dutching

n. 1. a technique of treating cocoa with alkali. 2. the tilting of a viewing perspective in film, television, or other visual media. Subjects: English, Food & Drink, Media, Television

Editorial Note: There are other more well-known types of dutching: in gambling, hedging bets in such a way as to break the bank or ruin house profit; the curing of quills used for writing; the sending of sub-standard foodstuffs abroad to be irradiated and reimported into a country. Etymological Note: All types of dutching appear, accurately or not, to be attributed to Dutch habits or character.

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Citations: 1985 Judy Gorman Baton Rouge State Times (La.) (July 11) “Microwave heats differently” p. 5F: Dutch cocoa is subjected to a special process that was first developed in Holland. During the procedure, sometimes referred to as “Dutching,” the cocoa is treated with an alkali. The result is a cocoa powder that is darker in color and easier to dissolve in liquid. 1996 Roger Armbrust Back Stage (June 7) “Working the commercial set” vol. 37, no. 23, p. 29: While he and Markowitz are fighting the clock’s second hand, attempting to capture Ganser and Frankston’s moves with the dutching, dollying camera in eight seconds, Travisano is constantly attentive to detail. 2000 Matt Lucas Guardian (U.K.) (Feb. 25) “Bar room blues” p. 13: In Dick’s Bar, the camera sways a little, dutching and panning, as if to suggest that you the viewer the customer, the barfly has already had a few. 2000 Bob Graham San Francisco Chronicle (California) (Apr. 30) “What on Earth Are These Guys Doing?” p. 54: One of them, to give the film “a comic-strip feel,” is a tilted-camera technique called “dutching.” “If you look at comic strips, almost every single frame is angled to create an effect,” Christian says. In “Battlefield Earth,” the challenge was: How do you make a film with some creatures more than 8 feet tall and humans and keep both in the frame? By tilting the camera. 2004 Jon Gertner New York Times (Oct. 10) “Eat Chocolate, Live Longer?”: Another is that the traditional processing methods—especially the fermentation, roasting and what’s known as “dutching,” which is the addition of alkali to mellow flavor—strip the nutrients, and especially the organic compounds known as flavanols, from the beans.

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