“The egg is to cuisine what the article is to speech”
“‘The egg,’ wrote a French gourmet of this century, ‘is to the cuisine what the article is to speech,’” wrote Waverley Root in his book, Food: An authoritative and visual history and dictionary of the foods of the world (1980). The identity of the French gourmet is not known.
There are many similar sayings comparing an essential food to an essential part of speech. For example, an old Arabic saying is, “A proverb is to speech what salt is to food.”
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Curiosities in Proverbs;
A collection of unusual adages, maxims, aphorisms, phrases and other popular dicta from many lands
By Dwight Edwards Marvin
New York, NY: G.P. Putnam’s sons
1916
Pg. 2:
If proverbs are not necessarily short nor sensible they may possess the characteristic quality of saltness, at least in the sense of the old Arabian saying, “A proverb is to speech what salt is to food.”
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Food:
An authoritative and visual history and dictionary of the foods of the world
By Waverley Root
New York, NY: Konecky & Konecky
1980
Pg. 117:
“The egg,” wrote a French gourmet of this century, “is to the cuisine what the article is to speech.”
Consuming Passions:
A feast of quotations celebrating food and the art of dining
Edited by Jonathon Green
New York, NY: Fawcett Columbine
1985
Pg. 223:
The egg is to cuisine what the article is to speech.
Anonymous q. in Food by Waverley Root 1980
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The Ovens of Brittany Cookbook
By Terese Allen
Amherst, WI: Amherst Press
1991
Pg. XIV:
Eggs
It’s been said that “the egg is to cuisine as the article is to speech,” and certainly there are few foods which are as useful and versatile as the egg. In cooking, eggs can enrich, leaven, or be a binding agent; they can provide decoration, texture, nutrition, or flavor.
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The Food Lover’s Tiptionary:
More than 4,500 food and drink tips, secrets, shortcuts, and other things cookbooks never tell you
By Sharon Tyler Herbst
New York, NY: Harper Collins Publishers
2002
Pg. 177:
The egg is to cuisine what the article is to speech. —Anonymous
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The Good Housekeeping Cookbook
By Susan Westmoreland, From the Editors of Good Housekeeping
New York, NY: Hearst Books
2004
Pg. 307:
There is an old saying that “The egg is to cuisine what the article is to speech.”