How do you pronounce quay? And what does it mean, anyway? What are some examples of paradox in the novel Frankenstein? In Ivanhoe, what does mammock mean? What does rummage mean? Is a mummer some type of religious person? Some guy I don't like told his friend I was acting all demure. When I complained about our cafeteria food, my biology teacher told me he wished they'd serve agarics.
Was he talking about some kind of dessert? Where did the name Of Mice and Men come from? What genre would you consider the book, The Outsiders? In Fahrenheit , why would a society make being a pedestrian a crime? What does the phrase, a worn-out man of fashion" mean from Jane Eyre? My teacher told me I was being obdurate. Was that a compliment? What motives inspired Iago to plot revenge against Othello? Who was the first king of Rome? What does enervate mean? What is a parvenu? Is salubrity somehow related to being famous?
Do capers have something to do with cops? What's the difference between a soliloquy and a monologue? What's a pandybat? Does the word inexorable have something to do with driving demons out of a person? Do people who prognosticate have some sort of special power? What is a hegemony, from James Joyce's Ulysses? What are fallow fields? I'm a city gal who heard the term at a 4-H fair and just read it in Anna Karenina.
What's the difference between parody and satire? Lord of the Flies uses the word inimical. I saw vertiginous in Madame Bovary. What does mean the word mean? What does overweening mean, in Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes? Can you hear a dirge anyplace but a funeral? Does imperturbable refer to something you can't break through? What are the seven ages of man? What's dross? What is an injunction? For school I had to make a Napoleon hat, which called for a cockade.
What is that? If someone studies assiduously, does it mean they're working really hard or really slowly? Define mood as it relates to a work of fiction. Distinguish mood from effect. My sister calls me the Princess of Prevarication. This biography I'm reading about Queen Victoria says that she refused to remove the hatchment she had for her husband Prince Albert. What does that word mean? What does sine qua non mean?
What's lugubrious mean? What's impugn mean, from Ivanhoe? What does postprandial mean? I love reading fashion magazines and occasionally come across the word atelier. What does King Lear mean when he says that ingratitude is a marble-hearted fiend"? In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein , what are disquisitions? What's shrive? My neighbor said she's been unshriven for years, but I think her skin looks quite shriveled. What's a dobbin? What's polemic?
Over winter break, my uncle told me I was polemic and asked if I was on the debate team at school. I came across a list of homonyms: mu, moo, moue.
I know mu is Greek for the letter m , and moo is the sound cows make, but what's a moue? What does trow mean? In Far from the Madding Crowd , what does cavil mean? Where can I find the word naught in The Scarlet Letter? I found an old diary from the s where the writer describes how he almost died but was saved by a sinapism. I know what mulch is, but what's mulct? When our teacher was introducing the next reading assignment, he said we'll be using the unexpurgated version.
What did he mean? For some reason, the word dingle sticks in my head after having read Treasure Island years ago. I never did discover what it meant. How about it, Cliff? In Dracula , what's stertorous breathing? What does philippic mean? I'm usually pretty good at guessing what words mean, but have no clue about exigence. What is it? What's doughty? How do you pronounce it? What's sharecropping? I'm kind of embarrassed to ask, because it's one of those words everyone assumes you know what it means.
I'm working on my summer reading list with Kafka's The Trial. The very first sentence uses traduce , and I don't know what that means. What does the cormorant bird symbolize in mythology?
I saw the word badinage in the book Uncle Tom's Cabin. Do you think that's a typo that really should be bandage? On a TV modeling contest, a judge said, Her simian walk is unbelievable. In Oliver Twist , Dodger refers to Oliver as flash companion. Can't find a definition of this anywhere. Do elocutionists kill people? For my English homework, I have to write a love poem.
I'm only 13 and I haven't had my first love yet. How would I go about writing about feelings that I haven't felt yet? Where on the body would I find my sarcophagus? What's stolid? It sounds like someone who's stupid and built solid like a wall. What's a wonton person? In which play did William Shakespeare state that misery loves company? What's comfit? Is it a different way of saying comfort?
Where did the story Frankenstein by Mary Shelley take place? What kind of person would a shallow-pate be? What are myrmidons of Justice" in Great Expectations? What did I do? In The Red Badge of Courage , what's an imprecation? The word portmanteau shows up in a lot of the literature I read for school assignments. It sounds French. I did something really stupid yesterday, and my grandfather told me I was hoist with my own petard.
And what's a petard? What's a bourse? I read it in my finance class. In The House of Mirth, what are oubliettes? In Tess of the d'Urbervilles, what are thimble-riggers?
In Wuthering Heights , what's a thible? Which Hemingway story references the running of the bulls" in Spain? My dad mentioned that his granddad was there for a long time during World War I. If somebody is toady," does it mean they're ugly? In the movie Failure to Launch , there's a line that goes, Well, she certainly is yar," in reference to a yacht.
What's yar? I got detention because a teacher said I was being contumacious. What's that? What are encomiums?
What are billets in The Three Musketeers? In Orwell's , what is doublethink? What are orts? That's a weird word that reminds me of orcs from The Lord of the Rings.
What are alliteration and assonance? What's quinsy? What is New Historicism? I found the word unwonted in a book I'm reading. Is that a typo, you think? In Heart of Darkness , what does cipher mean?
In the play The Glass Menagerie, would you describe Tom as selfish? What does Kantian mean, from a philosophical perspective? What's a colonnade? My girlfriend is freaking me out with stories of her dream wedding where she walks down a colonnade.
I know this is the least of my problems, but I'm curious. My grandma says she knows how I feel when I knit my brows. Is she crazy? I know bier has something to do with dead people, but what is it exactly? My brainy brother owns a Harley and says his girlfriend is the pillion.
Is he insulting her or just showing off? I ran across the word mien in a book. Is it a typo? Is a younker a person or a place? Does precipitancy have something to do with the weather? Any suggestions? A friend says she suffers from ineffable sadness. What's ineffable? What's a scow? Is a maelstrom some kind of dangerous weather?
What is the meaning of this saying, The cat will mew and dog will have his day"? The Picture of Dorian Gray mentions a panegyric on youth. In Madame Bovary , what's a mairie? In The Kite Runner, what's palliative mean?
So what's oligarchy? In government class, my teacher mentioned that word when we were talking about the Blagojevich scandal in Illinois. Is intrepidity a good thing or a bad thing? My grandmother told me that she thinks grandpa should see an alienist. Does she think he's from another planet or what? Do you have to have licentiousness to get your driver's license?
I ran across the word hardihood in something I read the other day. Is it some kind of clothing? I saw mention of haversack in my history book.
I'm guessing the word quadroon is four of something. But what's a roon? I'm trying to understand Shakespeare's play, King Lear. Can you explain these quotes from Act 1, Scene 1? In Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment , what's a samovar? I came across a music channel that featured tejano," and then I saw the same word when I was reading Bless Me, Ultima. But what the heck is prunella? Is it a purplish color like prunes? In Chapter 2 of Jane Eyre , what are divers parchments?
A friend of mine said she hopes to get a counterpane for Christmas. In Wuthering Heights, what does munificent mean? The other day, my dad called my friends a motley crew. Is that his way of saying I should hang out with a different crowd? Why is there an authorship problem with Shakespeare? What is it called when something is out of place in time, like a jet stream in a movie about ancient Rome? In , does Winston die from a bullet at the end of the book or is he in a dream-state?
I saw some old guy in a soldier's uniform selling fake red flowers. He said it was for Veterans Day. What's the connection? I was kind of flirting with this really cute boy when my teacher told me to stop palavering. Did she want me to stop flirting or stop talking? My grandmother says when she was a kid in China, she became Catholic because of the Mary Knows nuns. I tried to look that up on the Internet but couldn't find anything. Can you help? In The Count of Monte Cristo , does cupidity mean love?
I'm guessing that because of, you know, Cupid. Valentine's Day. My theater teacher called me a name the other day. I don't think it was supposed to be a compliment. What's a somnambulist, anyway? Why was Tartuffe such a jerk? To Kill a Mockingbird has this word fey in it, but I don't know what it means. Does it mean short lived or fleeting? Then I saw that word in Frankenstein. What's a hovel?
I thought it was like a place that had room service. I have a friend who said something about phantasmagoric. That's not real, is it? Which of the following literary devices is used in these poetic lines by John Milton? In Faulkner's A Rose for Emily," what does noblesse oblige mean? Why does Satan rebel against God? I'm reading Candide, by Voltaire, and one of the dudes is an Anabaptist.
In Romeo and Juliet , who was the last person to see Juliet alive? What is the Catechism? Is there a reference to venereal disease in Romeo and Juliet? What is fantasy fiction? What is the exposition in Othello? Who is the character Susan in Romeo and Juliet? What is a found poem? What did Alice Walker mean in the essay Beauty"? Frankenstein create his monster? What is the name of the surgeon and the English ship he's on in Moby-Dick? What are the differences between an epic hero and a Romantic hero?
I'm in a literary dispute over this! What did W. Du Bois mean when he wrote of second-sight? What is nihilism, and what should I read to get a better understanding of it? What is the difference between an atheist and an agnostic? What are intelligent design and creationism and how are they related?
What is misanthropy? I would like to understand the poem Blight" by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Please help. When reading Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice , what does entailment mean? What does ignominy mean? From Shelley's Frankenstein What does pecuniary mean? What is an apostrophe in Macbeth? Is music a language? Why should literature be studied?
In the book The Scarlet Letter , what is a vigil? What should I do now?! What is the exact quote in Hamlet about something being wrong in Denmark? Something smells? Something is amiss? What does Utilitarianism mean, from a philosophical perspective? What was the form of English that Shakespeare used? What was the "final solution" in the book Night by Elie Wiesel?
With the many novels out there, is there a database of some sort that can narrow down your choices to a specific book of interest for pleasure reading? And if not, why hasn't there been? How do you pronounce Houyhnhnms? How can Jordan Baker be described as a professional golfer? To my knowledge, the LPGA did not form until the mids. What are the humanities? What classic novels take place in Florida?
In which Hemingway short story is the saying, "Children's shoes for sale"? Who is the "lady" that Robert Plant speaks of in the song "Stairway to Heaven"? Was Odysseus the one who planned the Trojan horse, in the Trojan War?
How do I get my smart-but-hates-to-read son interested in reading? Poetry gives me problems. How can I figure out what poems are about? Science of Food: Water. Cooking Equivalents and Measures From cups to grams to eggs, in cooking and in science, numbers need units to be measurements. More to explore. Timing the Perfect Turkey Cooking a turkey twice as big isn't twice as hard.
Science of Food: Water Explore water's crucial role in food and cooking. Pressure Cooking Water helps you cook under pressure. Freeze-Thawing Strawberries This video explores what's happening to your food at a molecular level as it goes through a freeze-thaw cycle. Units of mass are inherently more accurate than units of volume because they mostly ignore confounding factors, like how tightly an ingredient is packed into a cup or what shape you've chopped it into.
As a science-based book heck, "science" is even in the title , it ought to use the system of measurement that is most precise, right? Not only do I disagree with this perspective, but I believe that more often than not, in cooking, using mass as a unit of measure can actually lead to less consistent results. The reason I use a mix of cups, teaspoons, ounces, and pound measures in most of my recipes is not because I don't know how to use a scale or because I'm trying to hang on to some antiquated form of measure.
In fact, I've written at length about using both mass measures and the metric system for times when precision is necessary. However, I use a mix of volume and mass because, for the vast majority of non-charcuterie and non-baking recipes, the level of precision of mass measurements isn't just overkill but can actually do more harm than good.
I'm going to argue that the best, most repeatable, most user-friendly system of measure for home cooks is actually one that includes a mix of both mass and volume measures. Before we jump in, let's make sure that we're all addressing the same issue here.
To be clear: I am not arguing that ounces and pounds are better than grams or kilograms in fact, on the contrary, I do think that Americans should figure out a way to make the switch to the metric system.
I am arguing that cups, teaspoons, and tablespoons are as accurate as you need to be for nearly all cooking applications outside of baking and charcuterie. I'll start by demonstrating that using mass weight to measure ingredients for cooking is not always the most accurate or precise method. Then I'll argue that precision is not actually necessary or beneficial in most cooking applications and that pretending otherwise can be detrimental to your food. Let's look at these factors.
When we're talking baking, working by mass does make it easier to measure. With volume measure, you need to pull out multiple cups and spoons and wash each one of them at the end. With mass measure, you need only a single bowl and a scale that you tare after each ingredient is added we've written extensively about this in the past. I strongly recommend owning a scale and using it any time you bake. Using mass for baking is also more precise. This can have a real effect on the food.
Weighing your flour and other dry ingredients eliminates this variation. With cooking, on the other hand, the advantages are less clear. Let's look at a few real-world examples—take onions, to start. I'm currently working on an onion soup recipe. In my final recipe, I'm going to be calling for "4 large onions, finely diced about 6 cups "—a relatively imprecise measure. A quick search for onion soup recipes in the UK reveals this one from the BBC , which calls for "1kg onions," a far more precise measure.
So precise, in fact, that unless you're really lucky, you're going to have to use some fraction of a whole onion in order to land right at one kilogram. What does this level of precision get you? I'd argue that it doesn't get you better food, and in fact gives users a false sense of precision, which, in reality, doesn't even exist. Calling for " grams of diced onion" or "5 grams of black pepper" gives you the mistaken impression that diced onions and black pepper are completely uniform products that don't vary from batch to batch, and that using the same weight of these ingredients will give you the exact same results every time.
In fact, flavor, moisture content, sugar content, etc. Let's first establish how much variation there can be in six cups of onions. Starting with a couple of bags of onions, I cut them into dice of various sizes and transferred them to a two-quart measuring cup until they came up to the six-cup line.
Onions that are diced more finely will pack into the container more tightly than those that are very roughly diced, so six cups of finely diced onion will weigh more than six cups of roughly chopped onion. Tasted side by side, the two are indistinguishable from each other. You want an even starker demonstration? I did another quick experiment. I picked up a few pounds of onions from my local Whole Foods, then drove to the Safeway supermarket a few miles down the road and bought some of their onions.
For other substances, the density will be different, and each teaspoon will weigh a different number of grams. Most countries use the metric system officially known as the International System of Units , where every unit is defined using a measurable phenomenon, such as the distance light travels in a second.
To add to the confusion, these systems all use the same names, such as pints and quarts, to mean slightly different measurement amounts. These differences are small when the amounts are small, but can really add up for larger volumes. For example, a US contemporary teaspoon is 4. The difference in a teaspoon of vanilla would be hard to measure even if you tried.
But that difference becomes much more noticeable when you consider a gallon of milk, which in the US is 3, ml versus 4, ml in Britain.
0コメント