# Brit-speak: if Chips==Fries, then ??==Chips **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 16, 2005, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brit-speak-if-chips-fries-then-chips/304099 "2005-05-16T17:53:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![OxyMoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e9a140/32.png) [@OxyMoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OxyMoron)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2005, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brit-speak-if-chips-fries-then-chips/304099/61 "2005-05-17T15:16:53Z")
> [@SentientMeat](#): > > IIRC, ‘biscuits’ in the US are less like our scones and more like enormous Yorkshire puddings. Oh dear, no, not at all. The closest item in US cookery to a Yorkshire pudding is the popover, which is basically an individually-sized Yorkshire minus the meat drippings (and thus, to my mind, minus any reason for existing). I think the better analogy is to a scone, or to a dumpling that’s baked rather than stewed. [Hijack]I know that lately the UK has become much more cosmopolitan about food, but I still recall a very funny story from a friend who was a freshman at Oberlin College, Ohio, in 1983. He was standing behind a British exchange student at the cafeteria, who, with much hesitation, asked: “What are…RAY-vee-OH-LYE?”[/hijack] ---
**Author:** ![OxyMoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e9a140/32.png) [@OxyMoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OxyMoron)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2005, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brit-speak-if-chips-fries-then-chips/304099/62 "2005-05-17T15:20:36Z")
P.S. That might’ve come across rather condescending - I didn’t mean that at all, certainly much of the US wasn’t much better 22 years ago! But I do think that the US “food revolution” started a bit sooner than Britain’s. Oh, and I should’ve referred to **Chefguy** on the dumpling analogy. ---
**Author:** ![anson2995](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@anson2995](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anson2995)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2005, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brit-speak-if-chips-fries-then-chips/304099/63 "2005-05-17T15:40:37Z")
> [@Jeff Lichtman](#): > > As for potato crisps (American chips) served with a meal, this is most often done in places like school cafeterias that serve ready-made sandwiches. These places don’t have the facilities to make chips (fries). Most places that sell burgers also sell chips (fries) rather than crisps (chips). In my experience, any time that you order a sandwich in an American restaurant without an accompanying side dish it will come with chips (british crisps). Much of the time you will also be served a slice of pickle. You aren’t charged for either… it just comes with the sandwich. This is not the practice in fast food restaurants or when ordering a sandwich at a deli, but it is standard practice at diners or other establishments where you sit at a table and are served. Also… maybe it’s a regional difference, but in the areas where I’ve lived the schools all serve hot lunches, and french fries (british chips) are a staple. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2005, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brit-speak-if-chips-fries-then-chips/304099/64 "2005-05-17T15:42:57Z")
> [@OxyMoron](#): > > Oh dear, no, not at all. The closest item in US cookery to a Yorkshire pudding is the popover, which is basically an individually-sized Yorkshire minus the meat drippings (and thus, to my mind, minus any reason for existing). I think the better analogy is to a scone, or to a dumpling that’s baked rather than stewed. Yep. Popovers are like Yorkshire pudding and nothing at all like biscuits. But even in the US, popovers are a regional thing-- you won’t find them much outside New England (no pun intended). As for “maize”, from eariler, just about the only time you’d hear someone use that term in the US would be of you were talking about Native Americans-- ie, “The Indians grew maize, which we call corn…” ---
**Author:** ![OxyMoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e9a140/32.png) [@OxyMoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OxyMoron)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2005, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brit-speak-if-chips-fries-then-chips/304099/65 "2005-05-17T15:51:05Z")
> [@John Mace](#): > > Yep. Popovers are like Yorkshire pudding and nothing at all like biscuits. But even in the US, popovers are a regional thing-- you won’t find them much outside New England (no pun intended). > > As for “maize”, from eariler, just about the only time you’d hear someone use that term in the US would be of you were talking about Native Americans-- ie, “The Indians grew maize, which we call corn…” Come to think of it, I can think of one other context, though it may be regional. While driving with my grandfather in Texas, I can recall him pointing to fields of what looked like scrawny, green versions of corn - and calling them “maize.” I believe his explanation was that this was a special type of corn grown for animal feed. Looking back, I wonder if this feed crop is a closer relative to the ancestral maize strains. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2005, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brit-speak-if-chips-fries-then-chips/304099/66 "2005-05-17T16:27:06Z")
> [@John Mace](#): > > [Biscuits](http://www.kountrylife.com/content/rec105.htm), American style. An [image](http://photos2.flickr.com/1391594_15a763a08e.jpg) of biscuits. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2005, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brit-speak-if-chips-fries-then-chips/304099/67 "2005-05-17T16:34:09Z")
And the proper way to serve [biscuits and gravy.](http://www.rad2020.com/biscuits_and_gravy.htm)😃 ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2005, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brit-speak-if-chips-fries-then-chips/304099/68 "2005-05-17T16:37:51Z")
> [@Jeff Lichtman](#): > > In my experience, Americans rarely use the word “maize,” regardless of what type of corn we’re talking about. To us, “maize” is the British word for corn. We don’t use the word “maize” to refer to Indian corn. The students of the University of Michigan, however, when you refer to their school colors as “blue and yellow.” “It’s MAIZE AND BLUE,” I’ve been told. It’s very annoying, because I for what have no idea what color “maize” is. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2005, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brit-speak-if-chips-fries-then-chips/304099/69 "2005-05-17T16:45:54Z")
> [@Bambi Hassenpfeffer](#): > > Apple cider and apple juice are distinct from each other. Juice has had the pulp filtered completely out, and cider has some of it left in. You’re right about the hard cider, though. Also, apple cider, especially hot cider, is considered a wintertime treat, although you can get it whenever you want it, especially with the advent of specialty coffee shops like Starbucks. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2005, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brit-speak-if-chips-fries-then-chips/304099/70 "2005-05-17T17:05:35Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > And the proper way to serve [biscuits and gravy.](http://www.rad2020.com/biscuits_and_gravy.htm)😃 I think I just had a heart attack looking at that… ---
**Author:** ![OxyMoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e9a140/32.png) [@OxyMoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OxyMoron)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2005, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brit-speak-if-chips-fries-then-chips/304099/71 "2005-05-17T18:18:35Z")
> [@acsenray](#): > > The students of the University of Michigan, however, when you refer to their school colors as “blue and yellow.” “It’s MAIZE AND BLUE,” I’ve been told. It’s very annoying, because I for what have no idea what color “maize” is. My alma mater, Carleton College, has the same two colors. “Maize” apparently means “light yellow,” but you’d never know that from most of the crap you can buy in the bookstore. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2005, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brit-speak-if-chips-fries-then-chips/304099/72 "2005-05-17T18:56:44Z")
> [@Jeff Lichtman](#): > > Most places that sell burgers also sell chips (fries) rather than crisps (chips). In the U.S., any place that sells burgers is almost sure to sell fries as well. While it’s not unheard of to eat chips with a burger, the phrase “burger and fries” is practically written in stone. ---
**Author:** ![Jake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jake)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2005, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brit-speak-if-chips-fries-then-chips/304099/73 "2005-05-17T19:17:21Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > I suppose it might be because we have a couple of cultural equivalents (equivalent in the sense that they are starchy and eaten with gravy); Yorkshire puds and Good Old Bread ‘n’ Gravy. > > I keep meaning to try American biscuits and gravy. Good for you! Make sure it’s sausage gravy though. Thick and creamy. Anybody else reading this thread getting hungry? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2005, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brit-speak-if-chips-fries-then-chips/304099/74 "2005-05-17T19:26:08Z")
Sausage gravy deserves it’s own thread…but genuine sausage gravy will have BCBs in it, scraped up from the pan, and should be hit with a metric buttload of pepper before eating. Homemade gravy over just-out-of-the-oven biscuits is what God has for breakfast! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2005, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brit-speak-if-chips-fries-then-chips/304099/75 "2005-05-17T19:38:25Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Dunno; certainly isn’t popular by that name, although we might have something similar by another; what’s it like? Well, I’ve seen Heinz packets of it. That was whilst I was working at Subway, however, so I’m not sure whether it’s imported or not. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2005, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brit-speak-if-chips-fries-then-chips/304099/76 "2005-05-17T20:39:22Z")
Most gravy in the US is brown gravy, which is, I think, the same on both sides of the pond. It’s made from meat broth (usually beef or turkey, or whatever the meat is with your meal), generally thickened up with some sort of starch. It may also contain gibblets (poultry organs) or bits of actual meat. This is the stuff which is generally served over mashed potatoes, meat, or stuffing. White gravy is made primarily from sausage fat, and will generally leave an uncleanable layer three inches thick in the bottom of the pan when you’re done. It’s the gravy generally used for biscuits and gravy and country fried steak. At places which serve either of these dishes, white gravy might also be used for mashed potatoes: This is often the case at fried chicken places. Incidentally, country fried steak (also called chicken fried steak) is a way of making cheap cuts of meat palatable. You take your steak, tenderize the hell out of it, bread it, deep-fry it, and then serve it with a side of mashed potatoes and white gravy over all of it. Along with meatloaf, it’s one of the two primary staples of diners and truck stops. There’s definitely a difference between apple juice and sweet cider in the US, but nobody seems to agree on what that difference is. Generally, if you buy it at a roadside fruit stand out in the country that grows their own apples, it’s cider, while the big-brand juice box stuff is apple juice. In any event, if it’s fermented, it’s hard cider, and if it’s fermented and then further distilled (most often by freezing), it’s apple jack. And I didn’t know that Brits had dumplings (Americans have those too, and they seem to be the same thing). That makes biscuits much easier to explain, since they are, indeed, essentially the same recipe. ---
**Author:** ![sewalk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@sewalk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sewalk)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2005, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brit-speak-if-chips-fries-then-chips/304099/77 "2005-05-17T23:21:48Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > a spread made from apples is apple butter, but any other fruit spread would be called jelly or jam. Apple butter is quite distinct from apple jelly, which also exists (and is my personal favorite - actually it’s the only flavor of fruit spread besides strawberry jam I’ll eat). Apple butter is actually applesauce, heavily spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg, sugar, and apple pectin for additional body. It’s not too bad but it is quite different from jams, jellies, and preserves because of the heavy spices. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2005, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brit-speak-if-chips-fries-then-chips/304099/78 "2005-05-17T23:40:09Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > And I didn’t know that Brits had dumplings (Americans have those too, and they seem to be the same thing). That makes biscuits much easier to explain, since they are, indeed, essentially the same recipe. Actually, that’s probably not quite true; British dumplings are most often made with fat in the form of shredded suet, which, because it isn’t rubbed into the flour, isn’t as evenly distributed through the dough - when it melts during cooking, it is sort of wicked away into the dough, giving the dumpling a cratered appearance and a slightly open texture. But that’s a fairly minor point; certainly dumplings are also made here with other forms of fat (in fact I made some that way at the weekend), but I’m puzzled - you say the recipe is the same for dumplings and biscuits… but I’m pretty sure if I baked my dumpling dough, I’d have _scones_. Have we ended up back where we started? ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2005, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brit-speak-if-chips-fries-then-chips/304099/79 "2005-05-17T23:51:54Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Most gravy in the US is brown gravy, which is, I think, the same on both sides of the pond… > > White gravy is made primarily from sausage fat, and will generally leave an uncleanable layer three inches thick in the bottom of the pan when you’re done. It’s the gravy generally used for biscuits and gravy and country fried steak. Isn’t there something called “bone gravy,” or “country gravy,” or something like that, which is nothing more than the pan drippings poured into a cup with nothing else done to them (no deglazing, reduction, mounting, etc.)? ---
**Author:** ![sewalk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@sewalk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sewalk)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2005, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brit-speak-if-chips-fries-then-chips/304099/80 "2005-05-18T00:12:05Z")
> [@acsenray](#): > > Isn’t there something called “bone gravy,” or “country gravy,” or something like that, which is nothing more than the pan drippings poured into a cup with nothing else done to them (no deglazing, reduction, mounting, etc.)? Around here, country gravy means white gravy not made from sausage grease. It is often served with fried chicken or , the old Oklahoma staple, chicken fried steak 🆒 . [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brit-speak-if-chips-fries-then-chips/304099.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brit-speak-if-chips-fries-then-chips/304099.md?page=5)