dress-out

[victor steinbok]

Yes, but you're referring to the process--what I found is a quantifiable
result of that process.

This is the entirety of food-related processing in OED under dress v.:

13. Specific and technical uses.
>  a. To prepare for use as food, by making ready to cook, or by cooking
> (also intr. = passive); also, to season (food, esp. a salad).

...

 h. To cleanse (corn) from chaff and the like.


There is a blend of these two, usually applied to fish (although, in
"passive" or in adjectival form, you will see it applied to just about any
animal product).

Then, there is this:

k. intr. To weigh (a specified amount) on removal of the skin and offal.
> 1872    J. G. Bourke Jrnl. 25 Nov. (MS.) ,   A black tailed deer which
> dressed about‥200 lbs.
> 1895    Daily News 12 Sept. 5/5   The sheep‥should dress about 75 lbs.
> each.


This is close, but no cigar. It does point to the possible evolution of
"dress" to "dress out".

There are no comparable listings under dress n.

Dressed adj. is somewhat cryptic:

†Straightened (obs.); prepared; clothed, attired, etc. (also with up): see
> the verb.


But not one of the examples pertains to food.

Finally, dressing n. is surprisingly weak:

4. concr. That which is used in the preceding actions and processes; that
> with which any thing or person is dressed for use or ornament: e.g.

 a. Cookery. The seasoning substance used in cooking; stuffing; the sauce,
> etc., used in preparing a dish, a salad, etc.
> 1504    in W. H. Stevenson Rec. Borough Nottingham (1885) III. 319   For
> floure and peper, and dressing.
> 1853    A. Soyer Pantropheon 75   Lettuces may also be eaten with a
> dressing of gravy and pickles.


No dressing vs. stuffing, no salad dressing, no dressing of a fish (before,
not after cooking).

Salad dressing does, in fact, have an entry under compounds for salad n.:

  salad-dressing n.
> 1836    Dickens Sketches by Boz 2nd Ser. 244   An unrivalled compounder of
> salad-dressing.


Like most food/cooking related items, it seems rather weak.

VS-)

On Sun, Sep 18, 2011 at 3:15 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> An extenson based on the dressing-out of a carcass? I'm familiar with
> this concept only from having come across it here in there in random
> forms of literature. So, I may be wrong. But my impression is that it
> consists of the elimination of all those parts of an animal's carcass
> for which there is no immediate or any other use. So, once you get rid
> of bones, guts, head, etc., what you have left is only the part of an
> animal that is edible, with guaranteed monetary value.
>
> --
> -Wilson

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