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Xref: nuchat rec.food.cooking:80607 rec.food.recipes:6899 news.answers:15585 Path: nuchat!menudo.uh.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!decwrl!waikato!comp.vuw.ac.nz!kauri.vuw.ac.nz!mara From: mara@kauri.vuw.ac.nz (Amy Gale) Newsgroups: rec.food.cooking,rec.food.recipes,news.answers,rec.answers Subject: rec.food.cooking FAQ and conversion file Followup-To: rec.food.cooking Date: 9 Dec 1993 10:58:28 GMT Organization: Dept. of Comp. Sci., Victoria Uni. of Wellington, New Zealand. Lines: 1308 Approved: news-answers-request@mit.edu Distribution: world Message-ID: <cooking-faq_755434801@kauri.vuw.ac.nz> Reply-To: cooking-faq@vuw.ac.nz NNTP-Posting-Host: kauri.vuw.ac.nz Originator: mara@kauri.vuw.ac.nz Archive-name: cooking-faq Maintained-by: cooking-faq@vuw.ac.nz <Amy Gale> ---------------------------- Changes as at 10 Nov 1993 *Addition of section : "The rec.food.cooking Food Exchange" *Addition of section : "Archives" ---------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- |This FAQ may be cited as "The rec.food.cooking FAQ and conversion file| |as at <date>, available in rtfm.mit.edu FAQ archives as /cooking-faq" | | | |Permission to reproduce this document, or any whole section or | |substantial part (unless it was you who wrote it!) for profit is | |explicitly not granted. Permission to distribute free of charge or | |with charges only to cover the cost of reproduction is granted, | |provided credits remain intact. This paragraph and the one above | |must also be included, and the same restrictions apply to subsequent | |use of the material. | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome to the rec.food.cooking FAQ list and conversion helper! The primary purpose of this document is to help cooks from different countries communicate with one another. The problem is that measurements and terms for food vary from country to country, even if both countries speak English. However, some confusion cannot be avoided simply by making this list. You can help avoid the confusion by being as specific as possible. Try not to use brand names unless you also mention the generic name of the product. If you use terms like "a can" or "a box", give some indication of how much the package contains, either in weight or volume. A few handy hints: a kiwi is a bird, the little thing in your grocery store is called a kiwi fruit. Whoever said "A pint's a pound the world around" must have believed the US was on another planet. And cast iron pans and bread machines can evoke some interesting discussion! If you haven't already done so, now is as good a time as any to read the guide to Net etiquette which is posted to news.announce.newusers regularly. You should be familiar with acronyms like FAQ, FTP and IMHO, as well as know about smileys, followups and when to reply by email to postings. This FAQ is currently posted to news.answers and rec.food.cooking. All posts to news.answers are archived, and it is possible to retrieve the last posted copy via anonymous FTP from rtfm.mit.edu as /pub/usenet/rec.food.cooking. Those without FTP access should send e-mail to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with "send usenet/news.answers/finding-sources" in the body to find out how to get archived news.answers posts by e-mail. This FAQ was mostly written by Cindy Kandolf although the Amy Gale influence is slowly growing, with numerous contributions by readers of rec.food.cooking. Credits appear at the end. Each section begins with forty dashes ("-") on a line of their own, then the section number. This should make searching for a specific section easy. Author's disclaimer: Cindy Kandolf maintained this list until recently. Many, probably most, of the comments and references in the first person are hers. My work to date has consisted only of minor formatting and setting up registration with news.answers I'm not a super-cook, just someone who lives in a country where ovens with celsius, fahrenheit and gas-modulo markings seem equally common, where most of the recipe books in the libraries seem to come from overseas and call for ingredients that make your local grocer stare blankly at you in quantities that mean most of us have about 8 different sets of measuring equipment...(pfft, SI units or nothing, I say). Any questions you have that are not addressed here will surely have many people on rec.food.cooking who are able to answer them - try it, and see. Comments, corrections and changes to : cooking-faq@vuw.ac.nz ---------------------------------------- List of Answers 1 Food Terms 1.1 Alphabetized List - different name, same food 2 Substitutions and Equivalents 2.1 Flours 2.2 Leavening Agents 2.3 Canned Milk 2.4 Starches 2.5 Sugar and other sweeteners 2.6 Fats 2.7 Chocolates 2.8 Buttermilk/Cultured Milk 3 US/UK/metric conversions 3.1 Oven temperatures 3.2 Food equivalences 3.2. Flours 3.2.2 Cereals 3.2.3 Sugars 3.2.4 Fats and Cheeses 3.2.5 Vegetables and Fruit 3.2.6 Dried Fruit and Nuts 3.2.7 Preserves 3.3 American liquid measures 3.4 British liquid measures 3.5 British short cuts 3.6 General Conversion Tables 3.6.1 International Liquid Measurements 3.6.2 Weight 3.6.3 US Liquid Measurements 3.6.4 Miscellaneous 3.7 Some Australian Conversions 3.7.1 Metric Cups 3.7.2 Metric Spoons 3.8 Catties 3.9 Authorities 4 rec.food.*, whats the difference? 4.1 rec.food.cooking 4.2 rec.food.recipes 4.3 rec.food.drink, rec.food.restaurants 4.4 rec.food.veg 5 This has come up once too often 5.1 The $250 cookie recipe 5.2 Requests for "authentic" recipes 6 What on Earth is...? 7 Distilled Wisdom on Equipment 7.1 Woks 8 The rec.food.cooking Food Exchange 9 Archives 10 Acknowledgements ---------------------------------------- 1 Food Terms A consistent list isn't much good if it's not helpful. This list was compiled with the goal of being helpful, so American, British, etc. terms are alphabetized all together. I have received very little input from folks in other English-speaking countries; more is very much welcome. I have received some comments that "That's not right!" for some of these equivalents. If i get several comments for the same item, i will change it. In any case, if in doubt, ask the person who originally posted to recipe what he or she means. ---------------------------------------- 1.1 Alphabetized List - different name, same food aubergine - US eggplant. (purple, vaguely egg-shaped vegetable) beetroot - US beet Bermuda onion - also called Spanish onion (which see)- a sweet onion. this may vary by region. Another possible alternative is the 1015 onion biscuits - in the UK, same as US cookies, small sweet cakes usually for dessert. In the US, a type of non-yeast bread made of flour, milk, and shortening, usually served with breakfast. black treacle - similar to US molasses cabanossi - US pepperoni capsicum - another name for red/green/yellow peppers castor/caster sugar - somewhat finer than US granulated sugar. See List 2 similar to US superfine sugar chickpeas - also called garbonzo beans Chicken Maryland - in Australia, refers to chicken leg with both thigh and drumstick attatched Chinese parsley - also called cilantro (which see) and coriander cider - widely varying definition! (almost) Always made from apples, to many people but not all it is alcoholic. If in doubt, ask the person who posts the recipe what they mean. cilantro - the leaf of the coriander plant. Also called Chinese/Thai/ Mexican parsley, and green corriander. cockles - clams confectioner's sugar - same as powdered sugar or UK icing sugar cookies - UK biscuits cornflour - cornstarch. Used to thicken sauces etc. courgette - US zucchini. A long, green squash, looks something like a cucumber. cream of wheat - sometimes called farina digestive biscuits - almost the same as US graham crackers. In my experience, graham crackers are sweeter and more likely to come with cinnamon or something similar sprinkled on top. However, digestive biscuits make an excellent "graham cracker" pie crust. donax - clams double cream - US heavy cream or whipping cream eggplant - UK aubergine (which see) essence - US extract extract - UK essence farina - sometimes called cream of wheat filberts - also called hazelnuts garbanzo beans - also called chickpeas graham crackers - similar to UK digestive biscuits (which see) granulated sugar - somewhat coarser than UK castor/caster sugar. See List 2 green onions - same as spring onions or scallions green shallots- an inaccurate but occasionally used description for spring onions grill - In the UK, the same as US broiler; in the US, a device for cooking food over a charcoal or gas fire, outdoors. Habanero pepper - similar to Scotch bonnet pepper half and half - a mixture of half cream and half whole milk hazelnuts - sometimes called filberts heavy cream - same as whipping cream or UK double cream icing sugar - US confectioner's or powdered sugar. The finest kind. ladyfingers - little finger-shaped sponge cakes, used in, among other things, a popular Italian dessert called Tiramisu. "Ladies' fingers" is the US vegetable okra. lemonade - in the US, a drink made of lemon juice, sugar and water; in the UK, a similar drink but carbonated (i.e. with "bubbles") marrow - US squash melon - a family of fruits. All have a thick, hard, inedible rind, sweet meat, and lots of seeds. Common examples: watermelon, cantelope molasses - similar to UK black treacle pawpaw - papaya, also persimmons in some places, or even a third fruit, Asimina triloba. If I were you I'd check with the recipe author. polenta - same as corn meal, also, a thick porridge made from cornmeal powdered sugar - same as confectioner's sugar or UK icing sugar rock melon - cantaloupe scallion - also called spring onion or green onion or scallion Scotch Bonnet pepper - similar to Habanero pepper shallots - not green/spring onion but something different single cream - US light cream Spanish onion - also called Bermuda onion. Large and not as "hot" as standard onions. This nomenclature may vary in some regions Often used to mean "Red Spanish Onion" which is not so much red as purple spring onion - also called scallion or green onion squash - a family of vegetables. All but two have a thick, hard, usually inedible rind, rich-tasting meat, and lots of seeds. A well-known is not wide-spread example is the pumpkin. There are also things called summer squashes, which have edible rinds, milder meats, and usually fewer seeds. An example of this type is the zucchini or courgette. whipping cream - same as heavy cream or UK double cream zucchini - UK courgette (which see) ---------------------------------------- 2 Substitutions and Equivalents This section contains information on where substitutions can be made, and what they can be made with. ---------------------------------------- 2.1 Flours US all-purpose flour and UK plain-flour can be substituted for one another without adjustment. US cake flour is lighter than these. It is not used much anymore, but if it does come up, you can substitute all-pupose/plain flour by removing three tablespoons per cup of flour and replacing it with corn starch or potato flour. Self-raising flour contains 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon salt for each cup of flour. US whole wheat flour is interchangeable with UK wholemeal flour. ---------------------------------------- 2.2 Leavening agents Baking soda is sodium bicarbonate. It must be mixed with acidic ingredients to work. Baking powder contains baking soda and a powdered acid, so it can work without other acidic ingredients. ---------------------------------------- 2.3 Canned milk Evaporated milk and sweetened condensed milk both come in cans, both are thick and a weird color... but are not, as i thought when i was small, the same thing. Sweetened condensed milk is, as the name implies, mixed with sugar or another sweetener already. It isn't found everywhere, but this recipe makes a good, quick substitute: Mix 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons dry (powdered) milk and 1/2 cup warm water. When mixed, add 3/4 cup granulated sugar. ---------------------------------------- 2.4 Starches UK corn flour is the same as US cornstarch. Potato flour, despite its name, is a starch, and cannot be substituted for regular flour. It often can be substituted for corn starch and vice versa. Cornmeal or polenta is not the same thing as cornstarch or corn flour! Cornmeal is sold as "polenta" here in Norway, but other folks have told me polenta is more coarsely ground than cornmeal and not normally used in the same way. It gets worse: i recently found a recipe for something called polenta, and one of the main ingredients in it is... cornmeal. Proceed with caution.(NZ maintainer's note. Polenta here generally refers to the porridge, although you can buy cornmeal labelled polenta. I give up too) If you don't have cornstarch/corn flour, you can use twice the amount of all-purpose/plain flour. However, unless whatever you're adding it to is allowed to boil, the result will taste starchy. ---------------------------------------- 2.5 Sugar and other sweeteners UK castor/caster sugar is somewhat finer than US granulated sugar. There is a product in the US called superfine sugar, which is about the same as UK castor/caster sugar. Usually, you can use granulated sugar in recipes calling for castor/caster sugar and vice versa, but i've gotten reports of times this didn't work so well! As usual, give the recipe a trial run with the substitute some time when it doesn't need to be perfect. Corn syrup is common in the US but not always elsewhere. Sugar (golden) syrup can be substituted. Remember, though, that it is sweeter than corn syrup. You may want to thin it out with water. Again, you may want to try this out on your own before making something for a special occassion. ---------------------------------------- 2.6 Fats Shortening is usually a vegetable-oil product. (A popular brand name is Crisco, and many people call all shortening Crisco.) It is common in the US, tougher to find in some other parts of the globe. In my experience, you can usually but not always substitute butter or margarine for shortening. The result will have a slightly different texture and a more buttery taste (which in the case of, say, chocolate chip cookies seems to be an advantage!). Sometimes this doesn't work too well. Not to sound like a broken record but - try it out before an important occasion. I have also heard that lard works, but have never tried it. ---------------------------------------- 2.7 Chocolates If you don't have unsweetened baking chocolate, substitute three tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder plus one tablespoon of fat (preferably oil) for each one ounce square. US dark chocolate is the same as UK plain chocolate, that is, the darkest and least sweet of the chocolates intended for eating. What is called milk chocolate in the UK is called milk chocolate in the US, too, but many people simply refer to it as "chocolate". The stuff called "semi-sweet chocolate" by some folks (including myself) is the US dark or UK plain. "Bitter chocolate" is, apparently, the UK term for high quality plain chocolate. ---------------------------------------- 2.8 Buttermilk/Cultured Milk If a recipe calls for buttermilk or cultured milk, you can make sour milk as a substitute. For each cup you need, take one tablespoon of vinegar or lemonjuice , then add enough milk to make one cup. Don't stir. Let it stand for five minutes before using. ---------------------------------------- 2.9 Meats If a recipe calls for spatchcocks, you can use cornish game hens ---------------------------------------- 3 US/UK/metric conversions My sources give credit to Caroline Knight (cdfk@otter.hpl.hp.com) as the original source of these tables. Caroline, if you're still out there, many thanks!!! Where needed, the conversion used is 1kg = 2.2lb Here are some tables I've tried to compile using a variety of sources. Corrections and additions welcomed! ---------------------------------------- 3.1 Oven Temperatures An approximate conversion chart(P):- Electric Gas mark Description Farenheit Centigrade 225 F 110 C 1/4 Very cool 250 F 130 C 1/2 275 F 140 C 1 cool 300 F 150 C 2 325 F 170 C 3 very moderate 350 F 180 C 4 moderate 375 F 190 C 5 400 F 200 C 6 moderately hot 425 F 220 C 7 hot 450 F 230 C 8 475 F 240 C 9 very hot ---------------------------------------- 3.2 Food Equivalences Sometimes the sources did not agree... I've given both:- British measure American equivalent ---------------------------------------- 3.2.1 Flours flour - white plain/strong/ sifted flour - all-purpose/ self-raising/unbleached unbleached white 4oz(P) 1 cup 5oz(K) wholemeal/stoneground whole wheat 6oz(K) 1 cup cornflour cornstarch 4 1/2 oz (P) 1 cup 5.3 oz (K) yellow corn meal/polenta coarse corn meal/polenta 6 oz(P) 1 cup rye flour rye flour 6 oz(P) 1 cup ---------------------------------------- 3.2.2 Cereals pearl barley pearl barley 7 oz(P) 1 cup rice/bulgar wheat/millet/wheat rice/bulgar wheat/millet/wheat berries 7 oz(K) 1 cup semolina/ground rice/tapioca semolina/ground rice/tapioca 6 oz(P) 1 cup fresh soft breadcrumbs/ fresh soft breadcrumbs/ cake crumbs cake crumbs 2 oz(P) 1 cup dried breadcrumbs dried breadcrumbs 4 oz(P) 1 cup porridge oats rolled oats 3 1/2 oz(P) 1 cup ---------------------------------------- 3.2.3 Sugars light/dark soft brown sugar light/dark brown sugar 8 oz(P) 1 cup (firmly packed) castor/caster/granulated sugar granulated sugar 7 1/2 oz(P) 1 cup icing sugar sifted confectioners' sugar 4 1/2 oz(P) 1 cup ---------------------------------------- 3.2.4 Fats and cheeses butter, margarine, cooking butter, shortening, lard, fat, lard, dripping drippings - solid or melted 1 oz(P) 2 tablespoons 8 oz(P) 1 cup grated cheese - cheddar type grated cheese - cheddar type 4 oz(P) 1 cup 1 lb(K) 4 - 5 cups (packed) ---------------------------------------- 3.2.5 Vegetables and fruit onion onion 1 small to med 1 cup chopped shelled peas shelled peas 4 oz(P) 3/4 cup cooked sweet corn cooked sweet corn 4 oz(P) 1 cup celery celery 4 sticks 1 cup (chopped) chopped tomatoes chopped tomatoes 7 oz(P) 1 cup button mushrooms button mushrooms 3-4 oz(P) 1 cup chopped pickled beetroot chopped pickled beetroot 2 oz(P) 1/3 cup black/redcurrants/bilberries black/redcurrants/bilberries 4 oz(P) 1 cup raspberries/strawberries raspberries/strawberries 5 oz(P) 1 cup Dried beans: black/lentils/chick peas/pinto/ black/lentils/chick peas/pinto/ white white 3 1/2 oz(K) 1/2 cup ---------------------------------------- 3.2.6 Dried fruit and nuts, etc currants/sultanas/raisins/ currants/sultanas/raisins/ chopped candied peel chopped candied peel 5-6 oz(P) 1 cup 2 oz(K - raisins) 1/3 cup glace cherries candied cherries 8 oz(P) 1 cup sesame seeds sesame seeds 3 1/2 oz 3/4 cup whole shelled almonds whole shelled almonds 5 oz(P) 1 cup ground almonds ground almonds 4 oz(P) 1 cup chopped nuts chopped nuts 2 oz(K) 1/3 to 1/2 cup Nut butters: peanut/almond/cashew etc peanut/almond/cashew etc 8 oz(K) 1 cup ---------------------------------------- 3.2.7 Preserves clear honey/golden syrup/ clear honey/golden syrup/ molasses/black treacle molasses/black treacle 12 oz(P) 1 cup maple/corn syrup maple/corn syrup 11 oz(P) 1 cup jam/marmalade/jelly jam/marmalade/jelly 5-6 oz(P) 1/2 cup ---------------------------------------- 3.3 American Liquid Measures 1 pint 450 ml ( 16 fl oz) (RD) 1 cup 225 ml ( 8 fl oz) (RD & K) 1 tablespoon 16 ml (1/2 fl oz) (K) ---------------------------------------- 3.4 British Liquid Measures I have got conflicting tables showing these:- 1 pint 570 ml ( 20 fl oz) (RD) 1 breakfast cup ( 10 fl oz) 1/2 pint (S) 1 tea cup 1/3 pint (S) 8 tablespoons 1/4 pint (S) BUT 8 * 15 * 4 = 480 fl oz which is short of a pint! 1 tablespoon 15 ml (RD) 1 dessertspoon 10 ml (RD) 1 teaspoon 5 ml (RD) 1/3 tablespoon (S) And from "Mastering the art of French cooking". Penguin UK, issue 1961 UK UK oz Metric ml US oz 1 quart 40 1140 38.5 1 pint 20 570 1 cup 10 1 gill 5 1 fluid oz 1 28.4 0.96 1 tbl 5/8 (1/16 cup) 17.8? 1 dsp 1/3 10 1 tsp 1/6 5 ---------------------------------------- 3.5 British Short Cuts (S) Cheese (grated) 1 oz = 4 level tablespoons Cocoa or chocolate powder 1 oz = 3 level tablespoons Coconut (desicated) 1 oz = 4 level tablespoons Flour (unsifted) 1 oz = 3 level tablespoons Sugar (castor/caster) 1 oz = 2 level tablespoons (granulated) 1 oz = 2 level tablespoons (icing) 1 oz = 2 1/2 level tablespoons Syrup (golden) 1 oz = 1 level tablespoons ---------------------------------------- 3.6 General Conversion Tables Some general tables for volume and weight conversions (mostly by Cindy Kandolf) ---------------------------------------- 3.6.1 International Liquid Measurements standard cup tablespoon teaspoon Canada 250ml 15ml 5ml Australia 250ml 20ml 5ml New Zealand 250ml 15ml 5ml UK 250ml 15ml 5ml ---------------------------------------- 3.6.2 Weight 1 ounce = 28.4 g (can usually be rounded to 25 or 30) 1 pound = 454 g 1 kg = 2.2 pounds ---------------------------------------- 3.6.3 US Liquid Measurements 1 liter = 1.057 quarts 2.1 pints 1 quart = 0.95 liter 1 gallon= 3.8 liters 1/8 cup = 2 tablespoons 1/4 cup = 4 tablespoons 1/3 " = 0.8 dl 1/2 " = 1.2 dl 2/3 " = 1.6 dl 3/4 " = 1.75 dl 7/8 " = 2.1 dl 1 cup = 2.4 dl 1 dl = 2/5 cup = 6 to 7 tablespoons ---------------------------------------- 3.6.4 Miscellaneous 1 UK pint is about 6 dl 1 UK liquid oz is 0.96 US liquid oz. a "stick" of butter or margarine weighs 4 oz and is 1/2 cup US. each 1/4 cup or half stick butter or margarine in US recipes weighs about 50 g. ---------------------------------------- 3.7 Some Australian Conversions From a post on rec.food.recipes from Stephanie da Silva ---------------------------------------- 3.7.1 Metric Cups Metric Cups Grams Ounces (approx) (approx) 1 cup butter 250 8 3/4 1 cup biscuit (cookie) crumbs 110 3 3/4 1 cup breadcrumbs, soft 60 2 1 cup breadcrumbs, dry 125 4 1/2 1 cup cheese, grated 125 4 1/2 1 cup cocoa 110 3 3/4 1 cup cornflour (cornstarch) 125 4 1/2 1 cup cornflakes 30 1 1 cup rice bubbles (rice crispies) 30 1 1 cup coconut, desiccated (flaked) 95 3 1/4 1 cup dried split peas, lentils 200 7 1 cup dried fruit 160 5 3/4 1 cup dates, chopped 150 5 1/4 1 cup flour, plain, self-rising 125 4 1/2 1 cup flour, wholemeal (whole wheat) 135 4 3/4 1 cup golden syrup, honey, glucose 360 12 3/4 1 cup jam 330 11 1/2 1 cup nuts, chopped 125 4 1/2 1 cup oats, rolled 90 3 1/4 1 cup rice, short grain 210 7 1/2 1 cup rice, long grain 200 7 1 cup salt, or crystal sugar 250 8 3/4 1 cup castor sugar (superfine) 220 7 3/4 1 cup soft brown sugar, firmly packed 170 6 1 cup icing sugar (confectioners') 150 5 1 cup = 250 mls ---------------------------------------- 3.7.2 Metric Spoons Metric spoons Grams Ounces 1 level tablespoon peanut butter 20 2/3 1 level tablespoon baking powder, bicarb soda, cream of tartar, gelatine, rice, sago 15 1/2 1 level tablespoon cocoa, cornflour, custard powder, nuts 10 1/2 1 level tablelspoon golden syrup, treacle, honey, glucose 30 1 1 level tablespoon sugar, salt 20 2/3 1 level tablespoon yeast, compressed 20 2/3 1 tablespoon = 20 mls 1 teaspoon = 5 mls ---------------------------------------- 3.8 Catties In ancient China, 1 catty = 1.33 pound = 600 grams. In Modern China, this went with kilograms and stuff. To make the transition easier for the average people. They invented a new kind of catty. 1 catty = 0.5 kilo ( = 1.1 pound ) However, old books from Hong Kong and Taiwan still uses the old catty = 600 grams. ---------------------------------------- 3.9 Authorities K = Mollie Katzen from "Still Life with Menu" P = Marguerite Patten from "Cookery in Colour" RD = Forward to British edition of "The Rotation Diet" S = Ursula Sedgwick from "My Fun-to-cook-book" ---------------------------------------- 4 rec.food.*, what's the difference? ---------------------------------------- 4.1 rec.food.cooking a.k.a. us: A group for the discussion of cooking in general. Recipes and requests for recipes are welcome here, as are discussions of cooking techniques, equipment, etc. In short, if it has to do with cooking, it probably belongs here - though that doesn't mean it doesn't belong somewhere else, too! ---------------------------------------- 4.2 rec.food.recipes A moderated newsgroup for recipes and recipe requests ONLY. There used to be an FAQ for it, relevant parts of which are included in this file. A periodic posting explains how to post recipes or requests. The moderator is Stephanie da Silva, arielle@taronga.com. ---------------------------------------- 4.3 rec.food.drink, rec.food.restaurants Pretty self-explanatory. ---------------------------------------- 4.4 rec.food.veg About vegetarianism. It also has its own FAQ list, with questions about the myths and truths of the vegetarian diet, information on where to get "cruelty-free" products, etc. ---------------------------------------- 5 This has come up once too often.... This list is a (futile?) attempt to keep certain well-worn subjects from coming up yet again. Further suggestions always welcome. ---------------------------------------- 5.1 The $250 cookie recipe This recipe comes up often, usually here but also on other newsgroups (where it is even less appropriate). The story goes that a woman had a cookie at [usually Mrs. Field's or Niemann Marcus' cafe], and liked it so much she wanted the recipe. The clerk said "It will cost you two-fifty"; the woman thought that meant $2.50 and was shocked to find it meant $250. She is now spreading it to get revenge, since it was not returnable. There are a number of holes in the story, and no one has ever brought forth any evidence that it really happened. (If you want to argue that you know someone who knows someone who this really happened to, take it over to alt.folklore.urban, where they will proceed to have you for breakfast if you have no evidence.) More importantly, it has been posted more than enough times by now. Some people have tried the recipe and pronounced it good, but it ain't Mrs. Field's. If you would like the recipe, ask for someone to mail it to you. It has been pointed out to me that the recipe is in the standard source distribution for GNU Emacs. If your site has that source, look in the "etc" directory for a file named COOKIES. Most importantly, please DO NOT post it any more. There is also a Mrs Fields cookbook, published by Time-Life. This has recipes, but not the exact ones for the ones sold in the stores, as those recipes are not well suited to home baking ---------------------------------------- 5.2 Requests for "authentic" recipes Can someone please post the authentic recipe for ...? The problem with questions like this is that, for many foods, there is no single recipe which can be said to be the most authentic. Recipes undergo a slight variation as they are passed on from one cook to the next. The only recipes this can work for are those whose creator is known (and still living) and those which were written down and preserved or published immediately after being invented. This sort of question seems to pop up a lot about buffalo wings (chicken wings in a spicy sauce)... ---------------------------------------- 6 What on Earth is...? aji --- Aji (singular form) is what the Peruvians call chile peppers. The species in particular is capsicum baccatum, and the derivation of the name is somewhat odd. When Columbus started this whole confusing thing with Indians and peppers that weren't what he thought they were, the Arawak people of the Bahamas called their capsicums "aji." Columbus packed them back to Spain, the Portuguese took them around the world, and within a hundred years peppers had been distributed to China, Japan, India, Turkey, and back through the Balkans to Europe. allspice, mixed spice and five-spice ------------------------------------ Allspice is the dried, unripe berry of a small tree. It is available ground or in seed form, & used in a variety of dishes such as pickles, casseroles, cakes & puddings. Mixed spice is a classic mixture generally containing caraway, allspice, coriander, cumin, nutmeg & ginger, although cinnamon & other spices can be added. It is used with fruit & in cakes. (In America 'Pumpkin Pie Spice' is very similar). Five-spice powder is a blend of star anise, cinnamon, cloves, fennel & Szechuan pepper. It is used in Chinese cooking bagels ------ Chewy bread with a hole in the middle. Can come with many types of toppings on it. Dough is boiled then baked with toppings such as onion, garlic, poppy seeds etc. On the east coast usually used as a breakfast bread but can also be used as a sandwich bread. broccolrabe ----------- A green bitter vegetable unless harvested young. Looks like broccoli but has skinnier stalks. The leaves, stems and florets are eaten. Really good sauteed with garlic and olive oil and served over pasta. conch ----- A Mollusk Gastropod - "Strombus" - Abundant in US only off Florida Keys, where it is illegal to take. (has been for 10? years now). Most now comes from Caribbean islands such as Turks and Caicos, Trinidad, or Honduras. It is imported in frozen 5 lb boxes, which is how I buy it at fish markets. Some will defrost some and thus put individual "steaks" (conchs) out on display case for lower quantity purchasers, but these may sit for a while. One Conch steak typically weighs 1/5 to 1/3 lb appx. These sell for prices ranging from $4.99 - $6.99 per pound. These steaks are taken home, beaten the crap out of, with device such as a rolling pin, (to tenderize) then cubed for conch salad or conch fritters. (BTW when in Florida & Caribbean you better pronounce it "Conk" or we all laugh at you and double the price). couscous -------- Couscous is the seperated grain of the semolina plant. When dried and milled, it becomes semolina flour, which is what pasta is made out of. However, as a grain, it makes a terrific rice substitute that has the advantage of being more flavorful (nutty with an interesting texture as long as it is not over cooked) as well as about five times quicker to make than rice. escargot -------- snails. The can be terrestrial, freshwater or marine. Escargot is the common name for the land gastropod mollusk. The edible snails of France have a single shell that is tan and white, and 1 to 2 inches diameter. This is what you see for sale at the gourmet food market for some outrageous price. fava/broad beans ---------------- Favas as a green vegetable are popular in Europe. In the North, e.g. Britain and Holland they are called 'broad beans' and grown as a summer crop, planted in early spring, and in Italy they are planted in fall and harvested in January, and also planted in January and eaten in April and May. They are grown for animal forage in Italy as well. They come in various sizes, but in general they are large and flat. feija~o ------- Portugese for beans, the default is black beans. Not to be confused with: feijoa ------ A waxy green fruit about 3" long. Although it is not a guava you may know it as a Pineapple Guava. Feijoa sellowiana is an evergreen shrub, growing to 10-16 ft. It thrives in subtropical regions but is hardy & once established will tolerate moderate frosts. They are either eaten raw (with or without the skin) or made into jellies, sauces & chutneys. galanga ------- Used in Thai cooking, galanga is a rhizome similar to ginger in many ways. Tom ka gai (chicken in coconut milk soup) uses galanga, chicken, green chiles, lemon grass and lime juice as well as coconut milk. grits ----- Usually a breakfast item in the US Southern region. Made from the kernel of corn. When corn has been soaked in lye and the casing has been removed it becomes Hominy. The lye is rinsed out very well and the corn is left to harden. Then the swollen hominy is ground up to the texture of tiny pellets. When boiled with water, millk and butter it becomes a cereal similar to cream of wheat. It's used as a side dish for a good old fashioned Southern breakfast. Sometimes you can make it with cheese and garlic for a casserole. hard rolls ---------- A sandwich type of roll that is a little crusty on the outside and soft on the inside. Can be made with poppy seeds or sesame seeds or plain. In the US Midwest it's called a Kaiser roll harissa ------- Harissa is a paste of chilis and garlic used to enhance North African food (and is fairly popular in other parts of the Mideast, though it is probably of Berber origin). It is fairly similar to the Indonesian sauce called sambal olek. hing ---- Also known as asafoetida, and devil's dung. A light brown resin used as a substitute for garlic ands onions, it can be found in Indian groceries. Claimed properties : laxative, aphrodisiac, colic cure. hundreds and thousands ---------------------- also known as sprinkles or as nonpareils : small round balls of multicoloured sugar used as toppings on cakes and desserts. malanga ------- the word used in the Spanish-speaking parts of the Caribbean for Taro root (or a close relative of Taro.) It is prepared by either boiling and mashing like potatos, or slicing and frying into chips. It is also used in soups as a thickening agent. masa harina ----------- Masa is a paste made by soaking maize in lime and then grinding it up. Masa harina is the flour made by drying and powdering masa. It is used in mexican cooking for items such as corn tortillas. The literal meaning is "dough flour". mirin ----- sweetened sake (Japanese rice wine) pavlova ------- A dessert (invented in NZ, not Australia :-) The main ingredients are sugar and eggwhite. A pavlova has crisp meringue outside and soft marshmallow inside, and has approximately the dimensions of a deep dessert cake. Commonly pavlovas are topped with whipped cream and fresh fruit, especially kiwifruit, passion fruit or strawberries. periwinkles ----------- These small relatives of the whelk are "Littorina littorea". Popular in Europe but not in US. Northern (New England) "winkles" are a different species from those found in the Gulf of Mexico rocky mountain oysters ---------------------- You don't want to know. You do want to know? No, no, really, you don't. Oh, okay, okay. Lamb or cattle testicles, breaded and deep fried (like oysters, I guess) sambal ulek (sambal oelek) -------------------------- This is from _The Encyclopedia of Asian Cooking_, general ed. Jeni Wright, published in the USA 1984 by Exeter Books. sambal ulek [Indonesia] Used as an accompaniment and in cooking. Made by crushing fresh red chillis with a little salt: Remove the seeds from the chillis, chop finely, then crush with salt using a pestle and mortar. Three chillis will make about 1 tablespoon sambal ulek. also available redy-prepared in small jars from Oriental stores and some delicatessens. santen/coconut milk ------------------- This is from _The Encyclopedia of Asian Cooking_, general ed. Jeni Wright, published in the USA 1984 by Exeter Books. santen [Malaysia] see coconut milk. Coconut milk [India/Malaysia/Thailand/Vietnam] Known as narial ka dooth in India, santen in Indonesia and Malaysia. Best made from fresh coconuts: Grate the flesh of 1 coconut into a bowl, pour on 600 ml/1 pint/2-1/2 cups boiling water, then leave to stand for about 30 minutes. Squeeze the flesh, then strain before using. This quantitiy will make a thick coconut milk, add more or less water as required. Desiccated (shredded) coconut can be used instead of fresh coconut: Use 350g/12 oz./4 cups to 600 ml/1 pint/2-1/2 cups boiling water. Use freshly made coconut milk within 24 hours. Canned coconut milk is also available. scrapple -------- Scrapple is boiled, ground leftover pieces of pig, together with cornmeal and spices. Good scrapple, particularly served with a spicy tomato catsup, is food for the gods. Bad scrapple, especially with too little cornmeal, with too much grease, or undercooked, is an abomination in the eyes of the horde. scungilli --------- Also a Mollusk Gastropod - "Buccinidae" - found in more temperate waters than conch, with a darker meat and stronger flavor, perhaps less "sweet". This is more properly known as "whelk". These are generally removed from their shell and sold already steamed and ready to eat. The meat is kind of a circular meat, about 1 to 2 inches in diameter, perhaps 10 to 20 of these in a pound. I used to buy these at markets in Long Island all the time. Price about same as conch. seltzer ------- plain soda water tamari ------ Tamari is a type of soy sauce, usually used in Japanese food. You can easily substitute with Chinese Light Soy or regular Japanese soy sauce. tangelo ------- Citrus fruit cross of a mandarin & a grapefruit. Larger than a mandarin & a little smaller than an average-size orange. Skin colour is a bright tangerine and they mature during the late mandarin season. Mandarins, Tangerines or Oranges may be used instead. terasi ------ This is from _The Encyclopedia of Asian Cooking_, general ed. Jeni Wright, published in the USA 1984 by Exeter Books. terasi [Malaysia] Also known as balachan/blacan (Malaysia), kapi (Thailand) and ngapi (Burma). A kind of pungent shrimp paste, used in very small quantities. Depending on the recipe in which it is used, it can be crushed with spices to make a paste which is then sauteed in oil. Alternatively, it may be grilled (broiled) or fried first, then added to other ingredients. twiglets -------- Twiglets are little stick-like things about 2 inches long and a quarterinch wide. They have a fairly dense texture (I mean, they aren't akin to cheesy puffs and puffy snacks of that sort). They call themselves 'original long stick savoury snacks.' Ingredients are wholemeal, vegetable fat, yeast extract, salt, cheese, wheat starch, pepper. You can't taste the cheese, I was surprised to read it on the label. The crucial ingredient is of course yeast extract, which is what gives Marmite its taste. Nothing else on the label is remotely relevant, except the fact that twiglets have 4 calories each (as if you could eat just one...). They're very nice. If you're searching for low-fat substitutes for crisps [potato chips], they have 11.4g of fat per 100g, which isn't much as these things go. vegemite/marmite ---------------- Not the same thing, but similar enough to not deserve separate entries. A thick brown paste made mostly from yeast extract, most commonly spread thinly on toast or sandwiches. The taste is mostly salt plus yeast. Despite the occasional rumor, neither contains any meat. ---------------------------------------- 7 Distilled Wisdom on Equipment This is a new section, designed to contain small articles people have put together on various topics pertaining to cooking equipment ---------------------------------------- 7.1 Woks (thankyou to Steve Hammond) First of all, the best wok is one made of cold-rolled steel. Most of them are round-bottomed and come with a ring to support it over the burner. The support ring with the narrower diameter side up is used for electric stoves and the larger diameter side up is used on gas stoves. This seems to keep it the right distance from the burner. Electric woks can be used for table-side cooking but they do not seem practical for real cooking. With their thermostat, they go on and off, on and off... the idea is to get the wok hot and keep it hot. Electric woks never seem to get hot enough and stay hot for most uses. A wok right out of the box will have a coating of machine oil to prevent it from rusting. Wash the wok in hot water with soap. This is the LAST time you should ever use soap in your wok. Next, it's a good idea to boil some water in your new wok for 15-20 minutes to get it really clean. Seasoning a brand new wok involves heating the wok with some oil in it, letting it cool, and repeating the procedure, say, three times. Heat the wok over high heat, then add a couple tablespoons of peanut oil and spread it around with a paper towel, being careful not to burn yourself. Stop when the oil begins to smoke, and let it cool. Add more oil if needed, and repeat a couple of times. For actual cooking, put your wok over the burner on high for a few minutes before cooking. To see if it is ready to cook in, put a few drops of water into the wok and they should dance around and evaporate almost immediately. Have *all* the food you need to cook, chopped and ready. Next, add some peanut oil and swirl around to coat the bottom. The oil will start to smoke a little. Immediately start adding the ingredients for the meal you are cooking. Clean the wok with hot water and some form of scrubbing tool. The bamboo things they sometimes include actually work or one can use a nylon scrubbing pad (no brillo, SOS, or equivalent). After the wok is cleaned, put it back on the burner for a few minutes to heat it up and evaporate any moistu e. Then, add a little oil to it and rub it around with a paper towel to keep it shiny and from rusting with any moisture it may attract in between uses. Another thing, when you are done cooking in the wok, put some water in it to soak while you eat. Cleanup takes just a few work with a nylon scrubbing pad and some hot water. Taking good care of your cookware only requires a few minutes of time and makes it much easier to use and cleanup. Food doesn't stick to a well seasoned wok. If it starts to stick, scrub it well with something like an S.O.S. pad and re-season. ---------------------------------------- 8 The rec.food.cooking Food Exchange People from all over the world read rec.food.cooking. If mere words are not sufficient to explain a food not from your region, if you want to try local items from other parts of the world, then read on... After a successful large-scale exchange orchestrated earlier this year by David Wilkinson in the UK, it has been suggested that ongoing requests for food exchange partners be posted as follows : * EXCHANGE should be the first word in the Subject: line. This allows people who aren't interested to use whatever facilities their newsreader allows to avoid posts on this subject. * Posts should indicate what you have and what you want. For example "I have Cherry Ripe bars, does anyone want to swap for Peanut Butter M&Ms" or "I'm from France and I'd like to swap regional foods with someone from the USA" (perhaps followed by a representative list of regional foods). If you want to swap food with someone, either post your own request or reply to somebody else's. And now, some hints : * Overseas postage can get VERY expensive, VERY fast. You will probably want to send all but the very tiniest of packages by surface mail. This takes weeks and weeks and so the perishability of the food items you send will need to be taken into account. * Some countries have stringent import restrictions. Fresh foods and anything that might harbour insects, for example, are not likely to get into some countries, also viable seeds are not welcomed in countries such as New Zealand. * Some ideas on packaging anything that is not remarkably sturdy - use a rigid outer box of some sort - wrap anything containing liquid in its own plastic bag, disasters happen - if there are heavy things packed with fragile things, remember to anchor them (maybe with tape) - use some sort of packing material (I use newspaper) to cushion the effect of any bumps - pick the smallest box that your things will fit into - coffee canisters work well to send cookies in - toilet paper tubes are good space fillers, you can slao put small things inside them * Postage really is a killer. I can't emphasise this one enough * Good and Bad Travellers (please contribute!): - Good Nut Breads - Bad Glass (usually) Oily Things. Wrap these well, or else they will weaken their part of the box ---------------------------------------- 9 Archives [If you are archiving recipes from rec.food.cooking, please tell me about it so I can put it here] rec.food.recipes is being archived at several sites : ftp --- * biome.bio.ns.ca:/msm/food maintainer : Bill Silvert (sysop@biome.bio.dfo.ca) * ftp.neosoft.com in /pub/rec.food.recipes (login as `anonymous') maintainer : Stephanie da Silva (arielle@taronga.com) Some older (often not currently being updated) archive sites: * gatekeeper.dec.com (16.1.0.2) /pub/recipes (alt.gourmand files) * mthvax.cs.miami.edu (129.171.32.5) /recipes (rec.food.recipes under aem moderatorship) * wuarchive.wustl.edu (128.252.135.4) /usenet/rec.food.recipes/recipes (mthvax mirror) * ftp.uu.net /usenet/rec.food.recipes (another mthvax mirror) * ils.nwu.edu (129.105.100.1) /pub/sourdough (FAQs and mailing list archives) * wpi.wpi.edu (130.215.24.1) /recipes (Indian recipes) www (hypertext) --------------- * URL http://www.vuw.ac.nz/non-local/recipes-archive/recipe-archive.html maintainer : Amy Gale (mara@kauri.vuw.ac.nz) (a public WWW server exists at info.cern.ch) gopher ------ * Type=1+ Name=Food Information and Recipes Path=1/msm/food Host=biome.bio.ns.ca Port=70 maintainer : Bill Silvert (sysop@biome.bio.dfo.ca) ---------------------------------------- 10 Acknowledgements Lots of wonderful people helped compile this list - again, much acknowledgement is due to Cindy Kandolf for putting this entire thing together. The other wonderful people are : carolynd@sail.labs.tek.com ekman@netcom.com rs7x+@andrew.cmu.edu jane@cse.lbl.gov arielle@taronga.com (Stephanie da Silva) jonog@g2syd.genasys.com.au anita@devvax.mincom.oz.au sbookey@ep.ieee.org(Seth Bookey) ccd@ccdadfa.cc.adfa.oz.au pmmuggli@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu chu@acsu.buffalo.edu cdfk@otter.hpl.hp.com dudek@ksr.com aem@mthvax.cs.miami.edu wald@theory.lcs.mit.edu harvey@indyvax.iupui.edu ed@pa.dec.com ndkj@vax5.cit.cornell.edu carolynd@sail.labs.tek.com otten@icase.edu ekman@netcom.com loosemore-sandra@cs.yale.edu rs7x+@andrew.cmu.edu kts@michael.udev.cdc.com jane@cse.lbl.gov leander@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu mworley@mathcs.emory.edu cduff@sugar.NeoSoft.COM hammond@niwot.scd.ucar.EDU(Steve Hammond) dfw@thumper.bellcore.com (Doris Woods) gibbsm@ll.mit.edu (MargAret D Gibbs) rickert@cco.caltech.edu (Keith Warren Rickert) Simon Kershaw <Simon.Kershaw@Smallworld.co.uk> Joel Offenberg <offenbrg@trifle.gsfc.nasa.gov> grant@oj.rsmas.miami.edu (Grant Basham) lmak@cbnewsf.cb.att.com (louisa.l.mak) twain@carson.u.washington.edu (Barbara Hlavin) hz225wu@unidui.uni-duisburg.de (Micaela Pantke) sfisher@megatest.com (Scott Fisher) byrne@rcf.rsmas.miami.edu (Charlie Byrne) jmk5u@Virginia.EDU cc@dcs.edinburgh.ac.uk bae@gpu.utcc.utoronto.ca (Beverly Erlebacher) rlwilliams@gallua.gallaudet.edu (Skip) hwalden@science-store.chem.wayne.edu (Heather Walden) mcenter@amoco.com (Mike Center, PSC) kevin@eye.com (Kevin Stokker) steven@surya.cs.ucla.edu (Steven Berson) eric.decker@canrem.com (Eric Decker) peteo@ford.wpd.sgi.com (Peter Orelup) sk10003@cus.cam.ac.uk (Scott Kleinman) David Casseres <casseres@apple.com> Ted.Taylor@p4214.f104.n109.z1.fidonet.org (Ted Taylor) george@dfds.ml.com (George Minkovsky) Alison@moose.demon.co.uk (Alison Scott) jae@world.std.com (Jon A Edelston) conrad@qpsx.oz.au (Conrad Drake) nadel@attatash.aero.org (Miriam Nadel) patricia@cs.utexas.edu (Patricia M. Burson) betsey@columbia.edu (Elizabeth Fike) Some parts of this FAQ shamelessly stolen from the rec.foods.recipes FAQ. Bits and pieces of useful information from "Trolldom in the Kitchen" by Pat Bjaaland and Melody Favish. -- mara@kauri.vuw.ac.nz "If the world was an orange it would be like much too small, y'know?"