Pecans

[RobertP]

Friends sent us 5 lbs of shelled Cane River (Louisiana) Pecans for Christmas and they are delicious. MrsP is planning to make a pecan pie this weekend - my very favorite - and I'm going to see if she will also toast a batch for snacks. Growing up, they were a staple at Christmas time and I haven't had any in a long time. She also has a recipe for cinnamon meringue pecans which is to die for. I'll see if I can find it.

 

[donna]

Look forward to Mrs. P's recipe.

 

[Shadow9216]

Love pecans! My favorite use is the Karo syrup "Mystery Pecan Pie" recipe.

 

[chellers]

Oh yeah, love me some pecans!

 

[Littlestown]

How do you say pecan? Are they pee-KAHNs, pee-CANs, PEE-cans, pick-AHNs or some other pronunciation? How do YOU say pecan? I say pick-AHN. But, anyway you say it, I'll eat 'em! They are my favorite nut!

Turns out, it depends on where you're from. Joshua Katz, a doctoral student studying statistics at NC State University, recently created interactive dialect maps using data from Bert Vaux at the University of Cambridge. For example, check out the map showing how people pronounce "pecan":

It shows that pee-KAHN is dominant nationwide, but in areas of Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Mississippi, pick-AHN reigns supreme. PEE-can is popular on the East Coast and in New England, while folks from Wisconsin, northern Minnesota and Michigan's Upper Peninsula go with PEE-kahn.

The linguistics department at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee just also shared a pecan pronunciation map that gives another option – where people may say pee-KAHN by itself, but then say PEE-can when using a compound word, like pecan pie. http://farmflavor.com/how-do-you-say-pecan-mapping-food-dialect-trends-across-the-u-s/

Mrs. P's cinnamon meringue pecans sound amazing! Looking forward to that recipe!

 

[chellers]

They were always pick-AHNs where I grew up in Dallas.

 

[Lazy Bayou]

They were always pick-AHNs where I grew up in Dallas.

Same in Louisiana when I was growing up and it hasn't changed in Mississippi.

 

[Lnwlf]

I must be the outlier with the pronunciation. I say it as puh-Kahn.
But if anyone sent me 5 lbs, I doubt they would last long enough to get into a pie or be toasted. Eat 'em like peanuts. Mother use to chase me from the kitchen when she was baking pies just to be sure to have enough to make them!

 

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

Now the next question, the Pecan Praline

How do you pronounce praline ?

PRAW-leen
or
PRAY -leen

 

[Lnwlf]

Pray-leen.

 

[Lazy Bayou]

Pray-leen.

You got it right...

 

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

PRAW-leen

 

[Lnwlf]

You got it right...

Yay! I was worried there for a bit!

 

[Lazy Bayou]

Yay! I was worried there for a bit!

And you weren't really wrong with Puc-kahn. I hear it pronounced that way a lot down here.

 

[Albert Sailhorst]

I like p'kahns toasted in the oven, drizzled in butter then salted!!

 

[chellers]

PRAY-leen

 

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

I like p'kahns toasted in the oven, drizzled in butter then salted!!

I've always called em' p'khans too.

 

[Bob Owen]

We always pronounced them on the Mississippi Gulf Coast as pah cahns

 

[Bob Owen]

Pray leens!

 

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

We always pronounced them on the Mississippi Gulf Coast as pah cahns

Thanks Bob, That's what I was trying to type - pah-cahns