Entertainment
Nigella Lawson removes the word ‘slut’ from dessert recipe due to ‘cruel connotation’
Nigella has changed the names of some of her recipes (Picture: BBC/Jay Brookes)
Nigella Lawson has removed the word ‘slut’ from one of her recipes, saying it has taken on a ‘cruel’ connotation.
The TV chef is known for her flamboyant turn of phrase in her presenting and recipe writing, most recently changing the way we all pronounce ‘microwave’.
However, she has reconsidered some of the more tongue-in-cheek titles of past recipes due to changing slang.
The 61-year-old shares a daily recipe on Twitter from her back catalogue of cookbooks, and recently posted the recipe for Ruby Red Raspberries in Chardonnay Jelly.
She tweeted: ‘#RecipeOfTheDay is a dream of a dessert, and so easy to make. If you’ve never tried home-made jelly before, now’s your chance: Ruby Red Raspberries in Chardonnay Jelly for the win!’
While the picture of the dessert got tummies rumbling, a handful of followers noticed that the raspberry and jelly concoction was previously called ‘Slut Red Raspberries in Chardonnay Jelly’ when first published in Nigella’s 2002 cookbook Forever Summer.
One person asked: ‘Wonderful recipe (as always!) but it makes me wonder what has happened to this country when we can’t even call that recipe by its hilarious original name. What has happened to our free speech, humour and a sense fun? I love your turn of phrase Nigella!’
Nigella responded: ‘I feel that the word has taken on a coarser, more cruel connotation, and I’m not happy with that.’
She also addressed the name change on her website, writing: ‘This recipe has had a slight name change, but is the same dessert of dreams: the wine-soused raspberries take on a stained glass, lucent red, their very raspberriness enhanced; the soft, translucently pale coral just-set jelly in which they sit has a heady, floral fragrance that could make a grateful eater weep.’
The raspberry dessert isn’t the only one of Nigella’s recipes to get a title tweak.
The writer and chef has published 14 cookbooks (Picture: Dave Benett/Getty Images)
Earlier this month, the star posted a recipe for ‘Slattern’s Spaghetti’, her version of pasta alla puttanesca, which is usually translated to ‘whore’s spaghetti’.
Nigella explained on her website: ‘Although you will often see its Italian name explained as meaning “whore’s pasta” in English, the general consensus seems to be, however, that this is the sort of dish cooked by slatterns who don’t go to market to get their ingredients fresh, but are happy to use stuff out of cans and jars.
‘I recently had a Twitter conversation with one Jim Hewitt about the new name for this and I gratefully end with this fabulous message of his: “On those days when my mum couldn’t be bothered to brush her hair and cooked dinner using whatever was in the cupboard she would say: ‘Hush. I’m slatterning!’”This is perfect for a slatterning day.’
More: Nigella Lawson
Since her first book How to Eat: Pleasures and Principles of Good Food was published in 1998, Nigella has published a further 13 cookbooks, most recently Nigella’s Cook, Eat, Repeat, which was released last year.
The book was accompanied by a BBC series and Christmas special, during which Nigella whipped up fish finger bhorta, a curry made from banana skins and crab mac and cheese.
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