Different names for foods - UK/US
Replies
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lisaabenjamin wrote: »lynn_glenmont wrote: »Beckilovespizza wrote: »I went to Michigan once and had 'biscuits' for breakfast they were like English muffins (also just known as muffins here in the UK). I was totally expecting Rich Tea biccies or equivalent.
Either (1) they were out of biscuits and just substituted an English muffin without telling you, or (2) they made really bad biscuits (but even in Michigan, which I don't think qualifies as the biscuit capital of the U.S., a bad biscuit should be readily distinguishable from an English muffin -- it has a lot more fat in it, so the texture is very different --a biscuit is closer to a croissant than to an English muffin), or (3) your unfortunate foreign palate lacks the ability to distinguish between a (U.S.) biscuit and a (U.S.) English muffin -- rather like a non-native English speaker whose native tongue doesn't have the same set of phonemes as English, so they have lost the ability they were born with to hear and pronounce "r" and "l" or "b" and "v" as different sounds. If the latter is the case, I weep for you. A (U.S.) biscuit can be a sublime thing, all flaky and tender, still warm from oven, not really needing butter but able to dance with the butter to greater gustatory heights than either could achieve on its own. Sigh.
Maybe our British palates can't tell the difference between a US "biscuit" and a so-called "English" muffin, but I think Beckilovespizza was trying to make the point that a "biscuit" in the UK is actually what Americans would call a cookie. That would be weird for breakfast. (Then again, in the US, maybe not).
Yes, that was what i meant, thanks! @lissabenjamin
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I'm a Canadian living in the UK. Biscuits back home were savory scones, dropped with a spoon rather than cut on the baking sheet.0
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Nothing separates a people like a common language.0
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This thread is funny. I'm bi-dialect-al, having lived back and forth between the UK and US and being married to a Yank.
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As am I. My wife is a Brit, but I'm a Canuck with a "shed load" of American friends.RedheadQuine wrote: »This thread is funny. I'm bi-dialect-al, having lived back and forth between the UK and US and being married to a Yank.
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lisaabenjamin wrote: »Cheese (uk) = processed plastic (US)
Thank god we followed french tradition for good cheese. One more heavily processed, rubbery "cheddar" in the brit tradition would drive me bananahammock.0 -
As a Canadian I am enjoying this thread because we use some of these British words for foods, some US words, and we also have our own words for things.
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DawnieB1977 wrote: »I always used to wonder what a biscuit was in the US! When I read a book and they'd have biscuits and gravy. I thought it would be a bit weird pouring gravy over a custard cream! I think gravy is different too, more creamy in the US?
A biscuit is a brilliant thing.
Flour, baking powder, salt, lard/shortening - cut all those together in a bowl. Add buttermilk, or milk, or water but just enough to barely bind it. Fold it together, pat out, cut and bake. It's flaky, bread like. When it comes out of the oven, brush it with butter.
For the gravy for that, you start with a bechamel and add breakfast sausage, and that breakfast sausage would be a more herbed, less salted version of bangers.0 -
For brit biscuits, is that the generic term? Or is that a specific type?
Would you call a tuxedo, a shortbread, and a gingersnap the same thing? Are those all biscuits?0 -
DawnieB1977 wrote: »UK-US
herbal infusion - herbal tea - this is for those that solely for drinking
tisane - still called herbal tea - this is for those that are supposed to be medicinal
Oh, and to add to the fun apple cider issue, in the USA, we also have something called Apple Jack - where you take alcoholic (hard) apple cider and cool it to freezing, skimming of the ice that forms and therefore raising the alcohol content.
Rootbeer (a soda) is an American thing that you don't really find in the UK - most UK folks I know who tried it when they came to American thought it tasted like cough syrup.
Most common chocolate in the UK: cadbury
Most common chocolate in the US: Hershey's
I thought root beer was like our ginger beer? I've never tried it in the US though.
Jacket potato (UK) = baked potato (US)
I always used to wonder what a biscuit was in the US! When I read a book and they'd have biscuits and gravy. I thought it would be a bit weird pouring gravy over a custard cream! I think gravy is different too, more creamy in the US?
Don't know about typical Brit gravy, but there are several types I'm familiar with.
Brown gravy is made from the fat rendered by cooking turkey or chicken or beef etc. With a thickener (usual flour, sometimes corn starch) and broth or stock.
White or cream gravy is made the same way, but with milk (or half and half) rather than broth. Usually made from the drippings of pork breakfast sausage and heavy on the pepper. Amazing served over split buttermilk biscuits with the crumbled sausage.
Then there's red eye gravy. This is made from country ham drippings and with coffee rather than broth. Not my favorite.
I'm from a good old southern family. We know gravy.
Oh and I think ginger beer is called ginger ale here. I think root beer is awful, but I love good ginger ale.0 -
DawnieB1977 wrote: »UK-US
herbal infusion - herbal tea - this is for those that solely for drinking
tisane - still called herbal tea - this is for those that are supposed to be medicinal
Oh, and to add to the fun apple cider issue, in the USA, we also have something called Apple Jack - where you take alcoholic (hard) apple cider and cool it to freezing, skimming of the ice that forms and therefore raising the alcohol content.
Rootbeer (a soda) is an American thing that you don't really find in the UK - most UK folks I know who tried it when they came to American thought it tasted like cough syrup.
Most common chocolate in the UK: cadbury
Most common chocolate in the US: Hershey's
I thought root beer was like our ginger beer? I've never tried it in the US though.
Jacket potato (UK) = baked potato (US)
I always used to wonder what a biscuit was in the US! When I read a book and they'd have biscuits and gravy. I thought it would be a bit weird pouring gravy over a custard cream! I think gravy is different too, more creamy in the US?
Don't know about typical Brit gravy, but there are several types I'm familiar with.
Brown gravy is made from the fat rendered by cooking turkey or chicken or beef etc. With a thickener (usual flour, sometimes corn starch) and broth or stock.
White or cream gravy is made the same way, but with milk (or half and half) rather than broth. Usually made from the drippings of pork breakfast sausage and heavy on the pepper. Amazing served over split buttermilk biscuits with the crumbled sausage.
Then there's red eye gravy. This is made from country ham drippings and with coffee rather than broth. Not my favorite.
I'm from a good old southern family. We know gravy.
Oh and I think ginger beer is called ginger ale here. I think root beer is awful, but I love good ginger ale.
Biscuits and sausage gravy is the best breakfast comfort food I can think of. Highly recommended for any visitor to the American South.0 -
5stringjeff wrote: »DawnieB1977 wrote: »UK-US
herbal infusion - herbal tea - this is for those that solely for drinking
tisane - still called herbal tea - this is for those that are supposed to be medicinal
Oh, and to add to the fun apple cider issue, in the USA, we also have something called Apple Jack - where you take alcoholic (hard) apple cider and cool it to freezing, skimming of the ice that forms and therefore raising the alcohol content.
Rootbeer (a soda) is an American thing that you don't really find in the UK - most UK folks I know who tried it when they came to American thought it tasted like cough syrup.
Most common chocolate in the UK: cadbury
Most common chocolate in the US: Hershey's
I thought root beer was like our ginger beer? I've never tried it in the US though.
Jacket potato (UK) = baked potato (US)
I always used to wonder what a biscuit was in the US! When I read a book and they'd have biscuits and gravy. I thought it would be a bit weird pouring gravy over a custard cream! I think gravy is different too, more creamy in the US?
Don't know about typical Brit gravy, but there are several types I'm familiar with.
Brown gravy is made from the fat rendered by cooking turkey or chicken or beef etc. With a thickener (usual flour, sometimes corn starch) and broth or stock.
White or cream gravy is made the same way, but with milk (or half and half) rather than broth. Usually made from the drippings of pork breakfast sausage and heavy on the pepper. Amazing served over split buttermilk biscuits with the crumbled sausage.
Then there's red eye gravy. This is made from country ham drippings and with coffee rather than broth. Not my favorite.
I'm from a good old southern family. We know gravy.
Oh and I think ginger beer is called ginger ale here. I think root beer is awful, but I love good ginger ale.
Biscuits and sausage gravy is the best breakfast comfort food I can think of. Highly recommended for any visitor to the American South.
I'll keep that in mind if I visit! I've only been to California and Nevada. I don't think I ate anything particularly 'American'. I didn't even try the chocolate. I regret not trying sourdough bread in San Francisco.
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You'll get better biscuits and gravy in CA.
I've had them throughout the east, south, midwest, and west. CA has the best, hands down.
Although I did find one place in WA that is fairly legit.0 -
5stringjeff wrote: »Biscuits and sausage gravy is the best breakfast comfort food I can think of. Highly recommended for any visitor to the American South.
Nope, been there done that. Cat sick.0 -
For brit biscuits, is that the generic term? Or is that a specific type?
Would you call a tuxedo, a shortbread, and a gingersnap the same thing? Are those all biscuits?
One of them is an item of clothing.
In general biscuits is a wide term and would encompass ginger snaps, shortbread, chocolate coated biscuits etc etc
Here's a search for "biscuit" at a UK grocery store
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Brown Sauce (UK) = Steak sauce, sorta (US). There's no exact eqiuv. in the US.
Salad Cream (UK) = Salad Dressing, sorta (US). There's no exact equiv. in the US. Tastes a bit like mayo.
Pastie (UK) = Empanada or Calzone are closest (US) but not quite.
ploughman's pickle/ Branston pickle (UK) = Chutney/Pickled Chutney/Relish (US). It's not common stateside.
Soured cream (UK) = Sour Cream (US)
Bangers (UK) = Sausage (US)
Mash (UK) = Mashed potatoes (US)
Fairy Cake (UK) = Cupcake (US)
Jam Roly-Poly (UK) = Jelly Roll/Jelly Roll Cake (US)
Whelk (UK) = Snail (US)
Kebab/Kebap (UK) is doner kebab. In the US, if you say kebab, people think you mean shish kebab (served on a stick).
Milky tea (US) = Tea with milk (US)
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britishbroccoli wrote: »Pastie (UK) = Empanada or Calzone are closest (US) but not quite.
Pastie (US) = Nipple cover for exotic dancers. What's the British word for that?
(I dare anyone to google image search this. You get a nice selection of delicious looking pastries mixed with near-naked women. LOL)0 -
Nipple covers or tassels0
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lisaabenjamin wrote: »lynn_glenmont wrote: »Beckilovespizza wrote: »I went to Michigan once and had 'biscuits' for breakfast they were like English muffins (also just known as muffins here in the UK). I was totally expecting Rich Tea biccies or equivalent.
Either (1) they were out of biscuits and just substituted an English muffin without telling you, or (2) they made really bad biscuits (but even in Michigan, which I don't think qualifies as the biscuit capital of the U.S., a bad biscuit should be readily distinguishable from an English muffin -- it has a lot more fat in it, so the texture is very different --a biscuit is closer to a croissant than to an English muffin), or (3) your unfortunate foreign palate lacks the ability to distinguish between a (U.S.) biscuit and a (U.S.) English muffin -- rather like a non-native English speaker whose native tongue doesn't have the same set of phonemes as English, so they have lost the ability they were born with to hear and pronounce "r" and "l" or "b" and "v" as different sounds. If the latter is the case, I weep for you. A (U.S.) biscuit can be a sublime thing, all flaky and tender, still warm from oven, not really needing butter but able to dance with the butter to greater gustatory heights than either could achieve on its own. Sigh.
Maybe our British palates can't tell the difference between a US "biscuit" and a so-called "English" muffin, but I think Beckilovespizza was trying to make the point that a "biscuit" in the UK is actually what Americans would call a cookie. That would be weird for breakfast. (Then again, in the US, maybe not).
Oh, I got that point. I just didn't want the comment to mislead people as to what a U.S. biscuit is. It's not remotely similar to what is called an "English muffin" in the U.S.
Biscuit: high fat for a bread product, tender, flaky, frequently served with "red-eye" or sausage gravy, at home both at breakfast and dinner, usually baked on site if you're getting it at restaurant (if it's not baked on site, don't bother -- and don't bother with the pitiful refrigerated cylinders of biscuits found in the grocery store).
"English muffin": much less fat, known for "nooks and crannies," usually served toasted with butter and/or jam or as the bottom layer of eggs benedict, pretty much only served for breakfast, practically never baked on site if you're getting it at a restaurant (come to think of it, I don't think I've ever seen an English muffin that wasn't the packaged product of a commercial/industrial bakery, as opposed to one freshly baked by a home cook, restaurant, or retail bakery that does its own in-house baking).
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DawnieB1977 wrote: »UK-US
herbal infusion - herbal tea - this is for those that solely for drinking
tisane - still called herbal tea - this is for those that are supposed to be medicinal
Oh, and to add to the fun apple cider issue, in the USA, we also have something called Apple Jack - where you take alcoholic (hard) apple cider and cool it to freezing, skimming of the ice that forms and therefore raising the alcohol content.
Rootbeer (a soda) is an American thing that you don't really find in the UK - most UK folks I know who tried it when they came to American thought it tasted like cough syrup.
Most common chocolate in the UK: cadbury
Most common chocolate in the US: Hershey's
I thought root beer was like our ginger beer? I've never tried it in the US though.
Jacket potato (UK) = baked potato (US)
I always used to wonder what a biscuit was in the US! When I read a book and they'd have biscuits and gravy. I thought it would be a bit weird pouring gravy over a custard cream! I think gravy is different too, more creamy in the US?
Root beer -- traditionally it was brewed from a combination of lots of different roots, including birch and sassafras and sasparilla (or however it's spelled). I think most of the root beer sold in the U.S. today is just flavorings -- no real roots or brewing involved. I don't think there's any ginger (or ginger flavor) in root bear. I think if you didn't grow up drinking it, it would probably taste medicinal.
Gravy: it can mean a number of different things in various regions and cooking cultures of the U.S., including a long-simmered tomato-based sauce (called gravy by many Italian-American families, or more broadly in regions that have a large Italian-American population) or the fat and crisp cooked bits left in the pan after cooking sausage or ham (possibly steak or pork steaks as well), loosened with milk, cream, or coffee, and cooked to thicken (by reducing the liquid) (I tend to think of this as southern, but it may be more widespread).
Most typically in the U.S. gravy means the drippings (fat and juices) of a roast or bird, thickened with flour (in the U.S., flour generally means milled wheat unless otherwise specified -- I don't know if that's a given in other English-speaking countries) and cooked long enough so the flour isn't raw, perhaps thinned with water, stock, or additional pan juices, if you separated the fat and juices before starting, and seasoned with salt and pepper (and if you didn't have a flavorful piece of meat to begin with, some people with add bouillon cubes/granules or worcestershire sauce, etc.). If it's made from a bird (turkey, chicken, etc.), chopped cooked organs such as the heart and gizzard can be added, and the result is known as giblet gravy. I'm not sure what exactly would make it more "creamy" -- the fat and the starch create the "mouth feel" of richness (fat) and thickness (starch), and proper technique renders it smooth rather than lumpy.
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lisaabenjamin wrote: »Cheese (uk) = processed plastic (US)
I was going to say exactly the same thing yesterday when I first looked at this thread, but was too scared!0 -
WhoWasGivenToFly wrote: »not to mention the different names for foods within the US
pop/soda/coke
hoagies/sub/grinder
gravy/sauce
stuffed cabbage/pigs in a blanket
and Tylenol is a brand name for acetometaphin
I digress.....
Hunh? Every time I've ever seen pigs in a blanket, they were an appetizer of mini hot dogs that had been cooked in some kind of flaky pastry that was wrapped around them, and I've never had cabbage that was stuffed with hot dogs -- usually loose meat like ground beef (mince) or ground sausage, plus onions, etc., usually topped with tomato sauce, and served as a main dish. I don't think the two dishes have anything to do with each other.
And in my neck of the woods, it's not a grinder unless it goes through the oven (generally a pizza oven) after being assembled, and hoagies don't go in the oven. Subs can swing either way, although even if they're hot, they often don't go through an oven as hot as a pizza oven.0 -
UK: Dairy Milk, Cadbury's Roses, Twix, Kitkats etc = normal everyday chocolate that is considered cheap and definitely not posh high end chocolate.
US: the same brands of UK chocolate are considered gourmet high end chocolate with prices to match. At least it was in a shop I once visited in Carmel, where a box of Roses was about $20 and Twixes were about $5 each, which I found hilarious. Or maybe that's just Carmel...0 -
LeslieTSUK wrote: »bubble and squeak = sausage and mash
...
hotpot = meat n potato pie with no pastry base
...
Not where I come from:
Bubble and squeak is fried potatoes and cabbage (and whatever other veggies left overs)
Hot pot is a stew, not a pie0 -
britishbroccoli wrote: »Brown Sauce (UK) = Steak sauce, sorta (US). There's no exact eqiuv. in the US.
Salad Cream (UK) = Salad Dressing, sorta (US). There's no exact equiv. in the US. Tastes a bit like mayo.
Pastie (UK) = Empanada or Calzone are closest (US) but not quite.
ploughman's pickle/ Branston pickle (UK) = Chutney/Pickled Chutney/Relish (US). It's not common stateside.
Soured cream (UK) = Sour Cream (US)
Bangers (UK) = Sausage (US)
Mash (UK) = Mashed potatoes (US)
Fairy Cake (UK) = Cupcake (US)
Jam Roly-Poly (UK) = Jelly Roll/Jelly Roll Cake (US)
Whelk (UK) = Snail (US)
Kebab/Kebap (UK) is doner kebab. In the US, if you say kebab, people think you mean shish kebab (served on a stick).
Milky tea (US) = Tea with milk (US)
"Bangers" is just slang for sausage in the UK. We still call them sausages.
I would say a US jelly roll is more like a UK jam swiss roll, whereas jam roly-poly is a specific pudding (US=dessert!), a bit like a jam swiss roll but made from suet, steamed and served hot with custard.
Whelks are a specific type of sea-snail. We would still call land snails 'snails'.
The tea one? That's just a different way of saying the same thing, so I disagree that's a US/UK difference. I find it funny that Americans think we drink tea without milk and with lemon instead though - that's actually pretty rare.
But YES to the fairy cake/cupcake thing! Man the 'cupcake' revolution in the UK drives me mad. They're FAIRY CAKES.
Some UK regional variations for a bread roll: roll, bun, bap, batch, barm, barm cake, cob.
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britishbroccoli wrote: »Salad Cream (UK) = Salad Dressing, sorta (US). There's no exact equiv. in the US. Tastes a bit like mayo.
Whelk (UK) = Snail (US)
There's a brand called Miracle Whip in the U.S. that is essentially mayo with sugar in it, I think (I don't like it, so I don't know for sure) - is that "salad cream"?
Whelks -- there is a (not very commonly available) food called whelk in the U.S.; it's a sea creature, I guess you could call it a shell fish, since it lives in a shell (very pretty shell; we used to be very happy when we found one on the beach as children). Something like abalone or scallops, I think; I don't remember ever actually eating one. Or is the whelk in the U.K. a sea snail? When you say snail in the U.S., people generally assume you mean a land snail. And in the U.S. people generally call land snails "escargots" when they eat them.
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Heavy Whipping Cream (US) = Whipping cream (UK)
Double cream (UK) = no equivalent ? (>=48% fat)0 -
dammitjanet0161 wrote: »UK: Dairy Milk, Cadbury's Roses, Twix, Kitkats etc = normal everyday chocolate that is considered cheap and definitely not posh high end chocolate.
US: the same brands of UK chocolate are considered gourmet high end chocolate with prices to match. At least it was in a shop I once visited in Carmel, where a box of Roses was about $20 and Twixes were about $5 each, which I found hilarious. Or maybe that's just Carmel...
I think that's probably just cos Cadbury's chocolate is imported to the US - I don't *think* they make Cadbury's there? Carmel is a super-posh area so everything would be more expensive there!!
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Heavy Whipping Cream (US) = Whipping cream (UK)
Double cream (UK) = no equivalent ? (>=48% fat)
Half & Half is another for which I didn't think there was a UK equivalent. Here's a useful chart though:
US:
Nonfat milk: 0%-1%
1% milk: 1%-2%
Lowfat milk: 2%-4%
Whole milk: 4%
Half-and-half: 12%-15%
Light cream: 18%-30% (generally unavailable)
Whipping cream: 30%-36%
Heavy whipping cream: 36%-44%
Manufacturer's cream: 44%+
UK:
Skimmed milk: 0%
Low-fat milk: 2%
Homo milk: 4%
Half cream: 12%
Single cream: 18%
Whipping cream: 35%
Double cream: 48%0
This discussion has been closed.
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