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When is cheese not cheese, or crab not crab? When it’s spelled cheez or krab or even ch’eese or cra’b… Novelty spellings for foods-that-aren’t-made-out-of-the-thing-they-sound-like-they’re-made-out-of go back a pretty long way - ‘cheez’ was THE cheese-like substance of the 1920s - but right now, with plant-based foods on the rise, we’re seeing more of them.
Branding consultant and name developer Nancy Friedman casts her expert glance over the apostrophes and deliberate misspellings on foodstuffs; and vegan restaurant owner Melanie Boudens recounts how, this summer, the words ‘cheddar cheese’ on her menu landed her in trouble.
The transcript of this episode is at theallusionist.org/transcripts/foood.
Listen to the other Food Season episodes of the Allusionist and for dessert, check out Nancy’s previous appearance on the Brand It episode. Also, to hear why turkeys are called turkeys, attempt the 2018 Quiz.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
Nancy writes about Wyngz, bac’n and cheez…
…and in a new piece, the m’e’a’t-words. “All of these names are based on an assumption that meat-words are the default and plant-based versions can only aspire to that standard. In most cases, though, the ‘meat-words’ are meaty only from custom, not etymology or history.”
From previous guest Susie Dent, some fascinating food-related etymologies: ‘a ‘companion’ was someone with (com) whom you broke bread (pane), while a ‘mate’ was a friend at your table – the word is a sibling of ‘meat’. A ‘parasite’, on the other hand, was one who ‘sat beside’ you at the table and pinched your scran’.
Historic pies, AKA ‘bake-metes’. Pretty!
Hamburger history - it’s complicated!
About Dr James Salisbury - you can read his book The Relation of Alimentation and Disease, if you want the detailed studies of how he concluded beef pulp cures diarrhoea. If.
The secret of making a steak from cultured meat? ‘Scaffold development’. Mmmmm.
DiGiorno’s short answer about ‘Wyngz’, GIMME THE LONG ANSWER DAMMIT.
It’s a very different kind of meat, but check out the beautiful podcast Meat by Jonathan Zenti.
And, while you’re at it, listen to the very funny Beef and Dairy Network by Benjamin Partridge. I read the word ‘beef’ so many times while researching the Salisbury steak, I began to feel queasy just to look at it, so I don’t know how he copes.
YOUR RANDOMLY SELECTED WORD FROM THE DICTIONARY:
wasm
CREDITS:
Nancy Friedman is a name developer and branding consultant - find out about her work at wordworking.com - and she writes very interesting pieces about brands and words at nancyfriedman.typepad.com and on Medium. She’s @fritinancy on Twitter and Instagram.
Melanie Boudens is the owner and chef of the vegan restaurant Grow Your Roots in Kanata, Ontario. Check out the menu at growyourrootsveganeats.com, and see the food on Instagram.
This episode was produced by me, Helen Zaltzman. Martin Austwick makes the music that you hear in every episode. Download his songs at palebirdmusic.com and listen to his new podcast Year of the Bird about the songs he writes.
Find the show on the socials at twitter.com/allusionistshow, facebook.com/allusionistshow, twitter.com/helenzaltzman and instagram.com/allusionistshow.
