Till I step on the brakes to get out of her clutches

[venta]

The more I read recipes online, the more I become convinced that Americans have a different word for almost everything. Lots of my cookery books have "translations" in them, and I'm down with the eggplant, the zucchini, the capsicum, the scallions... For years I thought I was pretty much sorted, yet still things keep catching me out. After loads of mentions on Just Bento, I finally got round to trying to work out whether I could buy arugula in the UK. Oh. It's rocket.

Today, I was reading a recipe for bolognese sauce. "In a Dutch oven," it began "over medium heat, heat the oil. Add the onion and cook for 2 minutes." In a what now?

Back in the days when I did a lot of Scouting (and learned a lot of verses of You'll Never Get To Heaven) we used to build what we called Dutch ovens from oil drums when camping. Find a steep hillside, dig a hole into it so you can lay your oil drum flat, scoop out small depression in bottom of hole, add oil drum, cover over again with earth. There are details, like leaving a gap at the back to make a chimney out of tin cans, but the basic principle is: light fire under drum, drum gets hot, hey presto, oven.

You can make a mean pizza in a Dutch oven.

Except... the internet suggests that this is not what a Dutch oven is at all. In fact, the internet doesn't seem to have much to say (on a very quick google) on re-purposing oil drums as camping ovens. I guess whoever taught us to make them called them Dutch ovens and we followed suit. Anyway, they're pretty much unsuitable for heating oil and browning onions in.

From Wikipedia it seems an American person talking about a Dutch oven basically means a flame-proof casserole dish.

I've learned something already today.

Comments

[ailbhe]

What do you call scallions? I grew up with Irish salad - iceberg lettuce, pale tomato, watery cucumber, and scallions.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Makes me wonder what Americans cook casseroles in. If they eat casseroles, that is: maybe they call them something different too.

(Actually, saying that, I'm not sure I've ever cooked an official 'casserole' in any of my casserole dishes. Lots of bakes, stews, hotpots etc, but 'casserole' seems to imply traditional French cooking, which I don't really do.)

[sushidog.livejournal.com]

I have encountered the American use of "Dutch oven" but I would say "oven" implies dry heat, so if it's being used for a stew or casserole it's not really an oven.
Having said that, I have baked a cake in a Dutch oven; or at least, I have put a cake tin full of cake mix into my biggest le Creuset casserole, put the lid on, and put it on the hob to bake (the oven had failed to pre-heat, and I thought the cake mix would go flat by the time it got hot enough). It worked surprisingly well.

and speak Double Dutch with a real double duchess.

[pseudomonas.livejournal.com]

Urban Dictionary has a definition for this as well, but it is less helpful.

[the-alchemist.livejournal.com]

I thought it was something to do with farting in bed!