A Dictionary of Culinary Curiosities

I share The Atlantic's penchant for the origins of words and, in fact, don't consider a dinner at anyone's house complete unless someone has run to the dictionary to settle a dispute or just a point of curiosity. Cupboard Love (Bain & Cox) will solve dozens of what, in my family, often become heated arguments. Morton lays out the histories of hundreds of food-related terms as deftly and completely as any casual reader could wish.

Here are three: the roots of "recipe," "lentil" (one of those explanations that makes perfect sense the minute you hear it), and -- one of my favorite points of trivia -- the disputed origins of "apple-pie order." I reread this little story every time I see kitchen cabinets that are neater than mine, which is to say in just about any kitchen I visit.

Here, too, are two recipes just right for a January evening: a satisfying lentil soup from the food authority Barbara Kafka, whose books on microwave cooking have shown cooks that the appliance isn't just for reheating, and an apple pie from Susan Purdy, whose As Easy as Pie is one of those books I turn to for automatic reference. Cupboard Love will become one, too.

Recipe

When the word recipe appeared in English in the fifteenth century, it referred only to directions for making medicines; not for another three hundred years, in the early eighteenth century, did recipe also come to denote directions for preparing a dish of food. Before this modern sense of recipe was developed, instructions for making food were called receipts, a usage dating all the way back to the fourteenth century. The difference between calling such culinary instructions receipts or recipes is slight, at least in so far as both words derive from the same source, the Latin recipere, meaning to receive (the words are spelt differently because recipe developed from the present tense of recipere while receipt developed from a past tense); these two words became associated with cooking because when you make a dish you "receive" into your hand the various ingredients required by the dish.

Incidentally, the pharmaceutical symbol R_X (sometimes represented by Rx) stands for recipe; the cross-bar represents the staff of Jove, the patron of doctors, under whose auspices the medical recipe was to be prepared.

Lentil

If you have less than perfect eyesight, you probably have, at this very moment, two lentils perched on either side of your nose -- at least you do in so far as the English word for lens is a direct adoption of the Latin word lens, meaning lentil. Lens was adopted by seventeenth century opticians because the convex shape of the lentil resembled that of the pieces of glass they cut to make telescopes and microscopes. The Latin lens is also, of course, the source of the English word lentil: in Late Latin the name of the leguminous plant was turned into a diminutive -- lenticula, meaning little lentil -- which was subsequently adopted by French as lentille. English then adopted this French word in the mid thirteenth century, changing the spelling to lentil in the process.

Apple-pie order

A proper chef always keeps her kitchen in apple-pie order: spoons and forks do not fraternize wildly in the cutlery drawer, lids do not wander from their containers, salt shakers do not plummet into the crevice between oven and wall. Such a compulsion for culinary organization is known as apple-pie order, an idiom that may have grown out of how apple pies, in the good old days, were made by carefully arranging apple slices in a highly stylized, vertical pattern (which was then hidden under a crust of dough). Alternatively, the apple pie part of the idiom may have originated as an English corruption of the French phrase nappes plices, meaning folded linen, or as an English corruption of the French phrase cap-a-pie, meaning head to foot (Shakespeare uses this idiom when he has Horatio describe Hamlet's ghostly father as armed cap-a-pie): both French phrases -- nappes plices and cap-a-pie -- are suggestive of minute attention to detail. Whatever its origin, apple-pie order was first recorded in English in the late eighteenth century.

2. Remove from oven. Let stand, covered, for 20 minutes. Uncover and drain lentils; you will have about 2 1/2 cups. Set aside.

3. Place celery, leeks, garlic, carrots, and parsley in the workbowl of a food processor. Process until finely chopped.

4. Add vegetables to reserved lentils. Stir in oil, broth, salt, and pepper. Cover tightly with microwave plastic wrap. Cook at 100% for 15 minutes.

5. Remove from oven and uncover. Purée about half the soup in the food processor. Stir purée into remaining soup and serve.

For pies, select apples that are firm and tart such as Greenings, Jonathans, Cortlands, or Granny Smiths. Eating apples such as Delicious or McIntosh soften too much when baked. Serve apple pie warm, topped with a slice of sharp cheddar cheese or a dollop of heavy cream.

Advance preparation: Apples may be sliced, seasoned as described below, and frozen in individual pie-sized packets in advance and pastry can be prepared ahead and frozen. Complete pies can also be frozen before or after baking.
Special equipment: 9-inch pie plate; rolling pin; pastry brush; aluminum foil strips or frame.
Baking time: 425°F for 15 minutes; 350°F for 40 to 45 minutes.
Quantity: One 9-inch pie.

Unbaked pastry for a 2-crust, 9-inch (unsweetened) pie Egg glaze: 1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water 6 to 8 medium-large Granny Smith or Greening apples, peeled and sliced (6 to 8 cups; quantity determines height of pie) 1/3 to 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed (amount depends upon tartness of apples)

Juice of 1 large lemon 2 to 3 tablespoons flour 1/2 teaspoon each nutmeg and cinnamon 2 tablespoons butter, cut up Optional: 4 tablespoons plain cracker or cornflake crumbs Granulated sugar or milk for glaze

1. Prepare the pastry, roll it out, and line the pie plate. Trim 1/2- inch pastry overhang. To moisture-proof the lower crust, brush with egg glaze and/or sprinkle with crumbs. Preheat the oven to 425°F.

2. In large bowl, toss the sliced apples with the sugar, lemon juice, flour, and spices. Add fruit to pastry-lined pan and dot with butter. Brush egg glaze over edge of lower crust.

3. Roll out top crust and fit it over the fruit. Trim 3/4 inch overhang. Fold the edge under the bottom crust and pinch together to seal, making a raised rim all around. Flute the edge as desired. Cut vent holes in the top. Brush the top of the pie with egg glaze and sprinkle with sugar, or simply brush with milk or leave plain.

4. Set the pie in the lower third of the preheated oven and bake 10 to l2 minutes. Reduce the heat to 350°F, raise pie to center of oven, and bake an additional 40 to 45 minutes, or until the pastry is golden brown and the fruit is tender when pierced with a fork through a vent hole. Check the pie halfway through the baking time and add a foil edging if necessary to prevent the crust from overbrowning. Cool the pie on a wire rack. Serve warm as is or topped by slices of sharp cheddar cheese, vanilla ice cream, or other toppings.

Variations: