Greeky Rampy Beans
Examining "-y" words in the NYT Cooking section
I love when there are things that are sort of ridiculous that are hiding in plain sight, and so I immediately loved this tweet.
I’ve subconsciously known of the proliferation of this baby-talk food adjective phenomenon since I learned of the term “jammy eggs” in 2018, the heyday of pre-problematic Bon Appétit Test Kitchen. But I had never fully grasped the extent of the phenomenon. This tweet crystallized it for me, and others have clearly noticed it too: Eater just published an article wondering “when all the recipes got garlicky.”
Naturally I wanted to study this, and the New York Times very nicely has a free API that you can use to get data on their articles; I’ve used it for more serious things in the past.
So, I searched the Cooking section for articles that contained words like “garlicky,” “soupy,” and “lemony.” Unfortunately “rampy” appears to be a bridge too far, for now.
“Brothy” is a sneaky favorite of mine, it’s among the weirdest and if you say it 4 or 5 times in a row it loses whatever meaning it had to begin with. Brothy. Brothy. Brothy…
Looking at the articles published over time, we can begin to understand trends, and see that it really is only a matter of time before all recipes are “garlicky.”
The increase of more traditional descriptors like “buttery” and “cheesy” relative to, say, “meaty” or “earthy” is interesting and perhaps reflects a shift to more decadence in food culture.
But the goofier words are more fun, so let’s isolate those. Is “lemony” past its prime? Did “summery” greens just have a brat summer? I’m buying land on briny island!
We can visualize which terms tend go with which dishes; for example “leafy” obviously tends to precede “greens,” while it looks like “silky” often refers to eggplant.
If you’re looking for a recipe tonight, consider a garlicky lemony gingery crispy crunchy creamy spicy silky savory juicy fancy chickeny chicken! Sounds pretty good, frankly.
What terms do different NYT food writers use most often?
I associate a lot of these terms with Alison Roman, because she’s the food writer I hear about most frequently and I vaguely remember her liking jammy tomatoes. But she left the NYT a while ago and so doesn’t actually contribute most of the data here, although she was quite early to the “garlicky” trend.
Sidenote: I wonder how much of this is the writers themselves and how much is headline optimization (clickthrough rates on “briny” must be wild right now). Email me if you have any insight.
I saw Melissa Clark once at Bar Goto Niban (the best cocktail in new york, in my opinion) and I remember she remarked on their celery, which is unbelievably good. I don’t think she called it “shiso-ey,” though.
If you liked this article, you can venmo Karli in appreciation for its inspiration. It’s one bean; what can it cost, $10?
P.S. If you read all of this, there’s a reasonably good chance you like Sally Rooney, whose new book comes out today. I analyzed a bunch of data based on reviews of her books, which you may enjoy.
Such a fun analysis!