Tonight 8.30 BBC2: Raymond Blanc on Charcuterie

[wheels]

Thanks Ian. Even basking in my ignorance I wouldn't dream of calling Pot au Feu Charcuterie! I didn't know about the chicken liver paté (pâté?) though.

[Ianinfrance]

I was pretty disappointed generally, as I said.

But I have thought of a preparation which I'd definitely call charcuterie even if not even the squeak of a pig has entered into it - that's Duck or Goose Rillettes, and I'm sure there are others too. But that squeezes in through my backdoor of "substituting another meat for pork in something that would be Charcuterie if it were made from pork."

It's not a matter of vast importance of itself, IMO. What made it so was that the program wasn't what it purported to be and that a renowned chef will have misled the public.

[beardedwonder5]

At odds with you all! Try a walk down a French street with a number of food shops (small town is ok.) Window gaze = window definition. (So I think there are two current definitions: 1) technical; 2) worldly. And a third mis-definition: a word which some tv producer thinks will sell a program to fans of celebrity chefs.)

By the way a lexicographer is EXTREMELY suspicious of "definition by reference to etymology."

[saucisson]

The best bit of the program for me was certainly the cured duck

[Ianinfrance]

Yes Dave, I rather agree with you.

Though it has to be said it is quite different from the way I do mine. But it looks very interesting all the same and may try it just to compare.

(Does it count as charcuterie?)

[Ianinfrance]

BW,

So how would YOU - as a lexicographer - define charcuterie?

Remembering that it's a French word and that the French language IS officially defined by the Académie Française.

[grisell]

[---]
(Does it count as charcuterie?)

You should know, Ian, you're in France. (char cuit = cooked meat? )

[beardedwonder5]

Pragmatically. If used in a book title, I'd be thinking in terms of pork and cured products. But if the book was designed to help an artisan make a living, I'd be thinking of including the stuff you see in the windows, like toms in mayo, stuffed eggs, etc.

I'm not a lexicographer. But a long time ago I did couple of couses in linguistics. The books and lectures notes would have been over 50 years old, if they still existed. Long gone. A few whisps of memory.

"Cooked meat"? Parma ham?

[wheels]

Now I'm totally confused?

[quietwatersfarm]

Clearly, I'm not french (unless my parents were both very good at english accents!) and Im no linguist, but these days I think the term Charcuterie is reasonably applied to cover all types of meat that have been preserved (and often enhanced in the process) by some means or another.

[grisell]

[---]
"Cooked meat"? Parma ham?

I just raised the question. I didn't take sides.