shortcake

[Charles Doyle]

I can't imagine why either term, "shortcake" or "shortening bread," would be identified as SLANG--so it didn't occur to me to look in HDAS. Wait a minute; that must be a mistake! There IS no "vol. iv" of HDAS, is there??

In recent decades, at least, shortening bread (made of cornmeal, and used for sopping gravy or crumbling in buttermilk or pot liquor) and shortcake (made of wheat flour, serve as a dessert) are very different things--and both distinct from shortbread (and from sponge cake!).

--Charlie
_____________________________________________________________

---- Original message ----
>Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2008 15:55:53 -0400
>From: Barnhart <barnhart at HIGHLANDS.COM>
>
>shortcake in HDAS (vol. iv) offers this definition of shortcake:
>
>"=shortening bread"
>
>At the entry for shortening bread the def reads:
>
>"Cornbread made with cooking fat, esp lard; often =crackling bread."
>
>In the DAE the def for shortcake reads:
>
>"A cake made with plenty of shortening; a cake made of biscuit dough"
>
>So, I agree with you and so do several lexicographers.  I live near the CIA [Culinary Institute of America, in Hyde Park).  Next time I'm in their library, I'll ask the librarian for further resources.
>
>DKB

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