A dish in
gastronomy
Gastronomy is the study of the relationship between food and culture, the art of preparing and serving rich or delicate and appetizing food, the cooking styles of particular regions, and the science of good eating. One who is well versed in gastr ...
is a specific food preparation, a "distinct article or variety of food", ready to
eat or to be served.
A dish may be served on
tableware
Tableware is any dish or dishware used for setting a table, serving food, and dining. It includes cutlery, List of glassware, glassware, serving dishes, and other items for practical as well as decorative purposes. The quality, nature, variet ...
, or may be eaten in one's hands.
Instructions for preparing a dish are called
recipe
A recipe is a set of instructions that describes how to prepare or make something, especially a dish of prepared food. A sub-recipe or subrecipe is a recipe for an ingredient that will be called for in the instructions for the main recipe.
His ...
s.
Some dishes, for example a
hot dog
A hot dog (uncommonly spelled hotdog) is a food consisting of a grilled or steamed sausage served in the slit of a partially sliced Hot dog bun, bun. The term hot dog can refer to the sausage itself. The sausage used is a wiener (Vienna sausag ...
with
ketchup
Ketchup or catsup is a table condiment with a sweet and tangy flavor. The unmodified term ("ketchup") now typically refers to tomato ketchup, although early recipes used egg whites, mushrooms, oysters, grapes, mussels, or walnuts, among other ...
, rarely have their own recipes printed in
cookbooks
A cookbook or cookery book is a kitchen reference containing recipes.
Cookbooks may be general, or may specialize in a particular cuisine or category of food.
Recipes in cookbooks are organized in various ways: by course (appetizer, first cour ...
as they are made by simply combining two ready-to-eat foods.
Naming
Many dishes have specific names, such as
sauerbraten
Sauerbraten is a traditional German roast of heavily marinated meat. It is regarded as a national dish of Germany, and is frequently served in German-style restaurants internationally. It can be prepared from a variety of meats, most often from ...
, while others have descriptive names, such as "broiled ribsteak". Many are named for particular places, sometimes because of a specific association with that place, such as
Boston baked beans
Boston baked beans are a variety of baked beans, sweetened with molasses, and flavored with salt pork or bacon.
History
Native Americans had made corn bread and baked beans. The Pilgrims at Plymouth Colony learned these recipes in the early 1 ...
or
''bistecca alla fiorentina'', and sometimes not: ''poached
eggs
Humans and human ancestors have scavenged and eaten animal eggs for millions of years. Humans in Southeast Asia had domesticated chickens and harvested their eggs for food by 1,500 BCE. The most widely consumed eggs are those of fowl, especial ...
Florentine'' essentially means "poached eggs with
spinach
Spinach (''Spinacia oleracea'') is a leafy green flowering plant native to central and western Asia. It is of the order Caryophyllales, family Amaranthaceae, subfamily Chenopodioideae. Its leaves are a common edible vegetable consumed either f ...
". Some are named for particular individuals:
* To
honor
Honour (British English) or honor (American English; see spelling differences) is the idea of a bond between an individual and a society as a quality of a person that is both of social teaching and of personal ethos, that manifests itself as a ...
them: for example,
Brillat-Savarin cheese
Brillat-Savarin is a soft-ripened triple cream cow's milk cheese with at least 72% fat in dry matter (roughly 40% overall). It has a natural, bloomy rind. It was created c. 1890 as "Excelsior" or "Délice des gourmets" ("Gourmets' delight") b ...
, named for the 18th-century French gourmet and famed political figure
Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (; 1 April 1755, Belley, Ain – 2 February 1826, Paris) was a French lawyer and politician, who, as the author of ''The Physiology of Taste'' (''Physiologie du Goût''), gained fame as an epicure and gastronome: " ...
;
* After the first person for whom the dish was prepared: for example, Chaliapin steak, made by the order of the
Russian opera
Russian opera ( Russian: Ру́сская о́пера ''Rússkaya ópera'') is the art of opera in Russia. Operas by composers of Russian origin, written or staged outside of Russia, also belong to this category, as well as the operas of foreig ...
singer
Feodor Chaliapin
Feodor Ivanovich Chaliapin ( rus, Фёдор Ива́нович Шаля́пин, Fyodor Ivanovich Shalyapin, ˈfʲɵdər ɪˈvanəvʲɪtɕ ʂɐˈlʲapʲɪn}; April 12, 1938) was a Russian opera singer. Possessing a deep and expressive bass v ...
in 1934 in Japan;
* After the inventor, either being given the name by that person or because the dish was created in the inventor's
kitchen
A kitchen is a room or part of a room used for cooking and food preparation in a dwelling or in a commercial establishment. A modern middle-class residential kitchen is typically equipped with a stove, a sink with hot and cold running water, a ...
.
Some dishes have many stories about their creation, which can sometimes make it difficult to know the true origin of the name of a dish.
See also
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*
References
External links
Famous Food Dishes and How they Got Their Names
{{Authority control
Food preparation