Foods Beginning with E Trivia Quiz

Answer: Emmentaler

Made since the 13th century in Switzerland, Emmentaler is a medium-hard cheese. The name Emmentaler Switzerland is legally protected. It originated in Emmental in Bern. It is what many people think of as Swiss cheese. The holes develop as bacteria "exhale" during the cheesemaking.

In melted-cheese dishes, Emmentaler is often combined with Gruyère. Jarlsberg is a comparable cheese produced in Norway.

Answer: eel

Eels are not snakes but they look very much like serpents. They live in great variety in both salt and fresh water around the world. Many have been designated endangered species; they are easy to catch and good to eat. The Japanese eat both freshwater (unagi) and saltwater (anago) eels. Jellied eels are popular in the UK.

In Spain, adolescent eels (elvers) are sautéed with garlic in olive oil. Smoked eel is enjoyed in Scandinavia. Ogden Nash wrote: "I don't mind eels / Except as meals. / And the way they feels."

Answer: Époisses

Époisses is a commune in Côte-d'Or in eastern France. Since the 16th century, a soft pungent unpasteurized cows-milk cheese has been made there, sometimes called Époisses de Bourgogne. It began with the Cistercian monks at Cîteaux Abbey and is carried on modernly by Fromagerie Berthaut. Both Napoleon and Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin favoured it.

The modern version is washed in Marc de Bourgogne, the local pomace brandy, during maturation. The resulting cheese is protected by "appellation d'origine contrôlée" (AOC) status.

Answer: eggplant

In the US, those parts of Canada which speak English, Australia and New Zealand, it is an eggplant. In Quebec, the UK and parts of Europe, it is an aubergine. In Asia and Africa, is it more commonly a brinjal. Scientists call the spongy absorbent fruit Solanum melongena. Most cooks think of it as a vegetable while botanically it is a berry. Without eggplant, there would be no French ratatouille, nor Italian parmigiana di melanzane, nor Greek moussaka, nor Arabic baba ghanoush ... which would be sad.

Answer: entrecôte

The language used to describe cuts of beef (or any other meat, for that matter) is diverse. The French word "entrecôte" is used in English-speaking countries to identify a premium cut of beef. Generally speaking, an entrecôte comes from the rib area of the cow.

However, depending upon locale, this may indicate a rib steak, a rib eye steak, a Scotch fillet, a club steak, a Delmonico or a Porterhouse. Sometimes a New York strip steak or a Kansas City strip steak is also identified as an entrecôte.

Answer: elderflower

In the 1944 comedy motion picture "Arsenic and Old Lace", two elderly sisters poison lonely male boarders by giving them elderberry wine spiked with arsenic, strychnine, and cyanide. Plants of the genus Sambucus produce purple-almost-black berries which are made into elderberry wine and flowers which are made into elderflower cordial.

In 1973, Elton John sang a song called "Elderberry Wine".

Answer: English walnut

The English walnut (Juglans regia) is also known as the Persian walnut, the Carpathian walnut, and the Madeira walnut. The tree is native to a huge part of Eurasia and is cultivated widely, as well. In southern Italy, there grows a walnut tree (Il Noce di Benevento) under which witches were reputed to hold their sabbats. Strega is a liqueur made in Benevento on which the label depicts the witches dancing under the tree.

Answer: eau-de-vie

The French phrase "eau de vie" means, literally, water of life but denotes any colourless brandy made by fermenting fruit other than grapes and double distilling the result. Think of the Schnaps of Germany, the raki of Turkey or the palinka of Hungary. Confusingly, the French include grape brandies within their meaning of eau de vie calling them "eau de vie de vin". Famous examples of the art include pear brandy, raspberry brandy and apple brandy (calvados).

Answer: escalope

Any piece of meat which has been sliced into thin pieces or pounded until thin is an escalope. The term is French as was the older culinary term which it replaced: "paillard". An escalope is typically flattened with a special hammer, a rolling pin, or the handle of a knife.

The thin piece of meat cooks quickly and can easily become overcooked and dry. Saltimboca, scaloppine, Wiener schnitzel and silpancho are all examples of dishes using escalopes. Escalopes are not to be confused with the scallops which are a tasty shellfish.

Answer: European cantaloupe

Within the botanical family Cucurbitaceae, the European cantaloupe is a popular muskmelon variety (Cucumis melo var. cantalupensis). It is known variously as cantaloupe, rockmelon and spanspek. Its orange flesh is mildly sweet and is used in salads and desserts as well as fresh for breakfast.

The European cantaloupe differs from the North American cantaloupe (Cucumis melo var. reticulatus) particularly in the skin of the exterior. Bite-size pieces of cantaloupe wrapped in prosciutto or some other cured pork product, skewered with a toothpick, make a tasty and elegant (if somewhat old-school) appetizer.