In a word, no. But it has other benefits.

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.

In our ongoing quest to create more ambitious sandwiches to take to the office, we decided to revisit the Pan Bagnat, a delicious and satisfying Niçoise invention. The best part? Unlike some sandwiches, which get soggy by the time you unwrap them, this one gets better with age.

Photo: Chilled Strawberries With Warm Rhubarb Compote (Cookthink)

A compote comes from the French verb compoter, which means to cook something gently until it breaks down and reduces into a babyfood-like purée. Like applesauce. Or a spicy rhubarb compote that can be spooned over grilled pork or duck. Or a savory caramelized onion-fennel jam to smear on toasted bread. In a whole fruit compote like poached pears or simmered fresh apricots and cherries, the fruit is cooked gently in liquid and sugar until it softens and sweetens while still holding its shape, a good way to rescue not-quite-ripe fruit.

Cathy Hong-Praslick is the blogger behind A Blithe Palate.

Sweet or salty?

Salty. I love the first few bites of a dessert but then I lose interest. Savory foods on the other hand…

Which ingredient(s) do you use most?

Onions, garlic and leeks seem to make their way into a lot of main dishes as do your standard seasonings. For desserts, bittersweet chocolate gets a big workout in our house.

What’s the cooking sound you most love?

My son playing with his whisk and bowl on the floor while I’m cooking in the kitchen.

What’s your favorite cooking smell?

Bacon frying.

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The Obama Foodorama blog bills itself as “a daily diary of the Obama foodscape, one bipartisan byte at a time.” If you’re looking for food news related to President Obama, including recipes from the White House kitchen, reports on the First Family’s vegetable garden and links to stories about how politics affects what ends up on our plates, it’s all here.

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.

When I started Cookthink’s Twitter account a couple of years ago, one of the first people I followed was Maureen Evans, who uses her twitter.com/cookbook account to tweet recipes in 140 characters or less. (I made a request for cemita milanese, and she delivered.)

According to Ruth Jamieson and Morwenna Ferrier in yesterday’s Guardian, the micro-recipe is now officially a trend. To mark it, Jamieson and Ferrier asked eight of the UK’s top chefs to create micro-recipes suitable for Twitter. The results are sensible, maybe too much so. My favorite, if only for the Joycean “turnevrysooften,” is Mark Hix’s micro-recipe for pork crackling: “Heat oven200C. Cut 1kgporkrind into strips. Boil 15m. Drain, scatter w/csalt, roast1hr, turnevrysooften.”

Leave your best micro-recipe (max. 140 characters) in the comments. We’ll send a book of macro recipes to the person who submits our favorite.

You might want to let that steaming mug cool down before taking your first sip of morning caffeine. In the latest news about drinking and throat cancer, the British Medical Journal published a study by Iranian researchers warning that drinking piping hot tea increases the risk of developing esophageal cancer.

[Via BBC News]

Hair of the Dog is Cookthink’s Monday morning cocktail column by Rob Chirico, the author of the Field Guide to Cocktails. Read more about Rob here.

A basic Gin Fizz is made from gin (no surprise there), lemon juice, sugar or simple syrup, all poured over ice and topped by a hearty portion of “fizzy water,” meaning your choice of seltzer or club soda. The Ramos Gin Fizz has all of that, and a whole lot more.

It was formulated by the Ramos brothers in New Orleans in the late 1880s, and if anything can be said about it, the Ramos Gin Fizz is a labor of love — and quite a labor at that. Other ingredients called for include an egg white and milk or cream, and for anyone who has ever tried to blend an egg white and cream, getting them to emulsify is rather like getting Republicans and Democrats to agree on tax-cut bill for the rich.

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