Warming up with winter fare

Can you identify these comfort foods we often associate with the winter season?

1. The name of this Alpine dish means 'melted.' For centuries it's been served in a communal pot over an open flame.

2. Do you recognize this 'comfort cake' from this Old English recipe? 'Take a pound of butter and beat until it is a thick cream. Then beat in 12 eggs, but half the whites, a pound of sugar, a pound of flour, and a few caraways; beat it for an hour with your hand or a great wooden spoon....') (From 'The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy,' by Hannah Glasse, 1747.)

3. This popular cooking method (now a dish unto itself) comes from the French étuve, meaning a stove or heated room.

4. This familiar holiday jelly sauce was born in the 20th century when a large producer decided to process his damaged fruit into a canned purée.

5. This baking spice, used as far back as prehistoric times, is a rhizome distantly related to the banana! Its name comes from the Sanskrit singabera, meaning horns or antlers, which it resembles. .

ANSWERS (1) fondue; (2) pound cake; (3) stew; (4) cranberry; (5) ginger.

SOURCE: 'On Food and Cooking,' by Harold McGee.