The "French" list was odd, too: French bread, French toast, French dressing, but french fries, lowercase -- "because it refers to the style of cut, not the nation." Really? I know of French cut (or frenched) green beans, those lengthwise slivers, but I've never heard of french cut (or frenched) potatoes, up or down. (And where does the style of cut come from, if not "the nation"?)
Also, perhaps because I've never used AP style on the job, I was surprised when definitions didn't accurately reflect the entry word's part of speech: alfresco is called "a meal eaten outdoors," for instance, and dredge (a verb!) is "a cooking technique in which food is lightly coated with flour." Has this always been AP stylebook style?
Finally, yet more evidence that a stylebook (or dictionary) can't do it all. The photo above ran with my column, with the competing fil(l)et spellings differentiated in one common way (though not the way AP now does it). That "fillet" o' fish fits the official definition -- "a boneless cut" -- just fine, as far as it goes. But at the fishmonger's and on the menu, that piece of fish is not a fillet; the cross-section serving is commonly known as a steak.
So the Associated Press still produces stylebooks? I wonder if there is still a CP stylebook, the one on which I cut my teeth. It was the Canadian journalist's bible, and also, by default, the compositor's bible as well. Its word was law, at least in the 60s and 70s.
ReplyDeleteIn the 50s, however, my father (a printer, sport fisherman, and outdoor writer) had already taught me "fillet" was a verb meaning to cut boneless pieces lengthwise down each side of a fish. The word also, he said, referred to a piece cut that way.
— K
Kay, Alberta, Canada
An Unfittie's Guide to Adventurous Travel
Oh, I don't know... I used to work in a fish market and have served up many a slice of salmon (as this appears to be) in my day. I would call the piece of fish pictured a fillet rather than a steak, or most accurately a serving-size piece cut from a fillet. Usually a salmon steak is a cross-section of the entire body of the fish - it's U-shaped with a section of the spine at the center.
ReplyDeleteOr it could be evidence that not all style guides are created equal. ;)
ReplyDeleteI've never been a fan of the AP style guide.
ReplyDeleteI grew up in a salmon-fishing family, so I'm with Kyle on this one. A salmon steak is a cross-section of the whole fish; a fillet is cut lengthwise. (Whether it's boneless depends on the fish: salmon fillets are only boneless near the tail.) The problem I had as a child was that, in my family at least, "fillet" is pronounced exactly the same as "flay." It took me a while to learn that they were different words.
ReplyDelete@Julie: But for Kyle, the piece of salmon pictured could be a fillet. It's clearly cut across the fish, whether you call it a steak or half a steak or a hunk. Your definitions sound like mine.
ReplyDelete(As for "boneless," I suspect the definitions are not insisting on 100 percent bonelessness when it comes to fish -- more that they are aiming for a boneless piece of fish.)
The AP produces a style book - just published a new edition, in fact. Many people worship it; as many (more?) despise it....
ReplyDelete