CT FM 012:
The Art Of International Cooking Brought To You By: RecipeThis.com
Introduction Welcome to our twelfth Podcast from CT FM. For our 12th Podcast I wanted to talk about international cooking and how different things can be from one country to the next. I remember the first time I went on an American food blog, I read about five recipes in a row, they all seemed interesting but I didn’t understand any of them. In the end I recall that I gave up and as a Brit I stuck with Jamie Oliver & BBC Food for learning and discovering new recipes. I know many people that are in a similar boat to me and do the same thing. And as a food blogger myself now that blogs from the prospective of a Brit living in Europe I am sure the same goes for my American readers that will read things and wonder what on earth I am talking about. Off the top of my head these are the kind of things that as Brits reading American blogs we are clueless about:
Zucchini Egg Plant Squash Measuring Cups Skillet Dutch Ovens Potato Chips Corn Dog Granola Seeds
Actually I should confess all those things above have confused me at some point or another.
Squash to a Brit is a kind of orange juice, zucchini is courgette, egg plant is aubergine, granola would just get a funny look and don’t get me started over the various seeds. I also remember being on holiday in America a few years back and there were two funny food incidents. The first was at Disney World and the look of shock horror on the guys face when he offered me a corn dog and I asked him what it was. He then watched in amusement as I looked like a child eating something new for the first time. Because of watching way too much American TV I always knew that when you were stateside and it said chips on the menu it really meant crisps and their take on chips was actually French Fries. We were at a lovely park in Boston with our son and he was 10 at the time. He loves his fries and went to order a sandwich with chips. So of course he thought he was getting French Fries and we sat there in fits of giggles when his food came out with crisps. But most of it you can figure out yourself but things like baking can be a real nightmare. I remember when I first went to bake with an American recipe. I never knew there was such a thing as a measuring cup and assumed that a cup size was the same as a cup that a Brit has a cup of tea in. So I went and used a cup and my recipe turned out all wrong because I had the wrong ingredients in the recipe.
Since then though I have bought a set of cups from a euro shop and love them. A You just can’t believe there could possibly be that many different cultural differences with just the Atlantic Ocean standing in between us.
#1 – The Top 20 Common Cooking Words & Phrases Because of these big differences and the fact that us Brits want to cook American food and vice versa I thought it was essential as a food blogger to share the different measurements. That way you can understand my recipes and I can understand yours. But where do you start as there are so many different things to think about? Well these are my top 20 favourite differences that if you are going to follow online recipes that you need to know about:
Plain flour = all purpose flour Icing Sugar = confectioners Sugar Golden Syrup = Corn Syrup Corn Flour = Corn Starch Egg White = Egg Substitute Icing = Frosting Caster Sugar = Granulated Sugar Spring Onions = Green Onions Minced Beef = Ground Beef Single Cream = Half & Half Whipping Cream = Heavy Cream Jelly = Jello Jam = Jelly Skimmed Milk = Non-Fat Milk Semi Skimmed Milk = Reduced Fat Milk Porridge = Oatmeal
Wholemeal Flour = Whole Wheat Flour Soft Cheese = Cream Cheese Butter = Shortening Dark Chocolate = Semi Sweet Chocolate
Of course I could go on and on but those are the ones that have helped me the most online. Before this there is no way I could have made it through a single recipe. The worst to do though is baking because there are just too many differences. Since we moved house last year we have got Portuguese cable TV. This means that we get majority American shows and a lot of American cookery channels. And through this it has helped me to understand the cooking terms a lot more than what I used to.
#2 – Measurements The second worst thing has to be the measurements. They can be so hard to get your head around and sometimes I will be watching a cookery show and forget that they are talking in the American way. For example a cooker on really low over there in Fahrenheit will be like our temperature in high in Celsius and when you are watching it on TV they won’t say whether it is F or C they will just give the temperature. So here is a few of them for the most common recipes:
160C = 320F 180C = 356F 200C = 392F 220C = 428F
But the hardest thing is the cups to grams and spoon conversions: 1Tsp = 5ml
1Tbsp = 15ml 28g = 1 Oz 32g = ¼ Cup 43g = 1/3 Cup 64g = ½ Cup 128g = 1 Cup
When I am working in teaspoons with liquids I find it easier to use measuring cups as I then know that a tablespoon is the 15ml measuring cup and that I can easily weigh out what I need. I also always remember the grams to ounce though from when I was on a diet in my teens and that was always one cereal portion for breakfast! I just wish they had measuring cups back then and it would save measuring out my food all the time. As a European living in Portugal we also work a lot with Kilos and the easy thing to remember is that 2.204 pounds = 1 kilo and then you can easily work it out in your head.
This brings us to this Podcasts Sponsor: For Podcast 12 of CT FM we wanted to bring to your attention to BBC Good Food. They can be found at BBCGoodFood.com and offer a fantastic worldwide reader experience. They are of course British but with the main food words often covered in both American & British lingo it is perfect for learning and getting used to the two types of cooking. They are also taking over all the recipes that are held on BBC Food and this will mean that you will have a much bigger selection of recipes all in one place.
Though the main reason why I am recommending it is because they have some amazing measuring charts and make it really easy to cook from around the globe.
What I absolutely hate about the difference in food Now this is a real hate and I believe that the Americans share this opinion. Or my American family certainly does. You see a recipe, the products in it look amazing and then you realise you can not source them anywhere. You either change the recipe or you do without. I remember always thinking that when chicken broth is mentioned in a recipe that you make a chicken soup to go with it, not that in The States you could buy it ready made. And I would absolutely love to try spaghetti squash yet the only squashes we can get here in Portugal are butternut squash and pumpkins. It just feels they are missing and whenever I see a spaghetti squash recipe I get super mad. Also after trying to by chance for a review on RecipeThis I was amazed by how nice granola was and how I had never come across it before. My American cousin said “don’t worry about and just make it yourself”. She then gave me the list of ingredients and I realised that I couldn’t get 80% of them. So no more granola for me! I am also yet to try all the different seeds that people talk about for healthy eating as they are just not available. Or the fact that I can’t get kale anywhere either. But this works both ways and I know that Americans love our OXO stock cubes and wish that they had a better range of fresh fruit and vegetables without the high price tag.
So if I had to choose between the fresh fruit and vegetables and some seeds I would of course choose the fresh vegetables, so I shouldn’t sit here and rant too much!
Round Up! Thanks for joining us in our Podcast and we look forward to sharing more of our cooking tips with you in the future.
Links & Resources Mentioned In This Podcast Jamie Oliver Blog BBC Food BBC Good Food How To Get Involved In Our Podcasts
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Thanks again for listening and best of luck with your cooking.
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