How to make a perfect pancake
Med lite spontana "nedslag" här och där bland ord och meningar som särskilt intresserat mig. Receptet från The Globe And Mail (ett av mina "husorgan"). Rätta eventuella sakfel please.Whether sweet or savoury, fluffy or dense, the pancake has been the ultimate comfort food since the Greek and Roman eras, according to Ken Albala, a history professor at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, Calif. Now a Sunday-brunch staple, they move to prime time on Shrove Tuesday as the traditional evening meal before the start of Lent. “It’s the time to eat up all the eggs and butter,” says Dr. Albala, the author of Pancake: A Global History. “This is when you go completely and utterly overboard with the biggest, fattiest meal.”
Whether är en homofon, alltså ett ord som uttalas lika eller nästan lika men har olika stavning och betydelse: weather 'väder' MEN whether 'om, huruvida'.
Whether...or 'antingen (vare sig)...eller.
Engelskan har större frihet än svenskan vid placering av det andra ledet (or-frasen) kan läsas i Svartviks/Sagers Engelsk Universitetsgrammatik där exempel också ges:
Whether you decide to stay or not, } I'm off
Whether or not you decide to stay, } tomorrow
'Antingen (vare sig) ni beslutar er för att stanna eller inte, så reser jag i morgon.'
Shrove Tuesday 'fettisdag'. The day before Ash Wednesday; the last day before the solemn period of Lent.
Lent 'fastan, fastlagen'.
Completely och utterly
Gradadverb förstärker eller försvagar det som sägs i verbfrasen.
A. Medial position innebär att adverbialet står
* omedelbart före huvudverbet i verbfras utan hjälpverb: George never failed.
* men efter första hjälpverbet om verbfrasen har hjälpverb:
George has never failed (ett hjälpverb + huvudverb)
George will never fail (ett hjälpverb + huvudverb -
George would never have failed (två hjälpverb + huvudverb)
* efter be även när detta är huvudverb:
George is never late for work.
Följande gradadverb kan endast (eller nästan endast) stå medialt:
all but, quite, rather, barely, hardly, virtually, absolutely, almost, definitely, nearly, really och scarcely.
B. Premedial position innebär att vissa adverb kan alternativt stå6 före hjälpverbet eller en form av be. Vissa gradadverb har medial position i jakande, och premedial position i nekande satser:
He has almost completed his task. He almost didn't succeed.
C. Övriga gradadverb kan ha antingen medial eller final position. Final position betyder att adverbialet står sist i meningen, alltså efter verbet, och även efter komplementet (dvs objektet eller predikatsfyllnaden) om det finns med.
Exempel på dessa gradadverb: completely, utterly, badly, deeply, entirely, fully, gradually, partly, strongly,thoroughly.
Skip the baking powder
North American pancakes are typically made with baking powder, but Dr. Albala doesn’t like the resulting tinny flavour. He prefers to pump up the fluff factor by whipping the egg whites. “You fold them into the batter then gently lay it in the pan,” he says. “It makes the pancake really, really light and airy inside.”
prefer: 1. [(to)]To choose one thing or action rather than another 2. To officially make a charge against someone 3 /formal and technical/ [(to)] to appoint to a higher position, especially in the church
Use a starter
Favouring porous pancakes – rather than the denser British style – Dr. Albala often uses a sourdough starter to give his pancakes a lift. The starter’s combination of flour, water, bacteria and yeast “adds a really nice tang,” he says. “But you have to leave the batter for a few hours for the levain [leavening agent] to work.”
sourdough sour 'sur'; dough (flour mixed with water ready for baking) 'deg' (dough boy: amerikansk soldat, mest känd från Första Världskriget)
Vary the flour
To inject flavour and change the pancake’s texture, try swapping your all-purpose or whole wheat flour for a different variety, such as whole grain spelt or kamut. “Wheat flour contains gluten, and the batter sometimes gets overworked as you stir it. That can lead to rubbery pancakes,” explains Dr. Albala. “Other flours will make the pancakes more tender and pleasant.”
1. Whole and all are often used with the same meaning. However, the word-order is different. All comes before an article, possessive or other 'determiner'; whole comes after articles etc. compare:
all the time the whole time
all my life my whole life
all this confusion this whole confusion2. With plural nouns, whole and all have different meanings. Whole means 'complete', 'entire'; all has a similar meaning to 'every'. Compare:
All Indian tribes suffered from white settlement in America. (= Every Indian tribe suffered...).
Whole Indian tribes were killed off. ( = Complete tribes were killed off; nobody was left alive in these tribes).
3. Whole is not used so often with uncountable nouns, and cannot be used with mass nouns. You can say all the money, or all the wine, but NOT *the whole money or *the whole wine.
4. The expression the whole of can be used with singular words instead of whole. The whole of comes before articles, possessives, etc.
The whole of the time the whole of this confusion
the whole of my life
Source: Practical English Usage (Michael Swan)
Air dry
If you pile your pancakes (which Dr. Albala dislikes; they “get cloying”), use this quick-dry technique: “When you take a pancake right out of the pan it’s still exuding moisture, so the one below it in the stack is going to absorb the moisture and get soggy,” he says. “This is kind of a weird trick, but you can wave the pancake in the air – or put it on a rack – for about 15 seconds once it’s out of the pan. It’ll be a little cooler but much nicer.”
soggy /adjektiv:/ completely wet 'uppblött, blöt, sumpig'
Soggy bread 'heavy or doughy bread because of imperfect cooking'
Go global
If your griddle’s lost its sizzle try your hand at the lacy French crêpe; the savoury Japanese okonomiyaki; the bite-sized Australian pikelet; the wrap-like Indian dosa; or the oven-baked Finnish pannukakku (the lovechild of a pancake and popover).
One of Dr. Abala’s favourite sweet treats is the Danish skiver. “You make them in a little pan with these circular depressions, and can put any kind of fruit in the middle,” he says. “It’s sort of a cross between a pancake and a doughnut, but it’s not fried so you don’t need a deep fryer. You sprinkle them with powdered sugar and often soak them in rum.”
doughnut A small round often ring-shaped cake cooked inhot fat and covered with sugar.
Longman Contemparary English (1991).
soak > soaker 'rötblöta, fylltratt'
And don’t do this … Soak your pancakes. Serve syrup on the side to make the last bite as good as the first.
Special to The Globe and Mail
