[Sca-cooks] Leftovers, questions and discussion [long]

wheezul at canby.com wheezul at canby.com
Tue Sep 7 20:13:00 PDT 2010


> Now as to peasant diets and leftovers, I am afraid I see this as two
> questions.
>
> Who had leftovers? The status of leftovers?
>
> If you start with leftovers, and look in OED one is instructed to look
> up leave (verb) and that leads to:
>   e. leave over. trans. To allow to remain for future use; to let
> ‘stand over’ for subsequent consideration. Freq. in pa. pple. left
> over, remaining, not used up.
>
> 1887 Times (weekly ed.) 14 Oct. 3/2 He thought the matter might be
> left over for the present.
>
> 1892 ‘MARK TWAIN’ Amer. Claimant xii. 107 Irish stew made of the
> potatoes and meat left over from a procession of previous meals.
>
> left-over, a. and n. shows up as
> B. n. Something remaining over; esp. a portion of some article of food
> left over from a meal. Freq. pl. Also transf.
>
> 1891 Cassell's Family Mag. May 374/1 They all like change of diet, so
> I provide all sorts of things, with the result that the ‘left-overs’,
> as I call them, are appalling.
>
> So the term is 19th century.
> ---
> They may have dined on the remains of a previous meal, but they didn't
> dine on a left-over.
>

I wish I had your vast store of knowledge about this subject.  I want to
be you when I grow up!  So it is with some trepidation that I mention that
I believe I have read German recipe(s) that specifically are for food that
is left over.  The lack of a concordance is driving me crazy.  I'll no
doubt find it when I least expect it, so please bear with me in my search.
 I don't expect anyone to take this statement without the backing evidence
so I will look and post it when I find it again.  This doesn't add
anything to the pasties discussion, but I do suspect the Germans at least
had the concept and linguistic articulation of food left-over.  Now just
to find it!

Katherine





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