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cheeselet

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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WOTD – 21 September 2022

Etymology

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A selection of ġbejniet or cheeselets (sense 1; foreground) in Malta.

From cheese +‎ -let (diminutive suffix). Sense 1 has been reinforced by the word’s use as a calque of Maltese ġbejna (literally “little cheese”), a diminutive of ġobon (“cheese”).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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cheeselet (plural cheeselets)

  1. (chiefly Malta) A small, usually roundish lump of cheese; a baby cheese; specifically, a particular type made with sheep's milk in Malta.
    • [1899, Mary Shelley Pechin, “Cheese Preparations”, in The 3-6-5 Cook Book: For Use 365 Days in the Year, Cleveland, Oh.: The Helman-Taylor Company, →OCLC, page 154:
      CHEESELETS. A saucer three-fourths full of grated cheese, mix with it the whites of thee eggs beaten stiff, add a pinch of salt, a few drops of Worcestershire sauce. Form into balls, roll in cracker crumbs (very fine), drop in boiling lard. To be made during the dinner and served directly with the salad.
      Used to describe a deep-fried ball of grated cheese.]
    • 1908 February 26, J. H. Monrad, “The Pen & Ink Buttermaker. [That Curd Test.]”, in New York Produce Review and American Creamery, volume XXV, number 1, New York, N.Y.: Urner-Barry Company, page 710, column 3:
      Milk free from foreign deleterious spores will produce cheeselets which are pliant without trace of gas development, that is free from 'holes' or 'eyes,' whereas the cheeselets from the milk not fit for cheesemaking will by this treatment be crumbly, leathery, spongy, shriveled, huffed or otherwise abnormal.
    • 1964, Report of the FAO/WHO Meeting on the Control of Brucellosis in the Mediterranean Region: Malta, 8–13 June 1964, Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, page 10:
      Dr. Debono then commented on the interesting problem of the local cheeselets. While these in Malta are supposed to be made out of sheep's milk they should not theoretically constitute a serious danger because the incidence of Brucellosis in sheep in Malta is about 1%.
    • 1968, Gary Hogg, “Round-about”, in Malta: Blue-Water Island, 1st American edition, Cranbury, N.J.: A[lfred] S[mith] Barnes & Co., →OCLC, page 101:
      A small cheese basket is known as a qaleb […] The cheeselet that is made in it is called a gbeina, smaller brother, as it were, of the rikotta.
    • 1982, A[ndrew] N[orman] Wilson, chapter VII, in Wise Virgin, New York, N.Y.: Viking Press, published 1983, →ISBN, page 107:
      Meg gazed desperately across the room to where Monty was guffawing with mirth and stuffing into his mouth a cheeselet.
    • 2000, Giovanni Bonello, Histories of Malta, Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti, →ISBN, page 197, column 2:
      Soft cheeselets, freshly made from sheeps'[sic] or goats' milk, rated as a favourite delicacy – and as trustworthy carriers of undulant fever.
  2. (US, archaic) A baked dish of bread and cheese covered with a mixture of eggs and milk.
    • 1898, “Cheese”, in The Puritan Cook-book. Composed of Contributed Recipes. […], Rochester, N.Y.: Union and Advertiser Press, →OCLC, page 84:
      CHEESELET. […] Line a pudding dish with bread; then sprinkle cheese over; then bread and so on until the dish is full, having a layer of bread on top, buttered side down. […] Pour the custard over the bread and cheese and bake in a moderate oven for twenty or twenty-five minutes.
    • 1905 April, “‘Mother’s Way’”, in Mary Wood-Allen, Estelle M[inerva] H[atch] Merrill, editors, American Motherhood, volume XXI, number 1, Boston, Mass.: American Mother Company, →OCLC, page 42, column 2:
      CHEESELET […] Line a buttered baking-dish with the bread, lay over the cheese, then bread until the dish is full, having top layer bread buttered side down. Make a custard of three beaten eggs, 1 pint of milk, 1 teaspoonful salt, pour over the bread and cheese, and bake twenty-five minutes.
    • 1908, “Luncheon Dishes”, in Choice and Tried Recipes […], Buffalo, N.Y.: Young Women’s Home Missionary Society of the Delaware Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church, →OCLC, page 57:
      Cheeselet. Butter 4 slices of bread, fit them into a well-buttered pudding dish, sprinkle over them 1 cup grated cheese; prepare a custard of 3 eggs, 2 cups of milk, salt and pepper; pour over the bread and bake until the custard is set and the bread is brown like toast.

Translations

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Further reading

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