[HN Gopher] The ancient art of roasting agave
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The ancient art of roasting agave
Author : NoRagrets
Score : 95 points
Date : 2024-08-06 06:35 UTC (3 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.atlasobscura.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.atlasobscura.com)
| lanternfish wrote:
| Curious as to why the title of this post was changed. The process
| of preservation here is just as much - if not more - important to
| the article than the actual practice.
| bbarnett wrote:
| There is a limit on the size of titles on HN, and I cannot
| imaging the original title would fit that limit. Thus, someone
| made a choice on what to remove.
| lanternfish wrote:
| That would make sense. I saw it initially on the home page
| with the listed headline, and then saw it changed. I would
| think title length would be validated on submission.
| erbdex wrote:
| Imagine the earth as distributed, massively parallel operating
| systems. Physical, chemical and biological conditions as
| $environment and available system calls. Seeds could be apps that
| can survive on certain hardware.
|
| I learnt from a billion agave[1] project that in Chile where it
| touches 55 degree centigrade, they are the most resilient apps
| that thrive. In peak draughts, they're reviving techniques of
| fermenting the leaves as a fodder replacement. Tequila, I hear is
| mostly agave.
|
| In native Karnataka, India they use the fibres for ropes, the
| tips as needles, the dehydrated leaves as roof tiles. A large
| suit manufacturer until recently would buy off local agave for
| very strong and lasting fabric. I learnt that a hammock weaved
| from the fibre would easily last 10 years in sun and rain.
|
| Amazed to learn of the edible properties!
|
| [1] https://regenerationinternational.org/2024/06/17/the-
| billion...
| austinjp wrote:
| The manual construction of the horno oven for roasting agave for
| mezcal is a lovely piece of traditional labour, long may it
| continue. The workers could do with some respiratory protection,
| though, looks smokey.
|
| https://youtu.be/IEEsu6PFGF0
| notdang wrote:
| there is no horno oven. Horno means oven in Spanish. It's like
| saying "salsa sauce".
| zdunn wrote:
| When a common word from another language is borrowed into
| English, it tends to take on a more specific meaning. Most
| native English speakers wouldn't use "salsa" to describe any
| other sauce. Horno oven sounds perfectly reasonable in
| English to specifically describe an earth oven in that style,
| not the common household appliance.
|
| EDIT: Probably the reason this happens is that most English
| speakers wouldn't be familiar with the foreign word, so the
| speaker uses it as a modifier to the standard English word.
| The listener doesn't need to know anything specific about the
| foreign word in that case and can just assume it's a type of
| the common item.
| dghughes wrote:
| Then again people say things like VIN number and that's not
| due to another language we can be dumb for no reason too.
|
| But also in Canada some uni-lingual English people may say
| "pont bridge" not knowing pont is bridge in French. Maybe
| uni-lingual French say the same?
| zdunn wrote:
| I think the acronym thing is related but a separate
| phenomenon. My guess would be that speakers intuitively
| think the acronym isn't easily understandable so they add
| an extra word to clarify it, intentionally or
| unintentionally duplicating one of the actual words in
| the acronym.
|
| "pont bridge" sounds like the exact phenomenon though.
| Does it have a more specific meaning that "bridge"?
| notdang wrote:
| I agree with the salsa-sauce.
|
| But why horno-oven? Horno is oven in Spanish and just in
| one video someone mistranslated horno to "earth oven".
|
| All the people besides all those 1.5k that saw the video
| will use the "horno" as "oven".
| zdunn wrote:
| > mistranslated horno to "earth oven"
|
| My argument is that it's not a mistranslation. In
| Spanish, "horno" means any kind of oven. In English, it
| means specifically an earth oven because when English
| speakers started using the word, they always used it to
| mean that kind of oven.
|
| A sibling comment mentioned chai tea. It's the same
| phenomenon. Chai means any tea in its original language,
| but in English it means a specific variety and
| preparation of tea.
|
| English is a bastardized language and has a lot of words
| borrowed from other languages. But once they're borrowed,
| they're English words and have their own meaning separate
| from their original loanword.
| notdang wrote:
| > In English, it means specifically an earth oven because
| when English speakers started using the word, they always
| used it to mean that kind of oven.
|
| Sorry, I was not aware of this. Can you point me to
| another source, besides this video, that mentions the
| usage of "horno" as an earth oven?
| ThrowawayTestr wrote:
| Google "horno oven" and you'll find plenty of English
| references to earth ovens.
| teddyh wrote:
| Or "chai tea".
| ff317 wrote:
| My favorite is American restaurant menus describing a
| "French Dip" as "with au jus sauce" :)
| shagie wrote:
| That's a meme-worthy mini-rant in Spider-Man: Across The
| Spider Verse
| https://youtu.be/0jTN9YqyXOU?si=JjvNEy0cgj81ksRp&t=71
|
| On a more serious bit - the word origin of each is
| interesting. The word used depended on how it got to its
| destination - by land or by sea.
|
| https://qz.com/1176962/map-how-the-word-tea-spread-over-
| land...
|
| If it was shipped over land across the Silk Road, its name
| stems from 'cha' (Cha ). However, if it was shipped from
| the coast, the dialect spoken there pronounced Cha as
| 'te'.
| khafra wrote:
| Really interesting to see an article on agave roasting without
| the context of an artisinal mescaleiro.
| relwin wrote:
| You can see ancient agave roasting pits in Anza-Borrego Desert
| State Park, if you know where to look. Also, if you've ever run
| over an agave with a lawnmower while wearing shorts you'll soon
| experience a burning sensation on your legs, so props to folks
| that handle the leaves without issues...
| QuercusMax wrote:
| Fascinating! Agave looks a lot like Aloe, but apparently
| they're not closely related. I wouldn't expect looking at an
| Agave for it to be a skin irritant.
| Ductapemaster wrote:
| I helped my mom transplant a large agave plant and got in
| contact with a considerable amount of sap in the process --
| it's extremely uncomfortable and it took probably 3 months for
| the resulting rash to go away on my inner arms.
|
| The irritation comes from raphides [0], which are sharp calcium
| oxalate crystals that get into your skin. Definitely something
| to avoid if you can! I have no idea how folks work with bare
| skin around those plants...
|
| Interestingly, pineapples and kiwis have raphides in them as
| well, so if your mouth feels cut up after eating some, that is
| why.
|
| [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raphide
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