Language and food; two of my favourite things. Working as we do at a leading food and  drink marketing agency, office conversation routinely turns to the latter – restaurant recommendations, preferred snacks, new recipe triumphs (new recipe fails), sweet vs. savoury, favourite trends, overrated fads, kitchen hacks – the list goes on.

When, recently, the subject of biscuits was being fiercely debated (looking at you Jaffa Cakes) it got me thinking about the word itself and how, once the lid is lifted, it’s possible to see just how closely intertwined food and language is.

Here’s a rundown of some of my favourites:

  • Literally ‘twice cooked’ from the French ‘bi’ and ‘cuit’ (you can see the same direct translation in Italian with ‘biscotti’). All thanks to the original process of returning biscuits to the oven after an initial bake to fully dry them out.
  • A classic for a reason – as simple as breaking the fast of the night before with the first meal of the day.
  • Broken down from the Italian ‘tira’ – pick, ‘mi’ – me, ‘su’ – up, there’s surely no better name for a dessert full of coffee, cream and sugar.

  • Derived from the word barbacoa, for the raised wooden framework used to cook meat over an open flame so named by the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean and brought back to Europe by Spanish explorers in the 16th century.
  • Taken from the word ‘tandoor’ meaning a traditional clay oven in Persian and representing the way in which multiple dishes (such as chicken but also including naan, rotis and other meats) would have been cooked.
  • Several possible explanations are out there, but by all accounts, the most plausible is that back in the 17th century horses that weren’t thoroughbred had their tails docked to stick up like a cock’s. A cock-tailed horse was a mix, and so, by default over time, a cocktail was a mixed drink.

Any we’ve missed? Let us know @jellybeanagency.

 

Clare Fellowes-Freeman
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