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Cheese – stuffed eggs
Cooking time about 8 minutes You will need for 4 servings:
4 eggs 3 oz. grated cheddar cheese
salt and pepper ½ teaspoon made mustard
1 oz. butter 8 small rounds buttered brown bread
Hard boil the eggs and cut in half lengthwise. Trim egg bases so they stand firmly.
Scoop out yolks and sieve.
Blend with salt, pepper and butter.
Mix in cheese and mustard; spoon filling into egg whites.
Place on bread rounds and serve with a crisp green salad.
A variant recipe
Chermoula
A Moroccan Marinade for Fish
Every town, even every family has a special combination for this marinade in which every type of fish big or small, whole, filleted or cut in chunks, is left to absorb the flavours. Different herbs are used: parsley instead of coriander, spices in varying proportions, onion instead of garlic
so you may feel free to use the following list of ingredients as a guide and suit your taste.
It is marvellous and I strongly recommend it, but not for a fish with delicate flavour.
The following measures make a rather large quantity but it keeps well for several days if covered by a thin layer of oil.
1 large bunch fresh coriander,
1 tablespoon paprika very finely chopped 1 very good pinch cayenne
1 large bunch parsley, very finely chopped Juice of 1 or 2 lemons, or 150 ml (¼ pint) vinegar
6 large cloves garlic, crushed 300 ml (½ pint) olive or other oil 1 tablespoonful cumin
1 teaspoon coriander
Beat all the ingredients well together. Scale, gut and clean the fish necessary and marinate for at least an hour (you may leave it overnight).If the fish is large, put some of the marinade inside as well. (Roden: 1985, page 20).
Tony Bex’s distinction between the basic recipe and its variant is the result of an analytical process in which he compares the similar and dissimilar features of the one and the other. However, prior to this, he first undertakes a detailed characterization of the main features of the basic recipe and enumerates the following main features:
Some characteristics of the basic recipe
x The vocabulary is derived from the field of food preparation
x Cohesion by ellipsis:
Ex: hard boil the eggs and cut in half lengthwise
x The inclusion of three information headings:
. Cheese-stuffed eggs (the title)
. Cooking time
. You will need for 4 servings
x A list of ingredients with reduced grammatical form
x A set of instructions introduced by imperative verbs
x Ellipsis of pronouns and articles and the use of abbreviated measurements.
Comparing the characteristics of the variant with those of the basic recipe.
Similarities with the basic recipe
x The presence of an uninformative title
x The list of ingredients
x The set of (unnumbered) instructions
x Omitting “of” and using abbreviated measurements
Differences with the basic recipe
x The first paragraph is not really necessary for the set of subsequent instructions.
x The author here seeks to introduce a degree of intimacy by incorporating informal forms.
x Unlike the impersonal nature of the basic recipe, the variant recipe is more personal as it contains evaluative statements and addresses the readers more directly.
Following this analysis, Tony Bex reaches the conclusion that variety within a genre is a result of “the writer’s relationship both to the subject matter of the text and to the potential readership” (Bex 1996: 168). Thus, the basic recipe is intended for those who are not especially expert cooks; hence, the use of the most basic information. In the variant recipe, however, the readers are assumed to be not only skilled at cooking but also interested in learning about the cultures where these dishes originate.
The similarity of the variant to a basic genre form, according to Bex, is due to the existence of certain obligatory elements which are common to both the basic and the variant genre forms. The reader, in general, would, thus, expect to encounter the following ordered features:
x the name of the dish
x the ingredients (presented in columns) with reduced grammatical forms, absence of articles and the presence of abbreviations for quantities.
x a set of instructions beginning with imperative verbs and containing ellipted coreferential elements.
Away from the recipe as a genre, Bakhtin (1986: 127) also maintains that “the generic form of greeting can move from the official sphere into the sphere of familiar communication.
Genre and Text Classification:
It transpires from the above discussion of recipes that genre can be taken as the basis on which texts are classified as of the same kind. With this regard, Bex maintains that
A genre, therefore, represents a set of texts which invite readers to orient themselves towards a particular social role or set of social roles. (1996: 169)
Accordingly, it could be argued that genres are psychologically real semiotic entities. Language users in general and more particularly readers are aware they are in the presence of a particular genre because they have internalized a set of other different genres and also because of their knowledge of the texts in which this particular genre may be represented.
Concerning this point, Bakhtin maintains that
we speak in definite speech genres, that is, all our utterances have definite and relatively stable typical forms of construction on the whole… We cast our speech in definite generic forms, sometimes rigid and trite ones, sometimes more flexible, plastic and creative ones (Bakhtin 1986: 127)
Bakhtin further adds that in order to use and manipulate a genre freely and creatively, one first has to master this genre fully (Ibid). The importance of classifying texts on the basis of generic properties is quite significant for three reasons according to Bex. First, it shows that language users have an intuitive awareness that there exist different texts each with particular generic properties such as diaries, advertisements, business letters… Second, it highlights the phenomenon of language variety. Third, it enables one to deal with parody as a special use of language. (Bex 1996: 140)
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