Recently I’ve been cooking a few dishes from recipe sources that are outside of the norm. A couple of years of Taste.com.au, a collection of Australian recipe books, Australian magazines etc. have led me to search wider and start cooking from some U.S. sources. This presents some challenges. The first is obviously that the measurements are imperial, ounces of this and a pound of that in my head get multiplied by 30g and half-a-kilo in my head. But what sees me reaching for Wikipedia is the ingredient names for things that are specific to the US, things we have different names for.
I thought I’d share my table with you. This table has names of common ingredients in the US that have different names in the rest of the English speaking world. I don’t really know why I keep it because once I figure out that ground beef is not an earthbound variant of air beef but means mince, I rarely forget it. Either way it’s a useful tool, bookmark this page because I’ll update this.
Note: A couple of Americans have expressed surprise they haven’t heard of these, or thought they were different, or used terminology that Australians would be familiar with. The existence of something on this list is no warrant that it’s the pervasively used term, or that it’s even common , e.g the word cantaloupe is quite common for example, much more than the obscure “musk melons” above. Broad beans on the other hand is unknown in the U.S with fava beans actually being the only or almost only used term, and cilantro is a line-ball in that while corriander isn’t used to describe the leaves of the plant, it is used to describe the seeds (usually crushed in Indian food). Being on this list just means that it’s a term that does exist, and it’s useful to know the term.
| American | English |
| Fava Beans | Broad Beans |
| Bell Peppers | Capsicums |
| Garbanzos | Chick Peas |
| Cilantro | Corriander Leaves |
| Broiled | Grilled |
| “All Purpose” Flour | Plain Flour |
| Romaine | Cos Lettuce |
| Rutabaga | Swedes |
| Bundt Pan | Ring Tin |
| Brown Mix | Gravox |
| Parchment | Greaseproof Paper |
| Musk Melons | Canteloupe / Rock Mellon |
| Tomato Sauce or Tomato Puree | Tomato Paste |
| Scallions | Spring Onions |
| Chard / Swiss Chard | Silverbeet |
| Chilli | Chilli Mince Like Con Carne |
| Peppers | Chilli |
| Arugula | Rocket |
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2 comments
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May 3, 2010 at 9:08 pm
Judith in Umbria
I think some of them are incorrect. A bundt pan is not just any ring tin, but a fancy shaped one. A ring form is a ring tin, as I recall. I’ve never heard of brown mix in any part of the US, so my searching mind is coming up with possibly “Kitchen Bouquet”? Parchment is I believe baking paper or oven paper and waxed paper is greaseproof paper.
I have my doubts about tomato sauce/tomato puree. For one thing, they are not the same. Puree is pure tomato passed through a mill. Sauce is cooked with other things in it. Tomato paste is concentrate of tomato.
So you didn’t include catsup/ketchup that is tomato sauce in the UK?
US measurements are not Imperial. The IMperial pint has 20 ounces, for example and the US pint only 16 ounces. It’s a potentially dangerous mix and metric makes it a bit safer. Hard to build the better bomb if you don’t know which measure to use!
Good luck!
May 8, 2010 at 11:33 am
Jeßus
Shrimp ~ Prawns…