Definition

Restaurant code meaning an item is no longer available, allegedly because you've run out or refuse to serve it. Also conveniently doubles as slang for ejecting troublesome customers.

Example Usage

We're 86'd on the sea bass, so steer tonight's specials toward the pork belly.

Origin

Possibly from 1930s speakeasy slang, with disputed origins including Chumley's Bar's rear exit at 86 Bedford Street

Fun Fact

The term spread from restaurants to general use, meaning to discard or get rid of something permanently.

Source: Classic restaurant kitchen terminology

Related Terms

Intermediate

prawn jawn

The strategic dining maneuver of camping out at Red Lobster's all-you-can-eat shrimp promotion for an inappropriately long time. It's less a meal and more an endurance sport where the goal is maximum crustacean consumption. The restaurant's worst nightmare and your wallet's best friend.

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Fold

A gentle mixing technique where you carefully combine a light mixture into a heavy one without deflating it. It's the culinary version of whispering -- aggressive stirring is strictly forbidden. Every baking show contestant has had a dramatic folding meltdown.

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blooming

Briefly heating spices in oil or fat to release their essential oils and intensify their flavor before adding other ingredients. It's the difference between dusty cumin and actual flavor.

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compote

Fruit slowly cooked in sugar syrup until tender but still holding its shape. The sophisticated way to say 'chunky fruit sauce' that makes brunch dishes cost $4 more.

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Deglaze

The act of adding liquid to a hot pan to scrape up all the delicious brown bits stuck to the bottom. It's basically salvaging the burnt evidence of your cooking and calling it 'flavor.' The sizzle sound it makes is the most satisfying noise in any kitchen.

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butter

The fatty, churned dairy product that makes everything taste better and your cardiologist nervous—a soft, spreadable miracle extracted from cream through vigorous agitation. The culinary world's ultimate enhancement drug, legally added to virtually any dish to make it irresistible. Also loosely applied to similar spreads made from nuts, because apparently everything deserves the butter treatment.

🍳 Food / Culinary

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