parkin

Victor Steinbok aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM
Wed Apr 20 10:54:06 UTC 2011


Not quite what OED says--and, in all three cases, the origin is contested:

http://goo.gl/0KW7V
> One of Yorkshire's most famous sweet treats is parkin, a dense cake
> made of treacle, oats and ginger. It is believed to date from the 19th
> century, when ginger and treacle, produced by slave labour in the
> Caribbean, were shipped into west coast ports like Liverpool, then
> transferred to east coast ports for export to Europe. The name is
> apparently an old diminutive of the name "Peter".

http://goo.gl/STvyE
> "The balti," says Majumdar, "is a uniquely British dish". It is said
> to have originated in Birmingham, when restaurant owners looking to
> create a slightly healthier curry than those usually favoured by their
> customers invented a one-pot dish using basic ingredients and spices.
> The name is believed to come from the way it is cooked; it means
> "bucket" in Punjabi.

http://goo.gl/nDYOk
> Trifle takes its name from the French word /trufle/, which means a
> whimsy or deceit, and has its roots in 16th century desserts such as
> the syllabub or fool. Majumdar says the earliest recipe he can find
> for it is in a 1585 cookery book called /The/ /Good Huswifes Jewell/,
> which describes a concoction of thickened cream, sugar, ginger and
> rosewater. Later on, custard (which dates back as far as the Romans)
> was added, while King Charles I's cook, Joseph Cooper, recorded the
> addition of bread soaked in "sack" wine, or sherry.

[If Majumdar is correct, he has found an antedating of "trifle"--OED 1598.]

There are 11 other slides/descriptions, but they have no terminology
significance.

     VS-)

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