So...Do Words Really Matter?

Written and Submitted By Chelsea Ehrke - Someday I’ll Learn -

I was making pasta tonight – which is supposed to be the simple old fallback, right? – when I saw that the recipe called for a “clove of garlic.” Stumped, I paused and pondered for about a minute. A clove? Is that what they call the entire garlic thingy or is that just one of the sections of the garlic?

Sure, I’ve heard people talk about a clove of garlic before – on all those cooking shows, in my grandma’s kitchen, in vampire movies – but I never actually put any thought into what exactly a clove of garlic is.

My mom says you can never have too much garlic, so I was leaning towards going with the entire garlic thing when it occurred to me to look at the bottle of pre-minced garlic that we have in the fridge. On the side, the bottle says, “1/2 teaspoon = approximately 1 clove of garlic.”

Aha! Half a teaspoon MUST be just one of the sections. Yay, deductive reasoning.

I’ve often wondered why recipes are so precise and specific and include words like “level teaspoon” and “vanilla extract.” As opposed to what? An unlevel teaspoon? The whole vanilla bean? The vanilla seeds? Do people even cook with the whole vanilla bean anymore? After a little digging through this line of thought I discovered that yes, people do actually still cook with the whole vanilla bean (most crème brulee recipes call for fresh vanilla beans).

Another one that’s always baffled me is recipes that call for “all-purpose flour.” Does some sort of single-purpose flour exist? Again, a little digging revealed that yes, there is self-rising flour (specifically for bread), cake flour (just for cake, apparently), and a whole slew of other flours I wasn’t aware of.

So it’s probably a good thing that the recipe said “one clove of garlic” as opposed to “one section” of garlic or “one piece” of garlic or - for that matter - “one-half teaspoon” of garlic. Recipes are specific so that people like me won’t put powdered sugar in instead of granulated sugar or olive oil instead of canola. Word choice matters in the culinary world.

And if you still don’t believe me, see what happened when Nate told me to add a “dash” of cayenne pepper.

Chelsea Ehrke is a newly-engaged writer with an inability to sit still and an unexplainable persistence in the kitchen. She lives in San Diego and chronicles her domestic adventures on her blog, Someday I’ll Learn. She has a strong interest in DIY interior decorating, loves crafts, and maintains a curious fascination with thrift stores.

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