Is this a word?
June 7, 2012 4:05 PM Subscribe
Svenskafilter: is there a Swedish word for the ends of food, e.g. the end of a roast, or the heel of a loaf of bread? Possibly starting with an "s". Might be some kind of regional word in northern Wisconsin. Not sure on spelling; might sound something like "skurla". Takk!
"Skalk" is common in Sweden.
posted by martinrebas at 4:22 PM on June 7, 2012
posted by martinrebas at 4:22 PM on June 7, 2012
Response by poster: Was asking based on something a friend said, and they think krunka is it (or close enough to it to have been the root for whatever word they heard as a kid).
posted by curious nu at 4:36 PM on June 7, 2012
posted by curious nu at 4:36 PM on June 7, 2012
As a native Polish speaker, I have to note that the original word is "kromka" (end piece off a loaf of bread).
posted by Ender's Friend at 4:57 PM on June 7, 2012
posted by Ender's Friend at 4:57 PM on June 7, 2012
A "skalk" is specifically a leftover piece of bread. A "skrutt" is generally something small and useless (often used affectionately too), or the name for the not-eaten interior part of a fruit (like an apple core). Those are the only words I can think of.
posted by gemmy at 7:46 PM on June 7, 2012
posted by gemmy at 7:46 PM on June 7, 2012
Maybe "Skerpa"?
My mother was Swedish. When we had a loaf of bread that had gone stale, she would tear it into pieces and put them on a cookie sheet in a warm oven (250 deg. F.?) for a while (> 1hr.?) til the bread got brown and toasty. It smells wonderful, and the result is surprisingly tasty. She called it "skerpa," but I've never seen that as a legitimate Swedish word in a cookbook or anything. I think we're talking about the same thing, though.
posted by Corvid at 7:59 PM on June 7, 2012
My mother was Swedish. When we had a loaf of bread that had gone stale, she would tear it into pieces and put them on a cookie sheet in a warm oven (250 deg. F.?) for a while (> 1hr.?) til the bread got brown and toasty. It smells wonderful, and the result is surprisingly tasty. She called it "skerpa," but I've never seen that as a legitimate Swedish word in a cookbook or anything. I think we're talking about the same thing, though.
posted by Corvid at 7:59 PM on June 7, 2012
Hey, I'm the friend. I grew up in Northern WI, near Duluth. When I was a kid, at dinner we would always vie for what I thought was called the 'klunka' which was the heel of the bread loaf or even the end piece of a roast. My dad's family was mostly of Swedish extraction but there is also a large Polish presence in town, so it's possible that they were saying 'krunka' and I misheard, or that they were saying 'klunka' as sort of a play on 'krunka'/'kromka' and the Swedish word for the heel of a shoe, 'klack'. My father has no memory of this, although he was almost always the winner of any competition for this most prized morsel.
posted by mimo at 8:15 PM on June 7, 2012
posted by mimo at 8:15 PM on June 7, 2012
As a native Polish speaker, I have to note that the original word is "kromka" (end piece off a loaf of bread).
I don't think that's right. Kromka does not mean specifically the end piece off a loaf of bread. It means simply a piece or portion of bread that's been cut off, or a slice, which may or may not be the end piece of a loaf of bread. I have checked this in the most authoritative Polish dictionary, "Slownik Jezyka Polskiego" PWN 1998 (Red. Mieczyslaw Szymczak). But there is a word that refers specifically to the end piece of a loaf of bread, and it's colloquially called "dupka" (which can be a naughty word in other contexts), and there are no doubt other regional words describing the end piece specifically, but that's the most common.
Re: the Swedish word, gemmy has it above, though I'd note that it might happen in certain dialect pronunciations, like in skånska where skrutt perhaps(?) could be heard to be similar to OP's "skurla", but I think we must keep in mind that language and pronunciation is preserved imperfectly in immigrant communities, especially when a few generations have passed, so things may have started one way, but ended up distorted.
posted by VikingSword at 11:17 PM on June 7, 2012
I don't think that's right. Kromka does not mean specifically the end piece off a loaf of bread. It means simply a piece or portion of bread that's been cut off, or a slice, which may or may not be the end piece of a loaf of bread. I have checked this in the most authoritative Polish dictionary, "Slownik Jezyka Polskiego" PWN 1998 (Red. Mieczyslaw Szymczak). But there is a word that refers specifically to the end piece of a loaf of bread, and it's colloquially called "dupka" (which can be a naughty word in other contexts), and there are no doubt other regional words describing the end piece specifically, but that's the most common.
Re: the Swedish word, gemmy has it above, though I'd note that it might happen in certain dialect pronunciations, like in skånska where skrutt perhaps(?) could be heard to be similar to OP's "skurla", but I think we must keep in mind that language and pronunciation is preserved imperfectly in immigrant communities, especially when a few generations have passed, so things may have started one way, but ended up distorted.
posted by VikingSword at 11:17 PM on June 7, 2012
I going to go with skula, dictionary def is the scraps you eat when the higher quality food had been eaten. they obviously don't know the tastiness of end-bits!
Corvid: your skerpa would absolutely come from skorpa, a kind of crispbread or rusk.
There's apparantly a song, "Skula, skorpa, skalk" that should be this threads anthem :)
posted by Iteki at 3:08 AM on June 8, 2012
Corvid: your skerpa would absolutely come from skorpa, a kind of crispbread or rusk.
There's apparantly a song, "Skula, skorpa, skalk" that should be this threads anthem :)
posted by Iteki at 3:08 AM on June 8, 2012
My Danish-American family from Minnesota and California calls that the "endskull." At least that's how I'd spell it in English. It applies to roasted meats and meatloaf. (It's the best part, IMO.) The ends of bread are the "heels."
I'm so glad you asked this question; my sister and I were discussing how we don't ever hear anyone else saying "endskull" or anything close to it. But it sounds like it might be a Scandinavian/Scandi-American thing.
posted by FergieBelle at 9:49 AM on June 8, 2012
I'm so glad you asked this question; my sister and I were discussing how we don't ever hear anyone else saying "endskull" or anything close to it. But it sounds like it might be a Scandinavian/Scandi-American thing.
posted by FergieBelle at 9:49 AM on June 8, 2012
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Garm at 4:18 PM on June 7, 2012 [1 favorite]