Why are main courses called entrees in the US? Why isn’t the entree the first course of a meal? In 19th Century Britain, the entree came after a course of soup or fish, but before the main portion of the meal, such as a boar’s head. Over time, the main course converged into one course, but the name entree stuck. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Entrees”
Here’s an email from listener Hugh Ault.
He asks a question that a lot of people have sent to us.
He says, could you discuss at some point why entree in the U.S. means main dish, while elsewhere it means what it suggests, that is, the dish at the beginning of the meal?
And there is a lot of confusion about that, right, Grant?
Because entree, you would think it would be the first thing.
Right.
If you know any French at all, you would expect that it means something first.
Right.
Yeah.
Right.
But the trick is that in the 19th century, formal dining in Britain, the entree came later in the meal because you started out usually with something like soup or fish.
And then you had the entree, which was the entree, so to speak, into the main roast or joint, as they would say.
So it wasn’t the entry point into the whole meal.
Right.
It was the entry point into the pièce de résistance.
Right.
Right.
The big thing.
Right.
The boar’s head with the knife stuck in it and the apple in its mouth, right?
Exactly.
Yes.
That wasn’t the entree, but the entree was the lead up to that.
Some little saucy thing, right?
Yes.
Entree in English then kind of took its own legs and ran away and did something else and left French behind and said, see you later.
Yeah.
I’m going to become the main course myself, right?
Right.
And so if you understand the etymology, it’s a little confusing, but we just kind of have to chalk it up to language changing out from underneath us.
Yes.
Kind of.
Yes.
Right.
Well said.
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