Fish are served as fish. Chickens as chicken. Turkeys as turkey. But when it comes to other commonly consumed animals in the English-speaking world we use different words for the animal and the food. Cows, pigs, sheep, and deer become beef, pork, mutton, and venison.

Why? Well, it starts with the Norman conquest of England in 1066 and has to do with social class divisions between speakers of Old English and Anglo-Norman (the predecessor of modern French).

You'll never look at the meat department the same way again.

Minicasts are short (approx. 5 min) stories for fans of quick, to-the-point podcasts and as a nice change of pace from the longer full episodes of Mass for Shut-ins.