On: Japanese vegetable cutting techniques (2021)

[OJFord]

I'm interested in how it's a kind of casserole, if you can expand on that (en anglaise svp!)?

English Wikipedia cocotte disambiguation suggests French oven, which redirects to Dutch oven, which is just what Americans call a casserole.

Is it the enamelling, which Wikipedia suggests is sometimes used as a distinguishing feature between 'Dutch' and 'French' ovens? (I've (British) never heard of the latter before.)

Apparently a cocotte is also an 'elegant prostitute'/courtesan, meaning 'small child' before that. So is a cocotte a small casserole, peut être?

[m_t → OJFord]

Cocotte id a pan with a lid, usually in cast iron. The Le Creuset are most likely the more well known one. They can be small or big.

The French Wikipedia article is clearer than the English one : https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocotte_(cuisine)

Note that a pressure cooker is called a Cocotte minute. Because it cooks quickly.

Cocotte is also a term that can be used for chickens or chicks, but that has nothing to do with cooking utensils.

[OJFord → m_t]

Oh ok, in (British) English I'd just call that a casserole. (Which per sibling comment from GGP I understand is not the same/more specific than a casserole in French.) So I suppose it's correct that it ends up at 'Dutch oven' (the predominantly American term for the same) on Wikipedia.

I'm afraid my French isn't up to reading a Wikipedia entry, which is why I asked (GGP linked the same article).

[shakow → OJFord]

> more specific than a casserole in French.

It's rather that they are false-friends: a french « casserole » is an english ‶sauce pan″ (the most vanilla cookware, a metal pot with a handle).

A cocote has typically more heat inertia (made of thick casted iron), is larger (so you can cook large pieces of meat in it) and thus far less handy.

[layer8 → OJFord]

While the “-tte” indicates a diminutive, cocottes aren’t particularly small. I wrote “a kind of” because I associate particular materials with them, including the enamel, which I don’t necessarily with what is called a casserole in English (which in turn is different from what is called a “casserole” in French, which is more a sauce pan). Maybe someone else has better knowledge about those cookware terms.

[OJFord → layer8]

C'est interessant, merci!

It seems cocotte = English 'casserole'; casserole = saucepan.

The enamel vs. cast iron interior of a cocotte IME in the UK is not significant, but in the US going by Wikipedia anyway enamel = French oven; pas d'enamel = Dutch oven.

...I suppose we've no hope of agreeing on all this if we can't even have a 'cup' be the same size! (Or convince Americans that they shouldn't be (and in many cases would find it easier if they weren't) using volumetric measures for everything anyway, for that matter.)