I spent the morning cutting up 2.2 pounds of tiny Italian plums. We’re making jam today. The fruit is so tiny that it took me easily two hours to complete the job. Part of that time was devoted to occasional diversions to give my hands a chance to relax.
I happened to find Orangette’s blog entry on preserving, and decided to follow her instructions for making jam. To the chopped up plums, I’ve added a pound of sugar and the juice from half a lemon. The mixture is to sit for two hours at room temperature to “macerate.”
I generally have a good sense of the definition of words, but now and then I discover that I have totally missed the boat. My mother is the all-time champ in our family for knowing what a word means. We were discussing what “macerate” means, and both of us believed it to mean “chewed” or cut up in some way.
We have the cut up part right, but there is more to the definition. Epicurious.com defines it this way:
“macerate
[MAS-uh-rayt]
To soak a food (usually fruit) in a liquid in order to infuse it with the liquid’s flavor. A spirit such as brandy, rum or a LIQUEUR is usually the macerating liquid. See also MARINATE.”
Definitions from other sites mention softening the fruit, and separating the constituents by soaking, and surely both of those things are necessary to make jam.
I suppose we are not technically macerating this fruit. There are no liqueurs involved, and we are not trying to change the flavor of the mixture. But, we are trying to draw the liquid from the plums, so that we can intensify the flavor as we cook the mixture down.
So, I’ve learned a new cooking term, and so have you. I have to go stir the plums, now.
I’m with you and your EM…macerate is what one does with ones teeth. *pausing to look up* The New Oxford American English Dictionary agrees with the definition that you have cited. It also lists “2. archaic: cause to grow thinner or waste away, esp. by fasting.” It traces the origin “…from Latin macerat-‘made soft, soaked.'” How in the world did the three of us come up with something that isn’t recognized in our dictionaries? Unbelievable. We need to notify the lexicographers–lol.
Your comment makes me feel better, CC. I could see where I might have learned an incorrect definition from my mother, but seeing that someone else has the same definition makes me think that we’ve heard it used differently, and it just hasn’t made it to the dictionaries.
Perhaps we are combining masticate and lacerate.
I just got a “flash” picture in my mind while reading your comment, Buffy. I see myself as a child, reading about “natives” in Africa and Eskimos in Alaska, chewing on hides, bark, or other naturally occurring tough substances, to soften them. We thought that when they were described as macerating the substance, we were being told about the chewing. The writers were actually talking about the soaking action, I guess. Hmmmm. Is this an explanation that you can see?
Absolutely, Cop Car! I bet that’s what happened!
I don’t think I would have come up with the definition of chewed or cut up (that would be masticate I believe), but I’m not sure what I would have thought!
Apparently I macerate beef jerky before it is put in the dehydrator though.
Good point, Bogie. Masticate/macerate…who can tell the difference? Perhaps I am just terminally confused (but, I’d hate to say that of a youngster like Buffy–or of her Elegante Mother!)
I was right with ya, Cop Car, until we brought up the image of EM being terminally confused. I think we want to step back from that thought before we are all in hot water! lol Now, ME….I DEFINITELY am terminally confused!
I think you both have hit on on possible explanations for my confusion.