While I was up visiting my brother and his wife, near St. Louis, Tim brought up some interesting questions about food... Why is it, when you eat chicken, you're eating chicken?
When you eat turkey, you're eating turkey.
But, when you're eating a cow, you're eating beef. Same with buffalo. You're eating bison. Lamb is lamb. Goat is goat. But, a pig is pork. You don't go out to the shed to feed the porks - you're feeding pigs. When was the last time you ordered hog chops in a restaurant or prime rib of cow or calf marsala in an Italian eatery? Try ordering a chopped up dead cow sandwich the next time you go to a burger joint. Or dip your meat in the cooked blood of cattle cuts instead of au jus. There's that fancy French. Did you ever eat slimy snails? Au contraire, sacre bleu! No, it's escargot. If it sounds too awful to eat, give it a fancy French name, unless, of course, we're talking about sweetbread, the culinary term for the thymus gland (in the throat) and the pancreas (near the stomach) in calves, lambs and pigs. Sounds delicious, doesn't it?
What about cooking methods? What's the difference between baking and roasting in the oven? You can eat baked chicken or you can eat roasted chicken. How come you never eat baked turkey, then? Was that escargot baked or roasted?
Language is very funny when it comes to food. On that note...Peas on Earth, I'm going to go roast an apple pie.
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