Why do we use the phrase that something is “as American as apple pie” when apple pie itself was invented before America was even founded? (This 1361 English recipe reads like a Twitter micro-recipe — “Tak gode Applys and gode Spycis,” it begins, and ends with instructions to “bake wel.”)

Back in 1989, Russell Baker ran a New York Times contest “to discover a new cliche for the outmoded expression ‘as American as apple pie,’” offering a frozen apple pie as a reward. He was disappointed with the results.

And 20 years later, the increasingly quaint-sounding but still widely used idiom is defined by the Cambridge University dictionary as meaning to be typically American, although what that means is as diverse as the recipe for apple pie.

The once-nostalgic phrase is just as often used to make a political point about who we have become, “as American as apple pie” used to describe torture, bank nationalization and socialism, to name a few.

In a country as diverse as ours, is it even possible to use a single dish as a metaphor to capture the essence of the nation? From a purely food point of view, which dishes seem most American to you?

Who came up with the expression forbidden fruit to symbolize an object of desire that’s tempting precisely because we’re not supposed to want it?

Photo: Artichoke Hearts And Andouille (Cookthink)

An awful-sounding British term for a food group known as “variety meats” in the U.S., people tend to divide on the subject of offal.

This week, Minced Words is considering foods with confused geographical identities.

Like couscous, so-called Israeli couscous are small, round, pasta-like granules made from semolina and wheat flour. But it turns out that what we call Israeli couscous is just a marketing term invented in the 1950s for a product that already existed in North Africa and Palestine.

Photo: Fish And Chips (Cookthink)

This week, Minced Words is considering foods with confused geographical identities.

Deep-fried sliced potatoes are known the world over as French fries (except in Britain, Australia and New Zealand, where often thick-cut deep- or “French-fried” potatoes are referred to as chips and briefly in the U.S., when they were rebranded as Freedom Fries by disgruntled Republicans who didn’t like the French government’s refusal to endorse the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq).

The French themselves call this fatty side dish pommes frites — or just frites. So why do we call fries French?

Photo: Smoked Pork Shoulder In Dry Rub (Cookthink)

This week, Minced Words is considering foods with confused geographical identities.

Today’s subject is Boston Butt, an American term for a fatty cut of pork from the upper shoulder of a hog that is used everywhere but in Boston.

Photo: Italian Sausage Pita Pizza With Peppers And Carrots (Cookthink)

This week, Minced Words is considering foods with confused geographical identities.

Today’s subject is Italian sausage, a generic American culinary term for a plump hot or sweet sausage that will draw a blank stare at a deli counter in Italy.

Photo: Stir-Fried Pork, Brussels Sprouts And Peppers With Ginger (Cookthink)

As Andy pointed out in his Sunday Dinners column last weekend, London Broil is merely a cosmopolitan-sounding marketing term for any manner of boneless steak cut from the flank or round.

This week, we’re going to take a look at other foods whose names may not necessarily reflect their origins.

Today’s subject is Brussels sprouts. Are Brussels sprouts from Brussels? Well, yes and no.

Where did this dark German rye bread — which gets its color from a steamy day-long bake in the oven — get its name?

Was it rooted in the work of a snooty 18th-century Frenchman, a famine in Osnabrück or the German word for “fart”?

Reference: What does pumpernickel mean? (Cookthink)
Recipe: Cheddar Sandwich With Pickled Cucumbers And Sweet Onions (Cookthink)

With the current Root Source devoted to black beans, we’ve had beans on the brain all week, which led us to wonder about the meaning of the phrase “a hill of beans.”

What exactly is a “hill of beans”? (more…)