h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi,
Here's another link A2309645 Garum or Liquamen, a Pickle of Fish - written by mine own fair hand

and a few other things:-
The History of Pickles.
The earliest known examples are cucumbers, are known to have been pickled some time around 2030 BC in Mesopotamia >>> The earliest known examples are cucumbers, that are known to have been pickled some time around 2030 BC in Mesopotamia

Lye Pickling.
Before pickling, they require treatment with lye with substances which would be toxic to the fermentation bacteria >>> Before pickling, they require treatment with lye to remove substances which would be toxic to the fermentation bacteria

powerful, nauseating tangy, sulferosity. >>> powerful, nauseating tangy, sulfurosity. (I think?)

Lutefisk is another kettle of fish16. A Norwegian delicacy..... There is also Surstroming - The Swedish pickled, canned herring - dealt with in much the same way, but with tiny new potatoes rather than mash.
http://www.goatview.com/august17sourherring.htm compares it to Lutefisk!!

Pickles in Sugar.
an Italian pickle of mixed fruit mustard seeds >>> an Italian pickle of mixed fruit and mustard seeds

Chutneys and Relishes.
mixtures of various vegetables (carrots, swedes22. >>> mixtures of various vegetables (carrots, swedes22).

and finally, to be rather pedantic

Patak's Mixed Pickle is particularly nice and is commonly available in the UK.

Way back in my youth, when Enid Blyton was not recommended reading - because of the simplicity of the English and constricted vocabulary! I was always taught to avoid the word 'nice' as its primary meanings are fastidious, scrupulous etc.
and you really mean 'tasty'



Watermusic

You should only link once to each entry in h2g2. It is normal to put a link the first time a term is used, or in the most appropriate place, rather than at every occurrence.

Not many typos and grammar points to be covered at all!

I'm aware that some of these have been pointed out already by other people:

The earliest known examples are cucumbers, are known to have been pickled --> The earliest known examples are cucumbers, known to have been pickled

Pickling is necessary to counteract the growth of micro-organisms are always present on food --> Pickling is necessary to counteract the growth of micro-organisms always present on food

tends to be bacteriological complex --> tends to be bacteriologically complex

choucroutte --> choucroute

'kimchi science.' --> 'kimchi science'.

We have to be a little cautions --> We have to be a little cautious

the noble olive, which has been eaten for thousands of years and are a staple --> the noble olive, which has been eaten for thousands of years and is a staple

De gustibus non disputandum --> De gustibus non est disputandum

to stop them stop them --> to stop them

bottle green 'white.' --> bottle green 'white'.

'cheese-like.' --> 'cheese-like'.

soaked in bucket of lye --> soaked in a bucket of lye

(carrots, swedes22. --> (carrots, swedes22).

Dr. Sue --> Dr Sue

I don't understand the footnote about swedes and turnips at all. For me, a turnip or swede is a spherical purple root vegetable. A neep is a parsnip, a long conical white root vegetable.

Nope. Neeps as in "neeps and tatties" that go with haggis are swedes. Parsnips would be horrible.

Actually - I'm fairly sure it's 'De gustibus non disputandem' - the last word being a gerundive and the est superfluous. Can any classical scholars enlighten me? I could always change it to chacun a son gout (with appropriate diacritics)

I still don't understand the footnote about swedes. OK, forget parsnips. You seem to be saying that the vegetables which are called turnips or swedes in England are called swedes or turnips in Scotland.

The big purple things with yellow flesh (i.e. rutabagas) are called swedes in England and turnips or neeps in Scotland. The smaller, white things, sometimes with a purple tinge, are called turnips in England and (sometimes) swedes in Scotland (though to be honest, they're mainly also called turnips).

.....Never mind. My intention was comical confusion, rather than elucidation.

Done the typos - and added another footnote I'd like to have a wee moan, though, about having to follow the US convention re. punctuation marks outside quotes!

Do I *really* have to remove the repeated guide x-refs? I'll take me ages! I'll get around to it if anyone insists.

If you look on the right side, where the referenced entries panel is you will notice that it repeats any repeats you make....

kind of looks messy doesn't it?

I guess, taking repeats out would fix that.

well...

never mind....

**checks and sees that he was wrong and then wonders why his entry do that......**

I've discovered the nature of the mysterious mutant peas found in Patak's Pickle and amended accordingly.

Great entry EtheB


A few suggestions:

H2G2 guidelines for punctuation suggest eg and ie to e.g. and i.e.

What are lime keys? I've heard of Key Lime Pie, where a key lime is a small type of lime, but not lime keys. Maybe another footnote?

In the History of Pickles
I hadn't realised this was where 'ketchup' derived from You might add the word 'originally' in 'Ketchup was an oriental fish brine', as nowadays it is definitely closely associated with tomato-based sauces. http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=ketchup&r=67


In How Pickling Works
You could mention that controlling the pickling and fermentation processes has led to the very large number of Acidity Regulators among accepted food additives (plug, see my entry in PR: A2867961 - E numbers, though it hasn't yet been picked, so you can't link to it (yet) even if you felt it was valuable )

Typo?: in list of pickles
Pickled pigs'feet > Pickled pig's feet

In Dry Salted Pickles
You could link to A1084655 Bento - Japanese Food, which comments on Umeboshi

In Dry Salted Pickles
the many brine-pickled vegetables found Middle Eastern cuisines... > the many brine-pickled vegetables found in Middle Eastern cuisines...

In Lye Pickling
http://www.bartleby.com/59/3/degustibusno.html provides corroboration of Gnomon's contention that the proverb usually includes 'est' (though google searching without it only brings up sites where it has been plonked at the end)
the egg description is good but did you mean ...nauseating, tangy,... or ...nauseatingly tangy,...?

In Pickle Flavourings
...bought for home pickling), Dill is the norm... - replace comma with full stop

In Chutneys and Relishes, footnote 24
tined fruit > tinned fruit (I've certainly never won 'fruit on a fork' in a tombola )

Very interesting

Pimmsaloonie

Many thanks. I've made most of the changes you suggest - but I'm still not convinced by De Gustibus etc... It might be many years since my Latin 'O' Level, but I vaguely remember the lesson on gerundives. The fact that it's different on the www cuts no ice

Of course, these days In speak Latin like a native.

My wife who studied Latin for a couple of years more than I did said there shouldn't be an "est" in it and that it is "a gerundive or something".

I have not been taught Latin so to your . The 'est' is probably simply a memic addition that has proliferated in transmission of the proverb despite its ungrammatical structure, like the instrusion of 'the sake of' into 'For Auld Lang Syne' http://www.rubinghscience.org/memetics/dawkinsmemes.html

The lack of google corroboration and alternative quotation in a usually trustworthy on-line reference would suggest that while you and Gnomon's wife are grammatically correct, you may nevertheless be out of step with the hoi polloi.

Pimms

I must take this opportunity to point out that the 'the' in 'the hoi polloi' is redundant. 'Hoi polloi' means 'the people'.

Nope. I'm going with my version. It scans better than the 'est' versio, and this must have something to do with why it caught on in Latin.

"I could have been a judge, if I'd had the Latin." - EL Whisty

Restrain yourself, Edward! We all knew that the "the" in "the hoi polloi" was redundant, but we forbore, because we didn't want to show Pimms up as a dunce.

No offence taken. I haven't got a problem with being labelled ignorant, as long as I find out something new in the process

Obviously I try to be right most of the time - how else could I be a card-carrying pedant? - but where I can't be accurate I at least try to rely on my best guess, where possible substantiated by other sources.

Pimms

Q. Who led the Pedants' Revolt?
A. Which Tyler

Anyway...something occured to me in the bath: (rolls up sleeves in preparation for delivering the definitive statement on the matter)

'Gustibus' would have to be the plural ablative of the fourth declension noun 'gustus' - therefore there couldn't be an 'est' anyway - it would have to be a 'sunt'. QED. And ya boo to all the ignorami on the web.

Yer gerundive is an interesting creature, by the way. We don't have anything quite like it in English. It's sort of a cross between a noun and a verb. A word by word translation of the saying would go (something like):

About Tastes-matters not (A)-thing-worthy-of-dispute-are.

So Edward, this entry seems to be more or less complete except for two things:

1. Too many footnotes. Since you're not budging on this, we'll need a decision from the editors when the piece is recommended by a scout.

2. Repeated links to the same page (eg Lutefisk). This is something you should change.

Well - I've removed the repeated links and am now nibbling my fingernails to the cuticles in anticipation of the eds.

I hope they'll be tolerant of the footnotes. Yeah, I know scrolling is a problem (if you don't know the 'flyover' trick) - but I hope they'll be viewed as reflecting a suitably Adamsian tangential style.

Hiya,

Great guide to pickles, it surely covers every last angle on them! A scout has recommended this for subbing, but there are a couple of tweaks needed which would make it much easier for them. In the footnotes section, could you please try and incorporate 20), 23) and perhaps 25) into the body? That way, readers won't be too diverted from the main article.

Once that's done, it'll be ready to go through.