A curious glossary of British recipe terminology

Some years ago I bought a cookbook off the bargain rack at the bookstore. I was attracted by all the pretty pictures of food. Every recipe had a picture. And there are 1,000 recipes!

Available on Amazon

I've never made anything from it.*

The biggest problem has been that the cookbook was originally published in the U.K. They've translated the measurements, but they haven't translated some of the ingredients and some of the terminology is different. I'm sure some things are the same here, but I just have never heard of such a thing.

But being American, I'm confused and just never cooked anything out of the cookbook. I recently pulled the it out and decided to figure out what the heck some of these things are. I thought others may be interested. Some of the things I actually did know, but maybe others may not.

So, here goes:

Glossary

amaretti biscuits: An Italian almond-flavored cookie. Really, it's more of a macaroon. If you can't find any in the store and don't feel like making some (recipe here), you can substitute with traditional Italian biscotti.

aubergine: eggplant

back bacon: Canadian bacon

bacon loin chops: I can't find an exact definition for this except that it is a cut of back bacon, which is similar to ham. see back bacon

bicarbonate of soda: baking soda

biscuit: In the U.S. we just call them cookies, but in the U.K. cookies are soft while biscuits are hard.

bouquet garni: herb mixture for meats and veggies; recipe here

caster sugar: superfine sugar; if you don't have superfine sugar on-hand, just throw some sugar into a food processor.

Christmas pudding: One recipe calls for Christmas pudding. Since that isn't common in the U.S., you can get a recipe here.

clear honey: plain ole honey we find in the bear container at the supermarket

conserve: In the U.S. a conserve is a jam with nuts and raisins mixed in. In the U.K. it seems to be interchangeable with preserves.

cornflour: While there is a such thing as flour made from corn, cornflour in the U.K. is what Americans refer to as cornstarch.

courgette: zucchini

curd cheese: cottage cheese

demerara sugar: raw cane sugar (Like Sugar in the Raw brand); in the U.S. it can be called turbinado sugar

digestive biscuit: a semi-sweet cookie; not easy to find in the U.S.; although not the same, a good substitute are graham crackers. When I read this ingredient, I started laughing because I thought of Alka-Seltzer. Turns out that was a great way to think of it because, according to Wikipedia, when digestive biscuits were developed, they were thought to be a good antacid. They have a high content of baking soda in them, which is how this thought originated.

double cream: cream with about 48 % butterfat; doesn't exist in the U.S., the highest you can get in the U.S. is heavy cream, which is about 40% butterfat

dragees: Apparently those little edible silver balls used on pastries have a name! They are illegal in California because some sue-happy guy wants everyone to know that it's harmful to ingest silver. Yeah, only if you ingest an insane amount! Here's a fun little thread to read discussing the issue. Oh, and since this guy has started his little mission, the FDA has started making manufacturers of dragees to label them as "non-edible" or "for decoration only." Because of all this, they might be hard to find. So, buy them on Amazon. Amazon won't ship them to California because they are illegal there, but the rest of us can still get them.

drop scones: pancakes

easy-blend dry yeast: rapid-rise yeast

essence: extract

fairy cake: cupcake

gammon: a type of British cured ham

golden syrup: a byproduct of the refining process from sugar cane juice to sugar; hard to find in the U.S.; Substitutes are dark corn syrup, maple syrup or light molasses. All have a different flavor than golden syrup, but will work.

Granary bread: bread made from Granary flour

Granary flour: a brand of flour in the U.K.; the flour is special because it is a brown flour with malted wheat grains; no substitution available in the States

groundnut oil: peanut oil

gum tragacanth: used as a thickener in gum paste. Wilton makes it under the name Gum-Tex, which can be found at Michael's in their cake-decorating section.

hand-hot: "Hand-hot is a bit warmer than you would expect. It should be as hot as a really warm bath. The one that leaves your face pink! (Try 30°C/86°F in summer, 40°C/104°F in winter as a guide.)" (source).

icing sugar: confectioner's or powdered sugar

liquid glucose: I read this and think about the diabetes test I had to take when I was pregnant. I drank this sugar water and they tested my blood sugar. It is similar, and you can find liquid glucose for medical reasons in the U.S. But, in Europe when called for in a recipe, it is actually a glucose syrup usually made from processing grapes or honey. It's hard to find in the U.S., but, luckily, it's easily substituted with light corn syrup.

mange-touts: snow peas

medium oatmeal: From what I've found, there are three grades of oat flour: coarse (steel-cut or pinhead) medium and fine. All of which are called oatmeal. In the States, we can get the coarse and fine grades, but not the medium grade. The most popular type of oatmeal in the U.S. is rolled oats. The best, although not perfect, advice I could find for a substitute would be to use rolled oats that have been put through a food processor. Another says to do the same thing to steel-cut oatmeal, but that might be too much for most food processors. If anybody has a better suggestion, let me know.

minced: ground (as in ground beef, ground lamb, ground turkey, etc.)

mincemeat: A mixture of fruit, spirits and sometimes meat. Since this might be a little hard to find already made in the States, you can find a recipe here. It's a recipe for mincemeat pie, but if you just need mincemeat, then just omit the crust.

mixed spice: a British spice blend that mixes sweet spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice; also called pudding spice; can substitute with pumpkin pie spice

molasses: When the British refer to molasses, they actually are referring to blackstrap molasses. see treacle

molasses sugar: a sugar made from natural cane molasses; although not the same, interchangble with brown sugar

muscovado sugar: unrefined brown sugar; sometimes called Barbados sugar; hard to find in the U.S., can be substituted with a course brown sugar and adding a little molasses for moisture

plain chocolate: dark chocolate

plain flour: all-purpose flour

rasher: a slice of bacon

ratafia biscuit: a Scottish almond-flavored cookie; This cookie has a crazy history, including the fact that some of the original ingredients contain cyanide! You can make the cookie now without anything that may kill you. But you still may not be able to find some of the ingredients, so you may want to substitute with another almond-flavored cookie.

rocket: arugula

semi-skimmed milk: 1% or 2% milk

shortcrust pastry: pie crust

single cream: cream with about 10% butterfat; closest substitution in U.S. is half and half

soft cheese: In the U.S. soft cheese usually refers to cheeses like brie and bleu cheese, but in the U.K. it means cream cheese. In fact, most people in the U.K. just call it Philadelphia. So, that's a big tip-off: Philadelphia cream cheese. We have that here.

soya flour: soy flour

soya margarine: soy margarine

streaky bacon: The bacon found in most American grocery stores. Also can use pancetta.

strong flour: bread flour

sugarpaste icing: fondant

sultanas: golden raisins

sunflower margarine: margarine made of sunflower oil; not easily found in U.S. grocery stores. I would say it can be substituted with any margarine or butter. One recipe where it is used is a sunflower scone recipe, and I'm not sure if that would affect the taste. Use your own judgement.

swede: rudabaga

treacle: dark molasses see molasses

white vegetable fat: shortening

wholemeal flour: whole-wheat flour


*since starting the research for this blog entry, I made one recipe from the book: The Best-Ever American Burgers. They were very good.