Talk:carbonara

RFC discussion: December 2014

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carbonara

Definition is "spaghetti carbonara". How inadequate can you get? Renard Migrant (talk) 23:21, 8 December 2014 (UTC)

It's rather minimalistic. Oxford classes it as an adjective (postpositive), not a noun. Donnanz (talk) 10:07, 9 December 2014 (UTC)

It's definitely a noun:

2014, Martha Stone, Italian Recipes for Winter: Easy Traditional and Modern Italian Recipes for Hearty Meals

The popularity of carbonara, especially in high-end dining destinations, is not to be questioned. Since you can order carbonara in almost all restaurants in your neighborhood, serving the usual carbonara in your party with friends may end up boring."

Also not always postpositive, google books:"carbonara sauce". Though my objection is that the defintion "spaghetti carbonara" gives no information about what carbonara means. I mean, I don't know what it means so I'm going to have to look elsewhere to find a meaning. Renard Migrant (talk) 15:17, 10 December 2014 (UTC)

Anyone know what this means? Renard Migrant (talk) 15:01, 13 December 2014 (UTC)

To add to entry

To add to entry: why a term referring to a secret society also means "made from guanciale, grated cheese and beaten egg cooked gently by the heat of the pasta." 173.89.236.187 21:23, 3 August 2015 (UTC)

I've added an explanation to the entry. It may not be a reference to the secret society - it may just mean "charcoal maker's sauce". A lot of pasta sauces are named after the workers who supposedly eat them - see puttanesca (which may mean "prostitute" or "slops"), marinara ("mariner") and cacciatore ("hunter"). Smurrayinchester (talk) 08:15, 4 August 2015 (UTC)

Yes, in Italy, pasta dishes having these types of sauces are normally described as <type of pasta> alla <type of person>. Also, it is often named for the type of person making the sauce rather than eating it (e.g. amatriciana. SemperBlotto (talk) 08:24, 4 August 2015 (UTC)

Were there many female charcoal burners though? There are some other theories online such as it referring to meat cooked in a charcoal pit or in a charcoal grill, or black pepper looking like coal dust. It's also occurred to me that perhaps it refers to coalminers wives cooking food for their husbands - would that be a possible alternative derivation? --Overlordnat1 (talk) 09:30, 18 March 2023 (UTC)