Beestings don’t sting in the kitchen

Let’s have fun with words.

Reader B. Harris kindly shared a treasure trove of words-we-didn’t-know-we-knew, “A Connoisseur’s Collection of Old and New, Weird and Wonderful, Useful and Outlandish Words,” a book by Paul Dickson.

Divided by categories, there are hundreds, nay, thousands, of English words we must stalwartly refuse to lose.

Life! They demand life and they shall have it, on the pages of this newspaper. Please, Dear Readers, do your part and let them fly from your lips. Your breath will become theirs.

Today's are for the foodies (aren’t we all?):

Alliaceous – that garlic odor

Basin – the dimple at the bottom of an apple

Biggin – in a coffeemaker, the basket for grounds

Carapace – the shell of a lobster, crab, or crayfish

Cepivorous – onion-eating

Deaconing – putting the best-looking food on top of other food

Dragées – edible silver sprinkles decorating baked goods

Fletcherize – to chew thoroughly, 30 chews per mouthful

Kissingcrust – when one loaf touches another during baking

Mother – a yeast/bacteria slime which forms on fermenting liquids, turning cider into vinegar. Sorry, Mom.

Nubbin – A small or imperfect ear of corn

Prosage – vegetarian sausage

Rasher – a slice of bacon (still used in the U.K.)

Rimmer – (no, not that) an ornament along the edge of a pie crust

Semese – half-eaten

Skirt – those little globules of ice cream that trickle from the base of a scoop. Skirt is so much easier to say.

Turophile – cheese lover

Wham – meatless ham

Whye – cross of wheat and rye. Tempting alliteration: Want a wham whye-wich?

Just to prove there’s indeed a Z word, a zarf is a holder for a handleless coffee cup. Think plastic outer shell in a 1970s cafeteria.

And beestings? Ask a cow.

“Never leave alphabet soup on the stove. It could spell disaster.” – unknown

Sholeh Patrick is a columnist for the Hagadone News Network who could use a pipkin. Email [email protected].