![\"prosciutto](\"https:\/\/www.jameswhelanbutchers.com\/info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/ham-and-melon.jpg\" "\\"prosciutto")
<\/a><\/p>\nIf you are ever offered an Aperitif it should be a drink before dinner.\u00a0 The word comes from the French term for an alcoholic drink that stimulates the appetite.\u00a0 The route of the word is the Latin verb, \u2018aperire\u2019 which means \u2018to open\u2019 \u2013 essentially an aperitif should \u2018open up the appetite\u2019.\u00a0 Aperitifs were considered quite medicinal and were alcohol flavoured with strong herbs and spices.\u00a0 That distinctive taste of vermouth is no accident.\u00a0 The nice thing about indulging in an aperitif is that it is traditionally considered medicine or a health drink, you\u2019re not actually drinking!\u00a0 So the idea was that you sharpened your appetite and gave the system a little bit of a boost too.<\/p>\n
Now you may find yourself enjoying an Aperitif with a canap\u00e9.\u00a0 The canap\u00e9 became popular in France (yes the French again) in the mid 1700s.\u00a0 Traditionally a canap\u00e9 is a little carbohydrate base; toast, pastry or a cracker loaded with a variety of different foods.\u00a0 The canap\u00e9 was also meant to pique the appetite.\u00a0 They are generally salty or spicy and encourage those eating them to drink some more.\u00a0 The canap\u00e9 should be small enough to eat in one bite and you should be able to hold a drink and eat a little pastry tower without too much trouble (that\u2019s if it really is a canap\u00e9).\u00a0 The word itself has little to do with food and more to do with furniture \u2013 the original root describing a lounging couch or sofa.\u00a0 It is assumed that someone suggested that the little pieces of toast or pastry topped with savoury food looked like a sofa covered in cushions so the word took on the additional meaning.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile hors d\u2019oeuvres are closely related to the canap\u00e9.\u00a0 Hors d\u2019oeuvres are a more substantial canap\u00e9.\u00a0 In the 1900s any good restaurant worth its salt anywhere in Europe kept a hors d\u2019oeuvres trolley.\u00a0 Pies, salads, terrines and tarts of many varieties would have adorned the trolley.\u00a0 The idea was that rather than looking at the menu and choosing by the description of the dish, you could actually see the dishes and choose with your eyes, not unlike the dessert trolley in some establishments today.\u00a0 The word is an architectural word meaning, wait for it, out house or out building.\u00a0 Effectively it was a building separate to or not incorporated in the main design.\u00a0 In food therefore it became something outside the main meal.\u00a0 Hors d\u2019oeuvres became popular in Paris and it was a great way for chefs to put their work on display.<\/p>\n
Now tapas is something we are all familiar with.\u00a0 Tapas are simply a little bite of food that goes with a drink.\u00a0 Spain has developed a whole cuisine around it from simple olives to slices of chorizo or lovely steaming calamari rings.\u00a0 Tapas has also become common outside of Spain too.\u00a0 Like most popular trends Tapas began with the masses and was borne out of simple lifestyle.\u00a0 In the traditional Spanish working day which began at first light due to the heat, the main meal was at 1pm and then workers would take a siesta, returning to work in the cooler late afternoon.\u00a0 Then from the middle of the evening until bedtime they would socialise, drink and eat lightly \u2013 mainly finger food.\u00a0 The word comes from the Spanish word for \u2018lid\u2019.\u00a0 In the evening when the Spanish drank wine the tavern would serve little slices of bread that you could rest on top of the glass to keep the flies out of your wine; very clever.<\/p>\n
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The digestif; this is another alcoholic beverage that is specifically served after a meal and, as the name suggests, it aids digestion.\u00a0 Liqueurs and fortified wines such as port and sherry are frequently served as digestifs and the tradition is very popular on mainland Europe particularly.<\/p>\n
And finally, one that gets us all, the difference between dessert and pudding.\u00a0 Now personally I would rarely use the word \u2018pudding\u2019 to describe the sweet course after the main, finding it to be very British and not something I would have grown up with. \u2018Sweet\u2019, \u2018afters\u2019 and \u2018dessert\u2019 are all much more familiar.\u00a0 I would use the word pudding if indeed it was one; Christmas pudding, sticky toffee pudding, bread and butter pudding or rice pudding.\u00a0 And therein lies the difference, pudding is generally heavier, cooked and a little stodgy while dessert is usually lighter, uncooked such as fruit or maybe jelly, sorbet or mousse.<\/p>\n
It really doesn\u2019t matter if you get them all mixed up, it\u2019s not the end of the world.\u00a0 However it is unfair to tell someone you are serving hors d\u2019oeuvres when in fact you only have canapes.\u00a0 What you risk is hungry guests and that\u2019s never a good thing.<\/p>\n
We hope you enjoyed reading this post by Pat Whelan of James Whelan Butchers. Pat is a 5th generation butcher, cook book author and the director of \u00a0James Whelan Butchers with shops in Clonmel, the Avoca Handweavers Rathcoole and Kilmacanogue, Dunnes Stores Cornelscourt, Rathmines and Swords in Dublin. Sign up to our newsletter for more updates from James Whelan Butchers<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Generally I\u2019m not that fussy about how people use words.\u00a0 Language is for the living and it evolves as we do.\u00a0 Read any Chaucer poem and you\u2019ll see how far we\u2019ve come.\u00a0 I\u2019m not for jumping up and down at the omission or misplacement of an apostrophe, but there is a problem when we start […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[25],"tags":[752,566,751,99,753,48,47],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n