I’m an American living in England. I grew up using American recipes, ingredients, and methods of baking. As much as I’d like to use more English recipes, I just can’t seem to get the hang of weighing my ingredients. I have kitchen scales, but they are digital and the battery has run out. Shows you how often I use the thing!
Over the years, I’ve had to make substitutions and alterations on certain recipes where I can’t find the English equivalent to American ingredients. I don’t always know the names for things in England, and as time goes on, I sometimes forget the American names for English things as well.
I will attempt to use English recipes alongside American recipes in this blog, but I am much more comfortable baking with American recipes, so they will be more dominant around here.
As a point of interest, I have included a short list of English-to-American ingredient and food names. I tend to go back and forth in the words I use, so hopefully this list will allay any confusion I may cause!
- biscuit : cookie or cracker (sweet biscuit or savoury biscuit)
- caster sugar : finely granulated sugar (not as powdery as confectioner’s sugar)
- cake tin: cake pan
- clingfilm : Saran wrap
- coffee sugar : sugar in large brightly-coloured crystals
- cornflour : cornstarch
- custard : custard sauce, or sometimes baked custard
- demerara sugar : light brown cane sugar
- double cream : heavy cream
- fairy cake : cupcake
- golden syrup : something like corn syrup
- greaseproof paper : wax paper
- icing : frosting
- icing sugar : powdered (confectioner’s) sugar
- mixed spice : a mixture of allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, coriander and cloves
- single cream : light cream
- sugar crystals : see coffee sugar
- sultana : white raisin
- treacle : similar to molasses
- whipping cream : halfway between light and heavy cream
4 responses so far ↓
Anna // May 31, 2008 at 9:41 am |
Heh. I find using measuring cups such a faff. I have some now, but it always seems to get messier than just weighing things and takes longer. So for most of my recipes that use cups, I’ve weighed out the amounts and written them down the side. =)
Cab // June 15, 2008 at 4:52 am |
It’s so funny you say you can’t swing the hang of weighing ingredients. I’d much rather do that and I’ve never lived in England. I just have much love for Alton Brown. Plus, I find that I have a lot fewer measuring cups to clean afterward. Yes. I am THAT lazy. <_<
jamboree // June 15, 2008 at 8:43 am |
Funnily enough, I am getting better at it! After a few disastrous cakes, I’m much more confident with weighing and have churned out some lovely ones, too. Practice makes perfect and all that!
john // July 30, 2009 at 11:16 pm |
An American in Norway says 250 ml = 2,5 dl = about a cup. And some measuring cups have metric weight-volumes for the most common ingredients. So you can eyeball the measures. I hear Europeans explain that weighing is more accurate than volume measures, but my experience with a variety of kitchen scales leads me to believe that “eyeballing” is as accurate as weighing. Modern American cookbook recipes that begin with a “box of cake mix” are disappointing: if I had a box of cake mix I would not be using a cookbook.