APAD: Done to a turn

Meaning:

   Cooked just right.

 

Background:

   Since at least the end of the first Millennium, food, especially meat, has

   been cooked on spits. The English abbot and scholar, Aelfric of Eynsham,

   referred to them as `spitu' in Latin Grammar and Glossary, circa 1000.

 

   Spits were originally simple pointed sticks, which were used to hold meat

   near to a fire. Rotating spits were developed in the Middle Ages; initially

   turned by hand and later by various forms of powered mechanism.

 

   The allusion in the phrase `done to a turn', or `roasted to a turn', is to

   food that had been cooked for the precisely correct number of turns of the

   spit. Both versions of the phrase date back to the 18th century and the

   `roasted' form is first cited in a piece by an author called Mackenzie in

   Mirror No. 93, 1780:

 

     "The beef was roasted to a turn."

 

- www.phrases.org.uk [edited]

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

I prefer braising to pit-roasting. I'll brown some flour-dusted lamb chunks and

set them aside. I'd add oil and sweat finely-diced onions, carrots, and celery

in the same pot. Once the veggies caramelize and shrink to half the original

size, I'd pour in a cup of red wine, turn up the heat and let it reduce before

chucking the meat back in. Now all I need to do is to add tomato sauce (I mash

canned whole tomatoes), chicken broth, herbs, and salt, bring it to a boil, turn

down the heat, and let it simmer for at least two hours. Never worry about the

meat not done to a turn; it always turns out finger-licking good.