APAD: Scraping the barrel

Meaning:                                                                       

   Scraping the barrel is using or accepting something of inferior quality     

   because all the better quality items have been used up. The phrase initially

   meant `use every last part of the barrel's contents so as not to waste any'.

                                                                               

   A modern day variant of `scraping the barrel' is `jumping the shark` - used

   when a long-running TV series is deemed to have put out a feeble episode,   

   having run out of better ideas.                                             

                                                                               

Background:                                                                    

   Following a decline in usage in the late 20th century the expression        

   `scraping the barrel' has become popular again. This is no doubt because of

   the reviews of the numerous reality TV shows, which are ploughing thinner and

   thinner ground. Here in the UK no new show seems to get airtime unless it is

   `The Great British...'. We were recently treated to The Great British       

   Celebrity Bake-off Christmas Special - and if that's not scraping the bottom

   of the barrel I don't know what is. Perhaps Alan Partridge's spoof `Monkey

   Tennis' idea might actually get made.                                       

                                                                               

   So, how about the origin of this phrase. The barrel being referred to is a

   storage barrel and the scraping is the removal of the last dregs of the     

   contents. The first uses of the expression refer to scraping the barrel as a

   means of getting the every last small piece, so as not to waste any.        

                                                                               

   Which specific product was first said to be the one that initiated the      

   `scrape the barrel' phrase isn't known. To explain that we need to go back in

   time, to a date when barrels were commonly used for storage. As it turns out

   we don't need to go as far back as you might think. Put thoughts of casks of

   flour stored on medieval sailing ships out of your mind - the phrase        

   originated in the USA in the mid 20th century.                              

                                                                               

   Presumably, barrels have always been scraped to remove the last remnants of

   whatever they contained. The metaphorical usage, that is, one where no actual

   barrel was involved, began in the 1930s. There were many forms of the phrase,

   some referring to `scraping the ... barrel', some to `scraping the bottom of

   the ... barrel'.

 

   ...

 

- www.phrases.org.uk [edited]

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Old friends, Bill and I share meals regularly. Unlike me, he does not seem to

have a Chinese stomach and with me, he does not need to worry about face. I get

to taste the simple foreign dishes he serves, with ingredients and spices of

wierd names, and we prefer eating at home where we can quaff our native ErGuoTou.

 

Growing up in the harsh 60s and 70s on the North China Plain, the guy is an

incorrigible barrel-scraper and proud of it. After many years since our humble

beginning, one of our childhood favorites, tomatoes stir-fried with scrambled

eggs, however, stays a favorite. He would use heirloom but never remove the

skin, as chefs do to improve the dish's texture, and literally scrape, with an

index finger, the inner surface of the shells for the last drop of liquid

protein after breaking an egg.