Cupboard Love
By Mark
Morton
Insomniac Press, 2004
336 pages $21.95
Even
before the Wal–Mart is festooned with garlands of plastic
holly
and tinny carols drip from the PA speakers, Echo has a
holiday
gift idea that may save your bacon as the season draws
near.
Recently, a book perfect for reading for your own pleasure
or
for giving to that culinary aficionado on your list who already
has enough spoons landed on our desks. Cupboard Love: A
Dictionary of Culinary Curiosities by Mark Morton has been
re–released from Insomniac Press in a second revised edition.
The
first edition of Cupboard Love was published in 1996 and was
nominated for a Julia Child Award the following year. The second edition contains a sumptuous feast of more than a thousand culinary word–histories.
Written in an engaging and light-hearted
style, Morton’s
histories trace the origins of culinary terms
from their birth in
languages and cultures spanning the globe
and recorded history,
tracing the word’s permutations and the
cultural borrowings that
have brought it to English. Words
related to culinary terms which
have been adopted elsewhere in
popular culture are rounded up
and placed back in their original
context, as in the entry for
"mensa": “In 1962, a group of smart
people, tired of each other’s
company, decided to form a club
for people with IQs over 148….
Certain that the name 'Smart
People’s Club' would alienate the
general public (whom they
feared) they chose the name Mensa,
which is Latin for 'table.' The
name was not intended to suggest
their penchant for dinner
parties, but rather to demonstrate that
they all knew what the
Latin word for 'table' was.”
The words Morton selects as entries are a
veritable
hodgepodge of culinary and food–related terms, from
everyday
foods like the “hoagie” to more exotic dishes like
“rubbaboo,”
from the herbs and spices of medieval England to
modern
cooking implements. Entries on such fascinating culinary
phenomena as Turducken, plonk, and the fart (an unavoidable
consequence of gastronomic enjoyment) illuminate the mysteries
of our language’s origins and history. Were you aghast at
Americans renaming French fries as freedom fries? Well take a
look at the entry for liberty cabbage. Ever nibbled a croissant and
wondered where the pastry originated and how it got its name?
Read the croissant entry and your life will never be the same.
Cupboard Love is a book for word buffs, cooking enthusiasts
and polymaths. Any time you pick it up you can flip to an entry at
random and discover something new there. Looking for
more information on a specific term will be a little more hit and
miss, however, as Morton’s choice of terms is idiosyncratic and
likely depends on the amount of interesting information his
research of a term turned up.
The main drawback of the book is the
potential for negative
social consequences after reading a few entries. It is very
difficult
not to share some or all of the tidbits of information on culinary
curiosities you’ve collected. So be warned, the Cliff Clavin factor
of your conversation will increase.
Mark Morton is an assistant professor of English in Winnipeg
and the language columnist for CBC’s Definitely Not the Opera.
His other publications include The Lover’s Tongue: A Merry Romp
Through the Language of Love and Sex, where his hobby takes a
turn toward more titillating topics.
