!  

The Sandwich

Eating sandwich has become a common occurrence in every country in the world. It's affordable, tastes good and is easy to prepare. In fact, it was this last feature which incentived to its creator. It´s easy to be prepared and eaten.

The term sandwich was originated in England. It is estimated that John Montaagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich (England) was an obsessive player. Because of that, he spent much of his time in the game-table.

History tells us that his illness went so far that one day he had no time for lunch because he was in the midst of a competition and he decided to call one of his servants and told him to bring him anything to eat. After a few minutes the assistant returned with a tray full of food. At that time, the count took two slices of bread and introduced a piece of meat between them and ate it gladly of having created a new food, then called Sandwich.

But the most curious fact was that in his will he made ​​clear that the best legacy that he left his country was the creation of the "sandwich".

The Eggplant; plant of eggs?! =O

Speaking about food with strange names we have the Eggplant, or Aubergine. This is a plant which is thought to have its origin in India. Although the word suggests something (a plant that provides eggs), the signifier is completely different; it’s a plant whose fruits are consumed as a vegetable. The name aubergine is because of this colour, belonging to the range of purples and which this vegetable has.

At first, it was believed to be poisonous and it got the “mad apple” label but later, its name changed to the present one leaving aside the previous assumptions.

The name Eggplant rather than Aubergine is used in United States, Australia, New Zealand and Canada to refer to the fruits of some 18^th Century European cultivations which were yellow and white, resembling goose or hen’s eggs.

Bangers and mash

It´s a typical food in England which consists on mash potatoes and sausages. It´s usually accompanied by fried onions. Kids love it and it is very easy to cook.

Why is this dish called in this way? The reason comes from the middle of the 20^th century, specifically from the World War II. People usually did it because it is a plate that can be made with few ingredients and has a lot of vitamins, proteins and carbohydrates. We also have to bear in mind that in this period the population was under rationing so instead of meat, which was very expensive, water was introduced in the sausage. This water, in contact with oil at high temperatures could explode if it was not cooked in an accurate way, producing a bruise similar to the fireworks (bangers). As we can imagine, nowadays the sausages are not filled by water but meat.

Welcome to this blog!!!!

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