Literary notes about Mash (AI summary)
The word “mash” functions in literature both as a literal reference to food preparation and as a metaphor for transformation or force. Its culinary use is evident in recipes where ingredients are crushed or blended to create a uniform consistency, such as in dishes prepared with vegetables, potatoes, or fruit ([1], [2], [3]). At the same time, authors employ “mash” to evoke images of physical impact or a blending together of elements, whether describing the crushing of raw materials in industrial settings ([4], [5], [6]) or the figurative mashing of characters and ideas to underscore conflict or change ([7], [8], [9]). This dual usage highlights the versatility of the term, bridging everyday culinary practice with broader, often more ambiguous, metaphorical applications ([10], [11], [12]).
- As soon as water boils add a cupful of sliced radishes, potatoes, carrots, or any vegetables that will not mash.
— from The Khaki Kook BookA Collection of a Hundred Cheap and Practical RecipesMostly from Hindustan by Mary Kennedy Core - Mash potatoes and to each 2 cupfuls use 4 tablespoonfuls of milk, 1 tablespoonful of butter, and one egg.
— from Woman's Institute Library of Cookery Volume 3: Soup; Meat; Poultry and Game; Fish and Shell Fish by Woman's Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences - Then drain and mash it with a piece of butter, pepper and salt to the taste.
— from The National Cook Book, 9th ed. by Hannah Mary (Bouvier) Peterson - The great flouring-mills here and at St. Paul use the 'new process' and mash the wheat by rolling, instead of grinding it.
— from Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain - The advantage of the still lies in submitting the mash in a thin current to the action of the heat, and the consequent rapid vaporization.
— from A Practical Handbook on the Distillation of Alcohol from Farm Products by F. B. (Frederic B.) Wright - This yeast is cultivated from a mother bed in a special yeast mash and when ripened is mixed with the mash in the fermenting vat.
— from A Practical Handbook on the Distillation of Alcohol from Farm Products by F. B. (Frederic B.) Wright - A party is like a sausage machine; it mashes up all sorts of heads together into the same mincemeat—fatheads and blockheads, all in one mash!
— from An Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen - “If you do, you son of a—” hissed the butler, “I'll mash in your face for you before you get out of here!”
— from The Jungle by Upton Sinclair - "Put it in your pocket, or I'll mash your empty skull!"
— from The Yacht Club; or, The Young Boat-Builder by Oliver Optic - “Let me get him a bran mash while you rub him down,” said the mother.
— from Black Beauty by Anna Sewell - By the side of the latter a steaming bran-mash stood in a bucket.
— from Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy - Oh, what a good supper he gave me that night, a good bran mash and some crushed beans with my oats, and such a thick bed of straw!
— from Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
