Ketchup, catsup, and catchup are all anglicized versions of a Chinese dialect term for a type of fish brine. In the 17th century, British and Dutch traders brought the sauce to Europe, and the name evolved, as did the recipe, which eventually...
A North Carolina listener is curious about his meemaw’s use of a term meaning “food” that he heard as either jasmine or jassum. A dialectal term with various spellings that include jassum, jasum, and jazm can mean “gravy,” “sauce,” or even “juice...
If you need a synonym for stench, there’s always hogo, from French haut-gout, literally “high flavor.” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Hogo” Here’s a word that was a new one on me, HOGO, H-O-G-O. Do you know this one, Grant? No...
Melissa in Grand Prairie, Texas, hails from a family in New Jersey that refers to red pasta sauce with meat in it as gravy. Her family has Italian roots, and in their local dialect, the word for “sauce” can also be translated as “gravy.” Sicilian...
Questions from young listeners and conversations about everything from shifting slang to a bizarre cooking technique. Kids ask about how to talk about finding information on the internet, how tartar sauce got its name, and if the expression high and...
The word julep, from Persian terms meaning “rose water,” usually refers to a mint-and-bourbon alcoholic beverage with a kick as strong as a Kentucky Derby winner. But one family from North Carolina has a sauce they call julep: a half-empty bottle of...