Foods Beginning with R Trivia Quiz

Answer: raclette

Raclette describes both a variety of Swiss cheese and a manner of serving it. The cheese is melted, classically in front of an open fire and modernly in an electric device called a raclonette. The molten cheese is then scraped onto bread, or boiled potatoes, and served with pickles and charcuterie.

In the French-Swiss dialect called Walliserdialekt, the verb "racler" means to scrape. The dish dates to at least 1291. It is traditionally served in the winter months, especially around Christmas.

Answer: ragł

There are nearly as many ways to sauce pasta as there are shapes of macaroni. One of the most popular in Italy is ragł. Ragł is made with meat (ground or minced beef, veal, pork, horse, lamb, mutton, chicken, duck, goose, or horse), chopped vegetables and tomato.

The proportion of tomatoes in higher in the south. The name appears to have invaded northern Italy with Napoleon in 1796. The French term for such a sauce is "ragoūt" which appears to have been adopted. The adoption of the word "ragu" as a brand-name for commercially-prepared Italian-style sauces is unfortunate in that many of the sauces on offer under that name are meatless (e.g. Sauce Alfredo).

Answer: rapini

A member of the mustard family (Brassicaceae), rapini (Brassica rapa var. Ruvo) goes by many names: broccoli raab, broccoli rabe, broccoletti, spring raab, and ruvo kale. It looks a bit like broccoli but the buds do not form a head. The stalks are edible if young.

It features in many Italian, Portuguese and Spanish dishes. In the US, it is served not only as a side dish but as an ingredient in hoagie-type sandwiches which contain Italian sausage.

Answer: red huckleberry

The red huckleberry (Vaccinium parvifolium) grows wild along the Pacific Coast of North America from California through Washington, Oregon and British Columbia to Alaska. The red-orange berries were collected and eaten by indigenous residents of these areas.

The tart berries may be eaten fresh or dried for later use. They are also made into jelly and tea. Their availability is limited in that they do not adapt well to agriculture and are mostly foraged.

Answer: red-eye gravy

A sort of poor man's sauce, red-eye gravy is produced by adding strong black coffee to the drippings in a frying pan in which ham has been cooked. This is seasoned with salt, pepper and perhaps hot sauce. It is good on rice or grits and obligatory with ham biscuits - a sort of Southern American ham sandwich built on a biscuit.

Another name for red-eye gravy is "bottom sop" and the process of dipping a biscuit into it is called sopping. The traditionality of this sauce is attested by US President Andrew Jackson's enjoyment of it.

Despite what is rumoured to occur in Florida, there is no tomato sauce in red-eye gravy.

Answer: rhubarb

Rhubarb is a vegetable used culinarily as if it were a fruit. The leaves are inedible (they contain oxalic acid) but the stems (called petioles) are used in a variety of ways. Because of their tartness, rhubarb stems are normally cooked down with a large quantity of sugar.

The compote may be used to fill pies (often mixed with strawberries), make jams, make buckles and crumbles, and, in the UK, mixed with whipped cream or custard to create a rhubarb fool. In Finland, rhubarb is used to make wine.

Much of the rhubarb in the UK is forced in greenhouses. Most of the rhubarb in the US is grown in the Pacific Northwest states of Washington and Oregon. Older US cookbooks sometimes refer to rhubarb as "pie plant" because it was so commonly baked into pies.

Answer: rock candy

As children commonly discover in a science experiment, a supersaturated solution of sugar and water (heated to accept even more sugar) will crystalize around a string or stick suspended in the solution for a week. The big crystals of sugar are called rock candy, or rock sugar, or crystal sugar, and are what Burl Ives was singing about in "Big Rock Candy Mountain". Colour or flavour may be added to the solution. Ancient Persians and Ancient Chinese knew how to make this confection.

A fussy but elegant method to sweeten a cup of tea is to put rock candy in the bottom of the tea cup before pouring in the hot tea. Rock and rye is an alcoholic beverage, typically rye whiskey, sweetened with rock candy.

Answer: romesco

The fishing community of Tarragona created romesco sauce. It must have been a labour-intensive endeavour before the invention of food processors. The trick to good romesco is in the roasting of the ingredients before they are brought together. Tomatoes and garlic are slowly oven-roasted. Almonds or hazelnuts or pine nuts are toasted. Nyora peppers or ancho chiles are toasted and ground.

The whole is combined in a food processor with olive oil, red-wine vinegar, red wine and crumbled stale bread. Variations include the addition of roasted onions and/or fresh mint to the purée.

Although originally intended to accompany fish, this sauce works with roasted meats and poultry.

Answer: rose hip

Rose bushes have flowers and flowers makes seeds and seeds grow inside fruits which, on rose bushes, are called hips. The seeds inside a dried rose hip are usually viable but a much more common use for them is to brew tea, to make jam, jelly and syrup. Nyponsoppa is a Swedish soup made of rose hips. Rose hips are mixed with other fruits to make the Hungarian fruit brandy called Pįlinka.

Answer: rump

Although it is perfectly clear to beef cattle where their rump is located, there is less agreement among butchers. In the US, a rump steak is a cut of beef taken from the American-cut round steak primal. In Great Britain and Australia, a rump steak is a cut from the rump primal equivalent to a sirloin steak in the US. What the British call a sirloin, Americans call a porterhouse.

In France, it is called a culotte which is oddly the French word for panties. Similar confusion exists as regards rump roasts. Regardless of nomenclature, rump roast is especially tasty is slowly braised to make it fork tender.