more wild kitchen lingo

[Victor Steinbok]

Spotted in the wild (on the pages of the Guardian):

http://goo.gl/AkE3k
> Bring to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes. Season, then blitz the soup
> with a liquidiser or stick blender until smooth.

I've encountered "blitz" before in this context, but not "liquidiser",
although the meaning appears to be transparent.

A couple of things on "blitz". First, the OED's entire citation
collection is from WWII. No figurative usage--media blitz (e.g.,
corporate PR), blitzing an opponent with (more media) ads at a
vulnerable moment in an election campaign, etc. Of course, this is
because both OED lemmas preclude such usage, even though it is allowed
for the noun (blitz n. b. transf. and fig.):

> a. To attack with a blitz; to hit, blast, destroy, etc., by an air-raid.
> b. Amer. Football. intr. To mount a blitz or blitzes (sense c); to
> charge the offensive backfield.

AHD4 and MWOL are not much better (I could not find the verb in MWOL).
McMillan Online is a little better:

> 3. /informal/ to defeat someone easily in a sports game or competition
> 4. /informal/ to make a special effort to finish a job or deal with a
> problem quickly and thoroughly

[For "British" version, these are 2. and 3. respectively.]

Encarta ups the ante and adds three to the OED two:

> 2. /transitive verb/ defeat somebody comprehensively: to defeat a
> person or team overwhelmingly in a competition, especially a sports event
> 3. /transitive verb/ deal with something energetically: to concentrate
> a lot of effort on something to get it done ( informal )
> 4. /transitive verb/ try to overwhelm somebody: to subject somebody to
> an overwhelming amount of something, often in order to force him or
> her into agreement or submission ( informal )
> blitzed with a stream of facts

In the example above, the soup is not being overwhelmed, of course, but
simply quickly pureed in a blender--or with a hand-blender (a.k.a.,
stick-blender). So is "liquidiser" just the same as a blender? Or is
there more specificity here?

A few more Google finds on culinary "blitz":

http://goo.gl/mCSYl
> Blitz vegetables in a food processor and add to hamburger patties,
> meatballs or meatloaf.

http://goo.gl/Kb8lQ
> Blitz vegetables in a blender to make pasta sauces...

http://goo.gl/2mOZk
> you can blitz steamed veggies into a pasta sauce...

http://goo.gl/yayb7
> Then blitz sauce in food processor or with hand blender, and return to
> heat.

http://goo.gl/QKjPT
> Blitz sauce with a hand blender if wished.

Note that the relevant appliances include blenders, stick-blenders and
food processors. And all of these are quite distinct from occasional
references to stir-frying as "blitz-cooking". So "blitz" is clearly on
the rise as a culinary term. Not sure about "liquidiser", however.

     VS-)

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org