Nachhaltigkeit in der Küche früher und heute – Wie sich der Fachwortschatz den neuen (Sprach)Realien angepasst hat / Sustainability in the Kitchen in the Past and Today – How the Vocabulary has Adapted to the New (Linguistic) Realities)
DOI: 10.23817/lingtreff.25-2 (published online: 2024-07-23)
pp. 39–51
Keywords: culinary, cookbooks, frugality, sustainability
The language of culinary arts is not indifferent to the dietary changes of successive generations. While a century ago cookbooks recommended using leftovers and being economical with the food used in recipes, today’s culinary guidebooks focus on sustainability and sustainable enjoyment in the kitchen and provide numerous ideas against food waste and many applications serving this purpose with their new vocabulary. In this article, two cookbooks were subjected to a linguistic examination: “Vobachs Kochbuch” by Margarete Bauermeister from 1923 and “Praktisches Kochbuch für die bürgerliche und feinere Küche” by Henriette Davidis from 1935, whose first edition dates back to 1845. To illustrate the linguistic reorientation in the culinary field, some well-visited online guidebooks from 2023 were also consulted and evaluated. Since it is impossible in such a short article to examine and evaluate all aspects of culinary that can be covered in a cookbook, the focus is placed on the terms frugal and thrifty in comparison to sustainable and sustainability. The main focus is on the change from being frugal in the kitchen over a hundred years ago to being sustainable in 2023. The author examines the reasons for this change and analyses linguistic expressions in the old and new cookbooks, which are not only collections of recipes but also guides to areas such as products, kitchen equipment, kitchen furniture, cleaning and recycling.
Texts published in the ‘Linguistische Treffen in Wrocław’ are available in the Open Access on the basis of the CC BY-SA license.
