A HARTE APPETITE: THINK YOU KNOW YOUR FOODS? LET'S FIND OUT...

If you can't teach them, test them. I sometimes wonder if my students think that view represents my philosophy of education, because I give frequent quizzes. But examinations are important. After all, we wouldn't take a cake out of the oven without testing it, would we?

Now that students are facing their first exams of the semester, I couldn't resist preparing the following culinary quiz. Try your hand at it, but remember that a fool can ask more questions than a wise man can answer.

Culinary IQ Test

QOne stick of butter is equal to approximately:

a) 1 cup

b) 1/2 cup

c) 1/3 cup

d) 1/4 cup

Ab) 1/2 cup. Butter comes in one pound boxes containing four sticks. Each stick is therefore 1/4 pound but the equivalent of 1/2 cup or eight tablespoons. No wonder Barbara Gibbs Ostmann and Jane L. Barker in the Recipe Writer's Handbook observe, "How to indicate the measurement of butter and margarine is a controversial topic." Most recipes will give at least two measurements just to make sure the instructions are clear.

QWhich of the following is a vegetable?

a) tomato

b) squash

c) cucumber

d) all of these

e) none of these

Ad) or e). This is a trick question. Botanically speaking, all of the above are fruits. But legally they are all vegetables. The distinction can be an important one for trade purposes. Back in 1893, for example, there was a tariff on imported vegetables, so an importer argued that his shipment of tomatoes from the West Indies should be exempt since the tomato is a fruit. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court where Justice Horace Gray ruled that tomatoes are vegetables because, unlike fruits which are generally served as dessert, they are typically served with the principal part of dinner. The ruling established a legal precedent which has also been applied to squash, cucumbers and peppers.

QWhich of the following instruments is used to finely slice and julienne food?

a) banjo

b) guitar

c) mandoline

d) harmonica

Ac) mandoline. The mandoline is a hand-operated machine with adjustable blades that slice paper thin. It cuts potatoes into French fries or waffle cuts with ease and juliennes better than a food processor. I suppose it would be a natural in a kitchen band as well. Most professional chefs wouldn't be without one.

QWhich of the following is a copycat?

a) Oreo

b) Hydrox

c) neither of these

d) both of these

Ad) both of these. Because the Oreo cookie is America's favorite and the best selling cookie in the world, many people mistakenly believe that the Hydrox is an imitation. But it actually was introduced four years earlier than the Oreo. Both cookies, however, were patterned after cookies first made in England. No one is quite sure how the Oreo got its name, though some suggest that since they first came in a gold-colored package the name is derived from the French word for gold. Hydrox, on the other hand, is a combination of the first letters of the ingredients that constitute water hydrogen and oxygen. The makers were looking for a name that was associated with cleanliness and purity and which would complement the image created by the company's name, Sunshine Biscuit.

QWhich of the following was discovered by accident?

a) chocolate chip cookies

b) fudge

c) puff pastry

d) all of these

Ad) all of these. Culinary accidents have been responsible for almost as many wonderful food innovations as culinary inspiration. The chocolate chip cookie was born in 1930 when Ruth Wakefield of the Toll House Inn in Massachusetts ran out of baker's chocolate and mixed a cut up candy bar into her cookie batter expecting it to melt and mix with the dough. It didn't. Fudge was the result of a botched batch of caramel or toffee. And puff pastry was discovered in 1654 by a French pastrycook apprentice who forgot to add butter to his dough and attempted to incorporate it after the fact.

QPhiladelphia Brand cream cheese originated in:

a) Pennsylvania

b) California

c) New York

d) Illinois

A c) New York. The concept of cream cheese was invented in 1872 by William E. Lawrence and Son of Chester, New York, in Orange County. The Philadelphia Brand was adopted as a trademark in an attempt to capitalize on that city's reputation as the home of high quality foodstuffs.

QWhen should you definitely not order fish in a restaurant?

a) Sunday

b) Monday

c) Friday

d) Saturday

Ab) Monday. According to Chef Anthony Bourdain, in his expose, "Kitchen Confidential," you should never order fish in a restaurant on a Monday evening, especially if it's the special. That's because the chef orders fish on Thursday for delivery on Friday morning, hoping he can sell it on Friday and Saturday night. If he doesn't and it still smells all right and he's reasonably sure it won't poison you, the fish he bought on Thursday is what you'll be served on a Monday night! Seafood on Sunday, Bourdain says, can also be risky, especially at brunches, which he calls dumping grounds for leftovers.

QThe best thing to do with leftover champagne is:

a) throw it out

b) make vinegar out of it

c) deglaze a saute pan with it

d) take a bath in it

Ad) take a bath in it. As reported in The Washington Post recently, a woman in Arlington, Va., revealed to her cooking class that she liked to soak in leftover champagne and found it very soothing. Her approach, which I suppose you could call a bubbly bath, sounds like a good idea to me.

QA meal consisting of foods named after John D. Rockefeller, Caesar Cardini, Francois Chateaubriand, Alfredo Di Lelio, and Ali Baba would include:

a) oysters, iceberg lettuce, broiled beef, spaghetti, poached peach halves with ice cream and raspberry sauce

b) oysters, romaine lettuce, broiled beef, fettuccine, rum soaked sponge cake

c) oysters, avocado salad, lobster, fettuccine, sliced bananas in a warm butter and rum sauce

d) two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun

Ab) oysters (Oysters Rockefeller), romaine lettuce (Caesar Salad), broiled beef (Chateaubriand), fettuccine (Fettuccine Alfredo), rum soaked sponge cake (Baba au Rhum). Oysters Rockefeller, invented at Antoine's restaurant in New Orleans, were originally served on a bed of scallions, tarragon and celery which turned them so green that the Rockefeller name, indelibly associated with greenbacks, seemed appropriate. Caesar Cardini, a Tijuana restaurant owner, improvised his salad out of a practically bare cupboard and originally called it Aviator salad in honor of his brother, a veteran of the Italian Air Force. Chateaubriand, long a specialty at Cape Girardeau's Royal N'Orleans Restaurant, is thickly cut tenderloin served with Bearnaise sauce, a dish invented by its namesake's personal chef. Italian restaurateur Alfredo Di Lelio first prepared his rich pasta dish in an effort to spark his wife's appetite after childbirth. King Stanislaw of Poland is said to have first doused a kugelhupf with rum. Some say the name comes from the Polish word for good woman and not the fictional character from the Arabian Nights. Frankly the desserts in the other choices would suit me fine too, whether the Peach Melba in option a, or the Bananas Foster in option c.

QWhich of the following terms denotes a preparation containing truffles?

a) Dubarry

b) Florentine

c) Perigourdine

d) noisette

Ac) Perigourdine. The term refers to the Perigord region of France which is famous for its black truffles. A dish with Dubarry in the title, after a courtesan of Louis XV, contains cauliflower. A dish labeled Florentine, or in the style of Florence, contains spinach. The word noisette refers in French to hazelnuts, but more than likely if you order a dish with that term in the description you'll get fish or meat with browned butter that mimics the nutty flavor of hazelnuts.

Scoring

Each question is worth 10 points. Grade yourself as follows:

100 -- There could be an opening for you at the CIA (Culinary Institute of America).

90 -- Though Julia Child probably wouldn't feel threatened to have you in her kitchen, Betty Crocker might.

80 -- It might be a good idea for you to curl up for a while with "Larousse Gastronomique."

70 -- You're a good cook as long as you stick to TV dinners and cake mixes.

60 -- It would probably be a good idea for you to keep the number of Domino's Pizza prominently displayed on the door of your refrigerator.

Listen to A Harte Appetite every Saturday at 11:59 a.m. following "Whad'ya Know" on KRCU, 90.9 on your FM dial. Send suggestions for this column to A Harte Appetite, c/o The Southeast Missourian, P.O. Box 699, Cape Girardeau, Mo., 63702-0699 or by e-mail to tharte@semovm.semo.edu.

Tom Harte is a professor at Southeast Missouri State University and writes a food column every other week for the Southeast Missourian.