This afternoon, I bought the world's greatest mandoline -- the professional model made in France by deBuyer -- by pooling several gift certificates useable at a local cooking shop called Sur la Table. I set it up quickly and used it on an apple, a red bell pepper, tomatoes, white onions and even some pitted black olives -- in a moment of whimsy.
While I am entirely satisfied with my new kitchen "essential", I am curious as to how it can have a name so close to the stringed instrument without the "e" -- the mandolin.
Actually both of the instruments can have an e on the end according to onelook.
My guess, though, is that there's a superficial resemblance between the two. Or perhaps the original kitchen utensil named mandoline had thin wires that did the cutting, like those egg slicer thingies.
And congratulations on your purchase. Those puppies are expensive but worth it, I understand. That's one of the things I do not have in my kitchen that I could really use.
I did recently purchase a 10" Messermeister chef's knife on Ebay that I find very useful.
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also the title of a Paul Verlaine poem, set most wonderfully by Fauré. (among others) (apologies if the translation is poor, it was a quick google.)
Mandoline [Mandolin]
Les donneurs de sérénades
Et les belles écouteuses
Echangent des propos fades
Sous les ramures chanteuses.
C'est Tircis et c'est Aminte,
Et c'est l'éternel Clitandre,
Et c'est Damis qui pour mainte
Cruelle fait maint vers tendre.
Leurs courtes vestes de soie,
Leurs longues robes ŕ queues,
Leur élégance, leur joie
Et leurs molles ombres bleues
Tourbillonnent dans l'extase
D'une lune rose et grise,
Et la mandoline jase
Parmi les frissons de brise.
Mandoline [Mandolin]
The givers of serenades
And the beautiful listeners
Exchange conversations insipid
Underneath the singing branches.
It is Tircis and it is Aminte
And it is the eternal Clitandre
And it is Damis who, for many cruel ladies,
Makes many verses tender.
Their short jackets of silk,
Their long dresses with trains,
Their elegance, their joy
And their soft blue shadows.
Tumble in the ecstasy
Of a pink and grey moon,
And the mandolin chatters
Amongst the shimmers of the breeze.
First, would either of you gentlemen like to come cook at my house? My idea of the dernier cri in kitchenware is a ginger grater shaped like a flounder (I love it).
Second, I remember an anecdote in one of my cookbooks about noodles being rolled on a guitar body and cut through the strings. I'll bet whoever did that heard the old "shaving your legs with my razor again" lecture! So maybe someone cut an egg through mandolin strings and dropped it into the belly? That could account for the name, and for that fancy rose on the sound hole in the mandolin!
Never heard that use of mandoline before. Does anyone know, please, if we use the term in the UK?
Thanks Roger. After viewing that I tried Googling UK sites for mandoline and found an old-established Sheffield cutlery firm that makes them. My kitchen vocabulary is obviously as limited as my kitchen skills
.
Maybe we should ask Rebecca. No. Never mind, you said mandoLINE.
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Doctor Bill found us a picture:
http://makeashorterlink.com/?M2FF324FABut mine is WAY prettier.
I guess my liver's been zested...
Wow, this is fascinating, Father Steve! Here's what Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary has:
Main Entry: manˇdoˇlin
Pronunciation: "man-d&-'lin, 'man-d&l-&n
Variant(s): also manˇdoˇline /"man-d&-'lEn, 'man-d&l-&n/
Function: noun
Etymology: Italian mandolino, diminutive of mandola
1 : a musical instrument of the lute family that has a usually pear-shaped body and fretted neck and four to six pairs of strings
2 usually mandoline [French, from Italian mandolino mandolin] : a kitchen utensil with a blade for slicing and shredding A-HA! Take a look!
History of the Mandoline
At the very beginning, the slicer was not yet called the mandoline. But it without any doubt has very old origins. Effectively the first illustrated culinary book was published in 1570 by Bartolomeo Scappi who was pope Pius VIs cook. One of his books illustrations shows a small board with a central cutting blade and with other small perpendicular blades to cut vegetables into thin sticks. We are not able to give an exact date but, given the details of the drawings, such a slicer had probably existed for a long time. The musical instrument, the Mandoline, was created in Italy near Naples. Its ancestor, called the "Mandorre" was an instrument with stiff strings.
This name was probably used for the cooking instrument before the Second World War. However, it was well-known from 1949. Then, Mr Jean BRON, a man from "Haute-Savoie" born in Morzine, made the first metal version. In this way, a wooden vegetable slicer invented by Mr Marcel Forelle, from Toulouse in the south of France, in 1930 was modernized.
The cooking instrument was given the name of the musical one because cooks "play" their mandoline in the same way as musicians. It is often said that at the beginning, the mandoline didn't have a folding stand. The cook simply held it pressed against his chest to slice the vegetables directly above the dish.
It is interesting to notice that in professional cooking, other equipment takes the name of musical instruments such as the piano and the guitar. This came from a commercial site; but if you want to see for yourself, it's:
http://www.simply-natural.biz/Bron-Coucke-Professional-Mandoline.php
> to cut vegetables
and liver.
and liver.
Twice in one thread, eh, eta? That's a new record!
Jackie's post is an example of why she is the "top of the totem pole" poster on this board. Thank you, ma'am.
