From Sunday’s’s (7/21) New York Times Magazine, in the section “The Ethicist: Bonus Advice From Judge John Hodgman”:
Angel writes: My co-worker Nick suggested we have a baked-goods potluck at work. I got excited because I have a great baked-mac-and-cheese recipe. But Nick said it wouldn’t count. He says it must be something made with a batter or dough. I disagree!
—–
Many things are baked (potatoes, Brie, Alaska), and like macaroni and cheese, they are good. But they are not “baked goods” in common usage. … In your case, most of the cooking happens outside the oven, and the baking is just a finishing touch. That said, who cares? [and on from there]
Angel has run aground on the shoals of idiomaticity; they suppose that the meaning of baked goods is straightforwardly compositional, ‘goods that have been baked’ — the meaning of the plural noun goods as modified by the meaning of the adjective baked, using the primary senses of the two words. But that won’t fly here, because the nominal baked goods has developed a specialized use, in which it refers to not just any stuff, even not just any foodstuff, that’s been cooked in an oven, but only to breads (and similar foods) and cakes (and similar foods) from an oven. The category of baked goods is expansive, but not so broad as to embrace lasagna, roasted vegetables, baked chicken, baked beans, baked ham, etc. … or mac and cheese.
The details. Primary senses from NOAD:
adj. baked: (of food) cooked by dry heat in an oven: baked apples
noun goods: merchandise or possessions: imports of luxury goods| stolen goods
But then baked goods has its own entry:
pl. noun baked goods: bread, cakes, pastries, and similar items of food that are cooked in an oven: the moment you open the door at Billy’s Bakery the aroma of baked goods overwhelms you| bran can impart a hearty flavor to breads and other baked goods.
There’s clearly a restriction here on what foodstuffs cooked in a oven will count as baked goods, though “bread, cakes, pastries, and similar items of food” might not satisfy people who long for clear definitions. The category of things referred to here is highly culture-bound (not given in nature), and like other sociocultural categories has unclear boundaries and is subject to some variation from community to community. In some of my earlier postings on the sociocultural categories of foodstuffs, I’ve given it the suggestive label BREADCAKE, since it embraces the narrower categories of BREAD (encompassing clear (risen) breadstuffs, but also flatbreads and more) and CAKEPIE (encompassing cakes, cupcakes, cookies, and pies, but also some foodstuffs of mixed or unclear nature) and some foodstuffs in between things we’d call bread and things we’d call cake.
So the everyday use of baked goods is to refer to things in the BREADCAKE category, and (though delineating the membership of that category is, um, no piece of cake) that use is considerably more specific than ‘(food) goods that have been baked in an oven’. BREADCAKE subsumes a lot of foodstuffs, but not lasagna, moussaka, tuna casserole, baked ham, etc. … or mac and cheese.
Bonus on the goods. A sampling of idiomatic uses of the goods, assembled and re-arranged from the material in NOAD:
[c] (the goods) informal the genuine article: the team proved on Friday that they are the goods. [d] (the goods) informal what is expected or required of one — in PHRASES come up with the goods and deliver the goods do what is required: we knew we were setting a tough task, but the team have come up with the goods. [e] (the goods on) informal information about (someone) that may be used to their detriment — in PHRASES get the goods on ‘obtain such information’ and have the goods on ‘possess such information’: he planned to hire a private eye to get the goods on his persecutors | you don’t lie to the FBI when they already have the goods on you.
July 26, 2024 at 8:36 am |
Idiomatic “baked goods” seems to be equivalent to “bakery goods” — in contrast to restaurant foods that are also baked.