"Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us."

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Homemade bread day


Today is Homemade Bread Day, a time to look at breads from around the world. Not surprisingly, something that's been consumed by humans for so very long in so very many places goes by a variety of names. The Latin word for bread, panis, gave English both the noun paneity, meaning "the quality or state of being bread" and the adjective panary meaning "of or related to bread or breadmaking."

Now let's look at five varieties of bread. The flat Italian bread typically seasoned with herbs and olive oil is called foccacia(i practically can eat this and only this forever) after the Latin word for hearth.

Pan dulce
entered English from American Spanish (where it literally means "sweet bread"). But the Americanized pan dulce names not the edible organs of an animal but such sweetened breads as raisin buns.

Then there's pumpernickel, whose German ancestors translate roughly as "goblin who breaks wind" and which may have gotten its name from its indigestible.

If that's too coarse for you, try some Sally Lunn, slightly sweetened raised bread baked as a thin loaf or muffins and eaten hot with butter. The original Sally Lunn was an 18th century baker.

Finally, there's naan, flat leavened bread associated with the Indian subcontinent. The word naan comes from the Persian, Hindi and Urdu word for bread.

2 comments:

Mr. Urs said...

some naan for me please.

Suf n Steve said...

and how do you like your naan to be served with?

chatney, spicy sambal, or curry or dhall

heheheh

i like all