# French translation of "rub in" (cooking) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 25, 2006, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-translation-of-rub-in-cooking/346120 "2006-02-25T23:26:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2006, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-translation-of-rub-in-cooking/346120/1 "2006-02-25T23:26:34Z")
I’m trying to explain to a French-speaker how to make scones. The step we’re having trouble with is “rubbing in” the butter and flour. How would you translate that into French? ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2006, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-translation-of-rub-in-cooking/346120/2 "2006-02-25T23:56:53Z")
I’m not sure of the idiomatic French translation but the essence of making good scones lies in combining (“rubbing in” or “rubbing through”) the butter and flour by hand. So perhaps something like: _Utilisez les mains pour combiner le beurre et la farine_. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2006, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-translation-of-rub-in-cooking/346120/3 "2006-02-26T03:27:23Z")
Why can’t you just say _frotter_? Something like _Frottez la farine et le beurre en utilisant les mains, jusqu’à ils se mélangent bien._ (?) ---
**Author:** ![chique](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@chique](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chique)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2006, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-translation-of-rub-in-cooking/346120/4 "2006-02-26T07:20:35Z")
I’m more familiar, in English, with using the phrase “cut in the butter”, and the butter is cut in with one of [these](http://www.radishworks.com/ModelLib/images/K22PastryCutter.jpg). Can you somehow verb-ize that kitchen utensile? ---
**Author:** ![DarrenS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/977dab/32.png) [@DarrenS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DarrenS)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2006, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-translation-of-rub-in-cooking/346120/5 "2006-02-26T08:26:59Z")
[Recipe](http://www.betterbaking.com/viewRecipe.php?recipe_id=1163&PHPSESSID=60c04ca94b5df9711363de6970d6abce) for cinnamon scones in French. > [@](#): > > Dans un grand bol, mélanger la farine, le bicarbonate de soude, la levure chimique, le sucre et le sel. Ajouter le beurre et l’incorporer dans la farine avec un coupe-pâte ou > deux couteaux. Travailler le mélange jusqu’à ce qu’il soit grumeleux. ---
**Author:** ![DarrenS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/977dab/32.png) [@DarrenS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DarrenS)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2006, 8:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-translation-of-rub-in-cooking/346120/6 "2006-02-26T08:32:02Z")
[Another](http://www.linternaute.com/femmes/cuisine/recette/279622/6650659442/scones_au_chocolat.shtml) way of explaining it: > [@](#): > > Mettre la farine dans une jatte, couper le beurre en petits dés et l’incorporer à la farine avec les doigts jusqu’à l’obtention d’une fine chapelure. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2006, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-translation-of-rub-in-cooking/346120/7 "2006-02-26T20:00:30Z")
> [@DarrenS](#): > > Mettre la farine dans une jatte, couper le beurre en petits dés et l’incorporer à la farine avec les doigts jusqu’à l’obtention d’une fine chapelure. ‘Put the flour into a bowl, cut the butter into little dice, and incorporate it into the flour with your fingers until you get a fine breadcrumb-like texture.’ Oo la la, **DarrenS** , such neatly crafted prose. Alain Robbe-Grillet could not have written it better. The very sensuousness of this operation is palpable in the fine texture of the sentence. The use of _chapelure_ is a neat touch. The dictionary says _chapelure_ means ‘bread crumbs’; when the recipe says to make the butter-flour mixture like fine bread crumbs, we intuit the _physicality_ of the operation. As to the OP question, I feel that _incorporer_ may be the _mot juste_ we were looking for. But as a non-native French speaker, I rely on **clairobscur** ’s judgment. I wonder why recipes in French and Italian give the instructions with verbs in the infinitive instead of the imperative as we do in English? Is it because the Romance imperative is felt to be too much of a command? Not “Now you get busy and do this!” but the impersonal “If anyone wanted to make this recipe, here’s the procedure.” ---
**Author:** ![DarrenS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/977dab/32.png) [@DarrenS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DarrenS)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2006, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-translation-of-rub-in-cooking/346120/8 "2006-02-27T21:11:48Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > Oo la la, **DarrenS** , such neatly crafted prose. Alain Robbe-Grillet could not have written it better. Just to be clear - I can’t claim credit for either of the explanations I posted: they both came from the pages to which I provided links, whose text was written by native speakers, in the respective posts.