It seemed appropriate for this blog though, because this frustrating example of the Italian negative really does nothing. It serves no purpose whatsoever that I have been able to discover.
It started when I was paging through a cookbook and found this: "Unite i funghi e cuoceteli per 10 minuti, finche' non sono dorati". Literally translated this would mean "Mix the mushrooms and cook them for 10 minutes, until they are NOT golden."
The first time I read this phrase I was utterly bewildered. What do you mean "until it's not golden"? Should I not actually cook it at all? Or leave it in the oven until just before it starts to color? In which case, how am I supposed to tell when it's seconds away from coloring?
Then a few recipes later I found this gem: "mescolate finche' non e' ben sciolto"
Ok, there must be something I'm missing. How in the world am I supposed to "mix until it's NOT well melted"?!
Does stirring in Italy somehow magically counteract the effects of melting chocolate?
With mounting frustration, I asked AmoreMio for an explanation. What are these instructions supposed to mean? Finche' non sono dorati? Finche' non e' ben sciolto?
"No no no," he smirked at me, the silly American girl who can't read a simple recipe, "significa finche' SONO dorati o finche' E' sciolto".
"So," I ask rather angrily, feeling as though I've been tricked into looking stupid, "Finche' sono (until they are) and Finche' non sono (until they aren't), mean EXACTLY THE SAME THING?"
After a moment of reflection AmoreMio nodded, "Si".
Great. Just when I start to master Italian, they decide to throw in some superfluous negatives that have no effect upon the sentence at all. This discovery was then confirmed when I noticed another recipe in the same cookbook that stated quite clearly "Finche' sono dorati".
The exact same meaning and nearly exactly the same words, but without the negative "non". So if it makes no difference, why put it there at all?
I've asked several other Italians why this is, including Mamma, but they all give me the same pensive look of "huh, I've never realized that" and then simply answer "boh" with an unconcerned shrug.
Maybe this is why Italians rarely follow recipes. Everything would be undercooked and the chocolate ganache would just be a brick of chocolate.
I'm sorry but AmoreTuo is wrong. "Finché sono dorati" and "Finché non sono dorati" don't mean the same thing, quite the opposite. E.g.:
ReplyDelete"Batti il ferro finché è caldo" = it is already hot, go on while it remains so
"Batti il ferro finché non è caldo" = it is cold, strike it until it becomes hot
I do agree with you that it is quite puzzling, though. :)