SALT

SALT is a mineral and so ubiquitous that until recently salt hadn't even bothered to be gendered. It was like water, which used to be gender-neutral but now has as many cultural associations as well, arugula.

Purchasing salt was once easy. You had one choice, table salt, though there were often multiple brands. If you did have a choice it was between iodized and non-iodized. This is disregarding specialty salt, like pickling salt or salt for the front stoop. LaRousse Gastronomique recommends a refined table salt and eschews impure salts that have any color other than white.

Recently, though, salt has become a hot commodity. People are no longer tied to simple fine, white table salt. They desire gourmet salt. Right now Sea Salt or Fleur de Sel is fashionable both for male and female gourmands. Although closely associated with gender, class is the larger marker associated with salt. The American gourmet salt craze has problematized historic perceptions of salt.


For example, common table salt has become so common that it has tipped, and is now moving toward the uncommon. It is now a signifier of an unenlightened dining table. Kosher salt has usurped the place once held by the ubiquitous salt shaker. Grey and pink sea salt, artisinal salts, and perfumed salts, are all gendered as feminine. French fry salt, Lowry's Seasoned Salt, and little packets of salt from McDonald's are are gendered as male, and specifically heterosexual male. Despite the current hipster craze for retro cocktails like the Bloody Mary, the universally loved celery salt maintains its mid-century reputation, reinforcing not a gender-neutrality, but instead re-inscribing an unyielding gender binary.

BEEF

This is BEEF. Bloody, bloody beef. In the United States, Beef is universally accepted as a heterosexual male food. It is also associated with the mid-west. When one hears the phrase "meat and potatoes man" this always means beef. "Meat" never ever refers to mutton, rabbit, or goat. On rare occations it may refer to pork, but this is non-standard usage.


The form the beef takes correlates to its gayness, yet be cautious of unexpected associations. A steak for example is heterosexual, especially when prepared rare or medium-rare. A well-cooked steak becomes associated with women, either heterosexual or homosexual. This is counter-intuitive because of women's need of iron.


A curious paradox is carpaccio, an Italian dish of thinly sliced raw beef. Despite the rawness of the flesh and the Italian origin, carpaccio is an effeminate preparation of beef.

FENNEL

This is FENNEL. I know what you’re thinking. Fennel is undoubtedly gay. But it’s not so easy to judge the homosexual (male) qualities of fennel.

LaRousse Gastronomique describes fennel this way:

FENNEL. Fenouil—An aromatic flowering umbelliferous plant of Italian origin which is now widely cultivated. It has a slight flavour of aniseed.

It is true that delightful dishes such as “Orange and Fennel Salad” from Cucina Fresca by Evan Kleinman and Viana La Place are  unanimously considered homosexual. The recipe calls for 3 large navel oranges (or PINK grapeFRUIT), 2 medium fennel bulbs, 3 tablespoons FRUITY olive oil, course sea salt and freshly ground pepper. The homosexual possibilities of fennel reveal themselves explicitly in the text.

Yet fennel routinely makes its subtle presence known in Italian pasta sauces. You’ll frequently see it roasted with onions, combined with sausage, and other meat sauces. And as we all know, it doesn’t get more heterosexual (male) than that.

ARUGULA

This is ARUGULA. It is the most homosexual of all the leafy greens. It is soft to the touch, with a bright green color and even though it is not a lily looks a bit like a fleur-de-lis. Fleur-de-lis is French, which is the most homosexual of languages and perhaps this has something to do with arugula’s gay reputation.

In other countries, arugula is known as ROCKET or ROQUETTE (see French). LaRousse Gastronomique describes arugula this way:

ROCKET (CRESS). Roquette—Strong smelling plant with sharp and piquant flavour. Its leaves are smooth and glabrous, the flowers white or pale yellow and it grows wild in the fields. It is used as seasoning in salads.

Despite its strong, sharp flavor, arugula in American mainstream media is portrayed as effete. President Obama was tainted by the emasculating aura of arugula on the campaign trail in 2007 when he complained about the rising price of arugula. (Clinton had his own radicchio debacle, which will be discussed in a later post.) This wasn’t a deathblow to the candidate. Currently, Michelle Obama grows arugula in the White House organic garden.