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#138170 01/29/05 04:16 AM
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I just received an e-mail message from the cook at the place where I will be staying in Texas the coming week. She knows me because I have insinuated myself into her kitchen in order to learn some of the Southern secrets to making food that tastes so good and is so bad for you. She told me to bring my "skillet."

What is the difference between a skillet and a frying pan? Is it only a regional one or can the two pans be distinguished?



#138171 01/29/05 04:35 AM
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yes, of course there is!
a fry pan is deeper.
both are sized from 8 to 14 inches round, but skillet is only 1.5 to 3 inches deep. a fry pan is 3 to 5 inches deep (the larger 14 inch ones are close to 5 inches--smaller ones are deeper than skillets, but not ss deep as sause pans (or pots!)

you can fry bacon in a skillet, but not chicken.. well not safely!

the low sides of skillet mean you can use it for eggs, and get a flat spatula or pancake turner easily into the pan and flip the eggs (over easily)
the high sides of fry pan would make that very awkward to do.


#138172 01/29/05 12:26 PM
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I only think of skillets as being cast iron, but that's probably just an instance of regional upbringing.

Here's a note from AHD:

"ETYMOLOGY: Middle English skelet, from Old French escuelete, diminutive of escuele, plate, from Latin scutella, diminutive of scutra, platter. "


#138173 01/29/05 01:42 PM
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of troy notwithstanding, I'm voting for regional. The lovely AnnaS refers to our four cooking vessels as skillets or frying pans depending on whether they are or are not respectively made of iron. I would refer to all four as frying pans. None of them is deeper than two inches.

Bring what you'll be cooking in.


#138174 01/29/05 01:56 PM
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To further confuse things, there is something called a saute pan which looks a lot like a frying pan / skillet to me.

http://www.reluctantgourmet.com/saute_pan.htm



#138175 01/29/05 02:09 PM
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Ah! A little physics lesson, Father Steve! In the link you provided, there is mention of the necessity of saute pans having very straight sides so the oil and ingredients immediately fall back onto the bottom rather than landing on the sides.

While reading the requirements there for a good saute pan, I thought, "Hmmm. Why not invent a saute pan with sides that slight slant inward toward the center--ever so slightly--that would further guarantee that food bits and pieces would have no chance of fighting gravity?" Understand? Slight angle inward--maybe one degree.

But then I wondered, "Well, if the angle outward isn't wanted in such a pan, perhaps even a one degree angle inward would produce the same, undesired effect."

Oh, well. It was a thought.


Is anyone else here somewhat disappointed that the etymology of 'skillet' isn't more interesting?


#138176 01/29/05 04:20 PM
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Couple things: first, I would never say "cast iron frying pan"; it just...ew. Helen--loved your eggs over easily! I think your def.'s were better, too.
Now, from Gurunet, if I can keep it coming up--it wants me to adopt its new version:
skil·let (skĭl'ĭt)
n.
1. See frying pan. See Regional Note at andiron, frying pan.
2. Chiefly British. A long-handled stewing pan or saucepan sometimes having legs.
[Middle English skelet, from Old French escuelete, diminutive of escuele, plate, from Latin scutella, diminutive of scutra, platter.]


fry·ing pan (frī'ĭng)
n.
A shallow, long-handled pan used for frying food. Also called skillet; also called regionally fry pan, spider.

REGIONAL NOTE The terms frying pan and skillet are now virtually interchangeable, but there was a time when they were so regional as to be distinct dialect markers. Frying pan and the shortened version fry pan were once New England terms; frying pan is now in general use, as is the less common fry pan, now heard in the Atlantic states, the South, and the West, as well as New England. Skillet seems to have been confined to the Midland section of the country, including the Upper South. Its use is still concentrated there, but it is no longer used in that area alone, probably because of the national marketing of skillet dinner mixes. The term spider, originally denoting a type of frying pan that had long legs to hold it up over the coals, spread from New England westward to the Upper Northern states and down the coast to the South Atlantic states. It is still well known in both these regions, although it is now considered old-fashioned. See Note at andiron.


and·i·ron (ănd'ī'ərn)
n.
One of a pair of metal supports used for holding up logs in a fireplace. Also called dog; also called regionally dog iron, firedog.

[Middle English aundiren, alteration (influenced by Middle English iren, iron) of Old French andier, of Celtic origin.]

REGIONAL NOTE A number of words that formerly were limited to one region of the U.S. are now used throughout the country. Andiron was once Northern, contrasting with Southern dog iron and fire dog. The Southern terms remain limited to that region, but andiron is now everywhere. Other formerly Northern words that have become national include faucet, contrasting with Southern spigot; frying pan, contrasting with Midland and Upper Southern skillet; and freestone peach, contrasting with clearseed and open peach in parts of the South. Southern words that are now used nationwide include feisty and gutters. See Note at frying pan.


I remember that we had a discussion on faucet/spigot, etc. I have never heard the terms "clearseed and open peach".







#138177 01/31/05 11:51 PM
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clearseed and open peach. subsequently transport peach to previously opened mouth.
sounds like technobabble for how to eat a peach.


#138178 02/01/05 11:24 AM
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Southern words that are now used nationwide include feisty and gutters.

Gutters is a Southern word?? Surely this has always been the word used for those kind of channel thingies along the outer edges of pavements (sidewalks to the left bankers)? Or is there some special meaning intended here - not just the places from which one is drug up?


#138179 02/01/05 11:40 AM
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yeahbut what do you have on the edge of your roofff, dixbieland?


#138180 02/02/05 07:15 AM
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Well, yes, those are gutters too. Still don't understand about the Southern usage though? Sometimes a candle gutters...


#138181 02/02/05 07:23 AM
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Perhaps the word has been known all along outside the United States, but within the United States only by the Southern States?

Bingley


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#138182 02/02/05 09:40 AM
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Gutters is a Southern word? .... Or is there some special meaning intended here - not just the places from which one is drug up?

Seems like, dxb:

The channels along the edge of a roof for carrying away rainwater (normally referred to in the plural) are variously known as eaves troughs or, less commonly, eaves spouts in parts of New England, the Great Lakes states, and, for the former, the West; spouting or rainspouts in eastern Pennsylvania and the Delmarva Peninsula; and gutters from Virginia southward.

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=gutter

I suppose you could say that "gutter trash" and later "trailer trash" came out of the South as well, but that wouldn't be real polite.

If you've got your mind in the gutter, your mind is collecting a lot of trash just like an eaves trough, but no-one says you've got your mind in a trough.

So gutters gave us "gutter trash" and it was a short trip from there to "trailer trash".

Now, that's ironic, isn't it? I wish Aorto was around to read this. Gutters gave us trailer trash but there are no gutters on a trailer.

gutter adj. Befitting the lowest class of human life; vulgar, sordid, or unprincipled: gutter language; the gutter press.

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=gutter

Gutters also gave us "gutter snipe":

Gutter snipe, a neglected boy running at large;
From LITDOTORG - http://www.indictionary.com

Before I leave this subject, I should probably even the score, regionally speaking. We owe "your mind is in the gutter" to the South, but we owe "your head is in the trough" to the North.

Of course, the trough I'm referring to is the feed trough. Politicians in the North must have had a leg up on the South in this department.



#138183 02/03/05 03:19 AM
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I was always under the impression that the gutter in "gutter press" and "mind in the gutter" referred to the road-side gutters rather than roof guttering.

Bingley


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#138184 02/03/05 04:25 AM
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re "road-side gutters rather than roof guttering": Which came first, curbs or gables?

Perhaps, Bingley, but they are the same thing, functionally, are they not? They are both designed to collect run-off and direct it by force of gravity to a downspout or sewer.

Perhaps streets had gutters before buildings had gutters, but considering that the word "gutters" originated in the South, not in the North, it seems [to me] most likely that gutters appeared on the rooftops of the Old South before they appeared on the streets of the Old South -- but who knows? Perhaps themilum [from the great state of Alabama].

BTW dxb makes an interesting point: Sometimes a candle gutters...

Do you see any connection between 'water guttering' and 'flame guttering', Bingley? A guttering flame bends in a breeze.*

Gravity is to water what wind is to flame. And a guttering catches both water and flame in a draft.

Wikepedia: To draft water from a reservoir is to suction water from it.

* dxb has very helpfully cleared this up in his new "gutter press" thread.

I see where I went astray now. A candle flame sputters and flutters in a draft, but candle flames do not "gutter". It is the candle itself which "gutters" [in melting wax].

Now I get it. Thanks, dxb. :)

#138185 02/08/05 09:24 PM
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I hope you had an opportunity to warm milk in that skillet, Father Steve.

From Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, W.W. Skeat:

SKILLET (1) a small pot. (Scand; with F. suffix.) … skele is the same as the prov. E. skeel, a milk-pail, a diary-vessel (see E.D.D.). From this word we have the dimin. skillet, a little pot or pan, also still in use. …. The mod. E. ee (ME. e) answers to AS, eo and Icel. jo; hence the derivation is from Icel. skjola, a pail, bucket, of which Vigfusson notes that it is the same as “the North E. and Scot. skeel or skeil, a milk-pan. Skillet (also skellet) is a diminutive; the F dimin suffix –et may easily have been suggested (as Prof Weekley says) by association with the word posnet, also a dialectal word with the sense of “iron pot” or “saucepan.”

I noticed a second skillet in this dictionary. Variously spelled “skillet” and “skellat”, it seems that it means “a little bell”, and derives from OF esquilette -> eschelette, a little handbell.

Oddly, both terms have connections to Icelandic. The handbell skillet connects to Icel. skella, a rattle to scare horses, skella, to clash; allied to the Icel. Strong verb skjalla, AS. scellan, to resound, clash.



#138186 02/09/05 06:00 AM
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I hope you had an opportunity to warm milk in that skillet, Father Steve.

I arrived in Texas without a single cooking implement in my luggage. Miss Cyndy, the chief cook, allowed me to use a few of hers. Texans can be so very hospitable.

It is a good thing that Lent begins at midnight tonight. I ate enough chicken-fried steak and biscuits with country gravy and barbecued ribs and deep-fried okra and deep-fried catfish and hush puppies to clog up seven people's coronary arteries. I'm thinking that if I live on sprouts for the forty days of Lent, perhaps mine will become unclogged.




#138187 02/09/05 03:26 PM
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Sounds like great fun, Father S. Flavors galour!

What do you all call the large, handleless grill that can accommodate great pancakes? We call ours at home the 'griddle.'

Handleless: Well, almost. There are two opposite-sided short cast iron handles, very short, but no long handle.


#138188 02/09/05 03:52 PM
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What do you all call the large, handleless grill that can accommodate great pancakes? ... We call ours at home the 'griddle.'

Hey, Wordwind. It's called a pancake griddle or skillet.

http://www.cookingwithkids.com/pep/mother/breakfast/pancake.html

But you can call yours a skiddle 'cause it's got handles.


#138189 02/09/05 04:08 PM
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> if I live on sprouts for the forty days of Lent...

you can stand downwind of us! Gives gastronomy a [w]hole new meaning :)


#138190 02/09/05 04:17 PM
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It's not just a pancake griddle. It's a griddle that's used for all kinds of frying that doesn't require a lot of fat. And we wouldn't call the griddle a skillet because it's larger than we think of skillets and not as deep as a skillet in our geographical area. Also, we think of skillets as having long handles.

I was just wondering whether others here refer to large, very shallow, virtually handleless pans as 'griddles,' too. And not as skillets.




#138191 02/09/05 06:17 PM
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I call it a griddle, too, WW. But then, you and I are regionally suspect (cf skillet).


#138192 02/09/05 09:10 PM
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It seems that there are three sorts of things which might all (properly) be called a griddle. One is a big old cast iron or steel thing that fits over several burners on the stove/range and is used to cook things like pancakes. Another is a stand-alone electrical device which is used for the same purpose and is usually called an electric grill (rather than griddle) 'tho I think of grills as mostly being grated. The third is the huge metal fry-top on a commercial stove on which burgers, hash browns and pancakes are all cooked in restaurants, to which some people refer as a griddle, 'tho I tend to call it a grill, even 'tho it doesn't have grates. Confusing, eh?



#138193 02/10/05 04:06 PM
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Do you know if there is a particular name for this?
Cast iron, like a Dutch oven, with lid, but with a handle like a fry pan, not a thick wire handle to hang it by (wish it did). I use it on top of the wood stove for soups and such.


#138194 02/11/05 01:29 PM
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Dear Bow ~

Yah, I have one of those, too. I inherited it from my mother and know that, with proper care, one of my children will cart it away to their kitchen when I am dead and gone.

I would call it a Dutch oven, save for the handle which is clearly frying pan size and shape. I would call it a frying pan, save that it is much deeper than a frying pan and has a heavey, cast iron lid. I have used it for deep frying -- back before I spent way too much money on a fancy deep fryer out of a catalogue.

Conclusion: it is entirely possible to use an implement in the kitchen for many decades without knowing what it is ... or, at least, what to properly call it.



#138195 02/11/05 02:29 PM
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Dear Father Steve,
I find myself in good company then. I’m an amateur in the kitchen, but I have my fun. On cold weekends, when I usually use the wonderful old cooker, we will mull over possible names. I got mine from my Mother-in-law; I think she got it from her Mom. One of my two sons will cook with it next, maybe the one that gives it the best name.


#138196 02/11/05 03:33 PM
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If this
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00004S9HH.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg is what you're talking about, a famous maker of cast-iron cookware calls it a chicken fryer. Another commercial cookware site called it a fry pan. We have one (though considerably more seasoned) that my father-in-law bought decades ago so his wife could fry enough potatos for the entire family (meaning, I gather, that there had been times when he hadn't gotten enough!); we just call it the deep skillet. That thing has caused a couple of minor domestic fracases (fracasees?): we have rather limited storage in our kitchen (and hopefully that situation will be improved this weekend), and occasionally my husband will put it in the oven as a place to keep it. I, never expecting anything to be in there, come along and preheat as usual, and discover much later that I have a very hot iron skillet (and lid) to find a safe place for so that I can bake whatever.


#138197 02/11/05 03:56 PM
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http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00004S9HH.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

It's just a dutch oven with a different handle.





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#138198 02/11/05 09:50 PM
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Jackie writes: "we have rather limited storage in our kitchen."

And the Vicar responds: "This is easily remedied by evicting the entire contents of a nearby closet and claiming it as 'overflow' for kitchen implements which are used less of than those kept in the kitchen proper. It worked in our house."



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Our kitchen cabinets have migrated into the laundry room.

I propose a new kitchen design. This is how it would work:

You would have a panel of buttons that would operate lifts in various parts of the kitchen floor.

Press button #1: Presto! The part of the floor to the left of the sink would rise into a full cabinet for extra pots.

Press button #2: Presto! The floor to the right of the sink
would rise into a full cabinet for extra pans.

Each part of the floor would cover a little cave of cabinets. In fact, I would call this invention "kitchen cavinets."



#138200 02/12/05 12:48 AM
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message from dubdub's kitchen:

"Help! Someone get me down from here! Please? I can't reach the button from up here! Is anyone there? Helllll~ooooooo?!"


#138201 02/12/05 01:10 AM
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Ha! Mav', thanks for pointing out a design flaw. Easy to correct: Each kitchen cavinet would have emergency buttons on the inside walls of the cavinet shelves.

Next big problem: Designing the seals so that water couldn't seep down into the cavinets when scrubbing the floor. NASA would certainly be up to the design task.

Now what to do with the cat?


#138202 02/14/05 12:52 PM
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That's the one Jackie.
Turkey dinner last night,
turkey soup starts tonight on the woodstove. Cast on cast - It will be quite an aromatic romance.


#138203 02/21/05 11:12 PM
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On February 27 and 28 and March 3, 4 and 6, the Food Network will present the "Slam Dunk Skillet Showdown" -- a televised competition from San Antonio, Texas, in which basketball coaches and local chefs compete in doing things -- some athletic, some culinary. One suspects that they have a firm idea of what a skillet is .. right, wrong or indifferent.




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Dat player's highly skillet, yeah?


#138205 02/21/05 11:42 PM
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home skillet n 1. a very good friend. 2. one's girlfriend or boyfriend.

~The Online Slang Dictionary


Mav, thanks, home skillet.
Stephen


#138206 02/21/05 11:47 PM
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Maybe we should get used to the three classes of language being good, bad and... different! :)

[/hangin' wid da homies]


#138207 02/22/05 12:57 AM
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you da pan....



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#138208 02/22/05 01:52 AM
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the three classes of language being good, bad and... different!

This is an excellent proposal. Good language is good because it works. Bad language is bad because it doesn't. People who are good at good language tend to lump different language in with the bad, because it doesn't work for them. If it works for others (e.g. the homies in the hood) then it is not so much bad as just different.

How do you suppose the French think of the patois spoken in the Channel Islands?

How do you suppose speakers of Icelandic and Norwegian think of that language spoken in the Faroe Islands?

What does a Continental Portuguese speaker think when she hears someone from Rio Grande do Sul speaking the Gaúchan dialect of Brazillian Portuguese (in a way that is more understandable to some Argentinians)?

I am not hanging up my prescriptivist spurs hereby, but am admitting that, in addition to good English and bad English, there is also different English.




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In Québec, there are two different categories of language that are categorized as non-standard French.

A patois is a regional dialect. I'd say we classify it as a different language.

Joual is a butchering of the language and is considered bad language. An example is when somebody says, ouin (sounds like wain) instead of oui (oooy) (this means YES in French). Tsé (approx pronunciation: tsay - in one syllable) instead of Tu sais (approx pronunciation: too say) (this means "you know")


#138210 02/22/05 03:27 AM
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I plead guilty but the statute of limitations has doubtless run.

Two expressions which we used relentlessly while I was an undergraduate illustrate the propensity to contract entire sentences:

When wondering if a chum had dined, the form of inquiry was "jeet-jet?" which contracted the entire sentence "Did you eat yet?"

If the response was in the negative, it was followed by the invitation "Squeet" which contracted the whole sentence "Let us go eat."

I feel so guilty.


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Jumping into the frying pan, or the fire, as the case may be-since the rest of you have swept through the gutters and gone on world-wide pidgin hunts since this thread began, and I just now looked in--
A griddle can be round, square, or oblong, but has almost no sides atall...
And I never knew before why some cooks called the skillet a spider. They took the word away from its original meaning and the only connection I could see was that a flat-bottomed skillet might be good for smashing spiders!


#138212 02/22/05 11:36 AM
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jeet-jet … squeet

Next thang you gonna say "good-bye" when you really mean "God be with you."


#138213 02/22/05 11:41 AM
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I see it now:

all language distilled to a single syllable....


ommm....



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