Day 8 — My Favourite Baking Jargon
Cakes and sweets aren’t the only joyous things about baking.
One of the best parts about speaking two languages is that you can enjoy the phonetic powers twice as much as only knowing one. While it is probably true that actions do speak louder than words, it is also worth considering how words speak so eloquently for themselves. For example, words that describe something soft often come with the f sound in English (like fluffy, furry, feathery, etc.), and at least for me, I definitely associate the f sound with cushioned textures. The impression of the sound for me is probably reinforced by similar Japanese terminology that describes softness (like ふわふわfuwafuwa, ふっくらfukkura, etc.).
Although sort of like a chicken-or-the-egg issue and one can debate forever whether we have an impression of a certain sound because of its usage in meaningful words, or we made meaningful words based on the impression of sounds, I, for sure really enjoy words that spark imagination due to their phonetic characteristics. I have some favourite vocabulary that I like purely for this reason, regardless of their actual meaning: lollipop, because the l sound really is reminiscent of a child licking the candy with their tongue and the word pop with its light casual p sound is fun; butter in its American English pronunciation, because the /ɾ/ sound represented by tt is the perfect mix of softness and thickness just like a half-melted stick of butter; lavender, because every single consonant comes together to create a beautiful string of sounds worthy of describing a relaxing scent. Such perceptions are quite subjective, but I strongly believe that every person has some kind of idea of what sounds are enjoyable to hear and pronounce.
The best part about being entertained by words is that words are everywhere in modern-day society. Even as you are reading this blog, you have already been exposed to more than 300 words. I don’t mean to say that every single word on this planet is worth inspecting closely, but just stopping to admire a word that simply sounds nice brightens up my day just a little bit. Even better, if you have a hobby or a topic that you enjoy, finding the fun in the vocabulary used in such settings can make those hobbies even more enjoyable.
For me, that hobby is baking. I originally started baking because of the obvious outcomes from the oven, but after years I have found myself equally intrigued by the jargon used in recipe books. Recipe books exist to share with numerous people how to create delicious sweets. However, they also certainly do serve a role in amplifying the joy of baking by providing words to think about.
Here are some of my favourite baking vocabulary in both Japanese and English.
“bloom”
Being a non-scientist who understands nothing about the chemistry behind what makes a cake a cake, to me gelatin is a form of pure magic. How can just a few tiny grams of powder suddenly turn a whole cup of liquid into solid? I know gelatin sold in Japan comes from pigs, which makes me believe that pigs here are also magical creatures.
Using gelatin is not difficult at all, but it does require a simple step of preparation of being soaked in cold water before being melted with warm water to mix with other liquids. This process is called blooming the gelatin, explaining how powdered gelatin swells up as it absorbs the cold water. The transition from the b sound to the l sound and the smoothness into the vowel oo, finishing off with the nasal m, really describes well how the gelatin is at first just a plain powder and then all of a sudden swells to become a smooth liquid consistency once water is added. I think the word bloom better describes the transformation of gelatin rather than the transformation of a flower.
「さっくり混ぜる」and “folding”
After making a bowl full of fluffy meringue with the extreme effort of your arm and whisk, or alternatively the power of electricity efficiently running your hand mixer, the last thing you want to do is make your effort go all to waste by crushing the tiny air bubbles in your egg white foam.
I really like both the terminology used in Japanese and English when it comes to describing how to mix powders into meringue. 「混ぜる mazeru」in Japanese is plainly just “mixing”, but 「さっくりsakkuri」is a specific way of mixing. You’re supposed to mix in flour by taking your rubber spatula and scooping up the mixture from the bottom. The tip is to never press down on the mixture with the flat side of the spatula, as that would deflate the meringue. The lack of voiced consonants in さっくりsakkuri except for the last r (the voiced counterparts of s and k are z and g) really represents well the gentle manner required for mixing meringue. Yet, the k sound is a nice stop that reminds me of how you are supposed to move your spatula vertically as though you are cutting the batter.
fold on the other hand actually does include a voiced stop consonant d, making it sound less light than さっくり. However, because it is preceded by l, which is also a voiced consonant, the d sound doesn’t come across as harsh. Rather, because the word starts with the f sound that is reminiscent of the softness of the meringue and ends with a solid d, it makes me feel as though I am responsible for protecting the fluffiness of the fragile mixture.
“batter”
I actually think I’ve explained myself already by talking about how I love the word butter, except batter is less melty and sounds more incomplete, leaving us with excitement for the cake that it is about to transform into.
「アイシング」(icing)
The word アイシング comes from the English equivalent icing, but I find the phonetics of the Japanese version pronounced with a sh sound rather than the English s sound makes it better. Icing is made with powdered sugar, and you mix together either water or milk together with some lemon juice, or even egg whites. Because a lot of powdered sugar is required in relation to the amount of liquid, when first adding liquid to the sugar, the mixture starts off quite rough. As the sugar starts absorbing the liquid, the mixture becomes smooth in the end, but in my opinion, the magic in creating icing comes from the transition from rough to smooth. I think the sh sound in アイシング represents better the roughness of the icing at the beginning. In comparison, icing doesn’t play a role in representing the magic at all, sounding as though the sweet paste was smooth and delicious from the start. アイシング sounds less artificial and therefore better.
I could go on forever, but you probably get my point. So the next time you whip some cream or fire up your oven to bake some cookies for Christmas, I hope the words in the instructions will speak to you more than ever before.
This article is part of the 2021 HENNGE Advent Calendar. An Advent calendar is a special calendar used for counting down the days till Christmas. 2021 HENNGE Advent Calendar presents one article by one HENNGE member per day for 25 days until Christmas, 2021
