The Melting Pot 2.0

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Archive-name: cooking-faq Maintained-by: cooking-faq@vuw.ac.nz <Amy Gale> ---------------------------- Changes as at 26 March 1993 * New Maintainer * Minor Formatting ---------------------------- Welcome to the rec.food.cooking FAQ list and conversion helper! The primary purpose of this list 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 pit-manager.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, 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 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 5.3 Lutefisk 6 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 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 - US molasses cabanossi - US pepperoni capsicum - another name for red/green/yellow peppers castor 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 parsley, Thai parsley, and green corriander. 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. 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 sugar. See List 2 green onions - same as spring onions or scallions 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 - 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 - UK black treacle pawpaw - papaya polenta - same as corn meal 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 - Habanero pepper shallots - green/spring onion single cream - US light cream Spanish onion - also called Bermuda onion. Large and not as "hot" as standard onions. 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. 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 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 sugar. Usually, you can use granulated sugar in recipes calling for castor 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, 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/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) ---------------------------------------- 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) 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 Authorities K = Mollie Katzen from "Still Life with Menu" P = Marguritte Pattern 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. It has recently changed moderators. 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. ---------------------------------------- 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. ---------------------------------------- 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)... ---------------------------------------- 5.3 Lutefisk? This question has returned from the dead recently on alt.folklore.urban, so i suppose it's just a matter of time, unfortunately, before it migrates here. Yes, lutefisk is a real food, and many Norwegians love it. There are a lot of weird stories floating around about how it's made, so for the record: It is made of dried fish, usually cod. The fish is soaked in a lye solution for several days, then soaked in clean water, which must be changed frequently, for a few more. After all this, it is usually poached. It is usually fairly gelatinous when done; some people claim if it doesn't shiver on it's own, it wasn't cured long enough. It is usually served at Christmas time, as part of a large meal, though the side dishes eaten with it vary from place to place and even family to family. Modern Norwegians buy it ready to cook at the supermarket. ---------------------------------------- 6 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 : cc@dcs.edinburgh.ac.uk pmmuggli@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu cdfk@otter.hpl.hp.com aem@mthvax.cs.miami.edu harvey@indyvax.iupui.edu ndkj@vax5.cit.cornell.edu otten@icase.edu loosemore-sandra@cs.yale.edu kts@michael.udev.cdc.com chu@acsu.buffalo.edu dudek@ksr.com wald@theory.lcs.mit.edu ed@pa.dec.com carolynd@sail.labs.tek.com ekman@netcom.com rs7x+@andrew.cmu.edu jane@cse.lbl.gov arielle@taronga.com jonog@g2syd.genasys.com.au anita@devvax.mincom.oz.au ccd@ccdadfa.cc.adfa.oz.au 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.