[Vwoolf] "Jacob's Room" : crux #4

[Adolphe Haberer]

Dear Stuart,

"Comment dit-on 'grilled bone' en français?" 
What else could I do? I couldn't very well write: "Comment dit-on 'côte à l'os' en français?" 

The difficulty lies in the fact that butchers have different ways of cutting meat. The "côte à l'os" I suggested for "grilled bone" would approximately correspond to a large T-bone steak in the US and a prime rib in the UK. Today in France the "côte à l'os" would be simply called "côte de bœuf", a very popular joint, especially when barbecued.
"Spare rib" or ribs is quite another thing. We call it "travers de porc". It's pork only, and includes a number of ribs and little meat, whereas the "côte de bœuf", like the T-bone, has only one bone and a large proportion of meat.
See https://www.google.fr/?gws_rd=ssl#q=c%C3%B4te+%C3%A0+l%27os for pictures.
I hope this helps.
Ado

====================
Adolphe Haberer
Professeur émérite à l'Université Lumière-Lyon 2
1 route de Saint-Antoine
69380 Chazay d'Azergues
33 (0)4 78 43 65 24
33 (0)6 63 57 95 91
adolphe.haberer at univ-lyon2.fr
ado at haberer.fr





Le 24 mai 2015 à 17:40, Stuart N. Clarke <stuart.n.clarke at btinternet.com> a écrit :

> “What’s the French for grilled bone?”
>  
> Unfortunately, I have no real interest in food, and know very little about it.
>  
> Vara says in her notes: “Broiled steak with the bone in.”
>  
> In the UK, we don’t now say “broiled” (it’s N. American), although we may talk about a broiling sun.  There’s no problem with “grilled”; it’s the bone that’s the difficulty.
>  
> The OED has a couple of unhelpful examples from the 19th C, such as “The grilled bone that browned upon the fire.”
>  
> VW used the expression: ‘I’m burnt like a grilled bone’ (L5 186).
>  
> Is it really steak?  I incline towards a chop.  If it’s a chop, can I really ask for “une côtelette grillée” in France?
>  
> Turning to the French translations, I find that Jean Talva (Livre de Poche) quite reasonably sidesteps the problem: “J’ai envie d’un «grilled bone».  Comment dit-on «grilled bone» en français?” (p. 159)
>  
> Ado Haberer (Folio classique) has almost the same translation: “J’ai envie de «grilled bone».  Comment dit-on «grilled bone» en français?” (p. 206).  However, as his is an annotated edn, he explains: ‘qu’il s’agisse de boeuf ou de porc, on dirait «côte à l’os» en français.’ (p. 350).  Does that mean ‘spare rib’, Ado?
>  
> I really don’t think the expression has any current meaning now, yet it must have had a clear meaning in VW’s time.
>  
> Stuart
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