British & American Culinary Differences

I British and US/UK

Fruit & VegetablesAmerican alllgator pear /pea'/ ~Culinary avocado -

beet

~Difterences beetroot

corn~I was recently looking at a book malze. sweet corn7

on USvs. UK English published in corn starch8

19781.It was fascinating to see how cornllour

many terms listed as US English eggplant •I had assumed2 were British auberglne

terms. The fact is that in culinary garbanzo

vocabulary - as in most aspects of chlckpea

the language - the two varieties are bellpepper

~converging - and not just because green pepper~

of Jamie Oliver and Gordon Frenchbeanrunnerbean

Ramsay.We should not therefore3

overstress4 the difterence between gumbo "')1-okra (Iady's Ilngers)the two varieties in gastronomic

IImabean

~terminology; only a few terms broadbean .~.- .-- sherbet, chips, corn, jelly and

plt (01a Irult) ~(9)squash (see below) - are likely t05 stone (01a Iruit)

cause real difticulty understanding. ralsin 'eIndeed6, on some occasions sultana

the two varieties have converged. romalne lettuce "A USchain like Dunkin' Donuts coslettuce

sells both British filled doughnuts ruta baga rIand US 'O'-shaped doughnuts. yellow turnlp/swede

'Whaf's fhe Dllterence? An 61ndeed - (emphatic) in lact scalllon

~Amerlcan·Brltlsh/Britlsh 71nIhe UK 'corn' refers lo any sprlng onionAmerican Dlct/onaryby edlblegraln

~

Norman Moss (Arrow Books) 'cornslarch - Qry ~ticles squash9'lo assume - (fa/se friend) take 01QQYtdered maize used lor marrow

lor 9.@!!ted. sup~ thickening sauces'Iherefore - lor this reason 91nUK Engllsh 'squash' [U) Isa -'Iooverslress- overemphasize 5Oftuncarbonaledlrulldrlnk zucchlnl -5arellkelylo- will QIQbably madefromconcentrate courgette CIfI

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---More Anglo-AmericanGastronomic DifterencesUS/UK US/UK

Other Ingredients Other Culinary Termscrawflsh

.....a-..u . .JIo.~

~

crayflsh fT-r~ cantln

hamburger meatmlnce. mlnced meat

IIverwurst1

•IIversausage dessert

lox puddlng

smoked salmon

molasses2

~~'vblack treacle meat grlnder /grainda'/

oatmeal d mlncer

porrldge "<:::> J

powdered sugar3 nosh6

Iclngsugar a IIght snack between meals

shredded coconut

~

deslccated coconut pancake turner

sllce of bacon ~ flshsllce

rasher of bacon ~table cream4 pantry7

single cream larder

fjtaffytoffee pltcher

whlpplng creams jug

double cream

'!!verwursl- a sausage made substance that floats on milk ~from QQ!js )jver (= he@tic 'whlpplngcream- cream4

sllver(ware)~Qfgans) that has been beaten to make cutlery ss->:

2molasses /ma'liEsiz/ - a sweet it thickerviscous )jquid obtained from "InlheUK'nosh'lsanlnfor-the ~gar plant mal word forfood In gen- ~•.~

'~dered sugar - confec- eral. The US usage 15more "'-~r.~tioner's ~gar, ~ry fine ~gar, fallhfullo Ylddlsh, whlch 15 stove~gar used for making wed- where Ihe word comes from cookerding cakes 'panlry- room in which food

~.'cream - (fa/se friend) white is sto red -661 VES 2

Even More TransatlanticCulinary DifferencesUS/UK

Other Foodstuttscandysweets

catsupketchup I'ketfApl

chipscrisps

cookiebiscuitZ

cotton candycandyfloss

cream of wheat3

semolina

aflan4

baked custard

French frieschips

'Ioodstuffs - !YQ§ 01 loodZln US Engllsh 'a blscult'

Isa small bread rollsimilar to a scone

'creamolwheat- a!iquiddessert made lrom wheatand milk; l.YQically eatenlor breaklast in the US

soda crackercream cracker

••English muffinmuffin

JelloS

jelly

jelly6jam

jelly rollSwissroll

~.~

mulligan (stew)1Irishstew

plckled8 herrlng9

rollmop

popsicleleed lolly

sherbet10

sorbet

smoked herrlng9

klpper

with ~gar and ~tin(to create a substance~milar to marmalade)

'mulllgan(stew) - meat(rnutton or beetl and ygg-etables (potatoes, onion,etc.l cooked toqgther

·~kled - preserved in Yinegar

<;f)-'.".... /.

---.'.4

'In UK Engllsh 'a ffan'lsanopen cheese-Illled pie slml-larto a qulche, or an opensweet pie contalnlng Irult

5Jell-O - a dessert madeIrom a mixture 01gg!atineand Iruit f@vouring

·~Iy-Iruit~boiled

9herrlng - (C/upea haren-gus) a North Atlantic lish

,osherbet- a lrozen Iruit des-sert ~milar to an ice crearn.In UK Engllsh 'sherbet'lsatype 01 powdered candy

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