My mom has discovered the joys of recipe-trading via the 'net, and has recently come into possession of a few British recipes which use odd measurements, to wit, “X”. Examples:
5X Eggs
2X Cream
Now, “5X Eggs” obviously means “5 eggs”–but what the hell is 2X cream? I suggested that it could be either “2 cups of cream,” or maybe “double cream” (an English specialty), but what if it’s “2 tablespoons cream” or “2 hogsheads of cream”?
Any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated and forwarded to my grateful mom. Thanks!
I don’t know the answer, and I’ve got another British cooking question. Just what is “castor sugar”? Powdered sugar? Something we don’t get in the States?
Casdave, off the top of my head, I think that we Americans have half-and-half (half cream, half whole milk, usually used in coffee), light cream, and heavy cream. So I’m going to guess that AkashJ’s mom wants to use heavy cream in her recipe. However, we still don’t know how much cream she should use.
AkashJ, thanks for the link, though I haven’t clicked on it yet. I have a copy of Nanny Ogg’s Cookbook, which has British ingredients and measures in it. It has such tasty treats as “dried frog pills” listed, though I have been cheating and using margarita flavored Jelly Bellies and just labeling them as dried frog pills. So far, I haven’t had a single dissatisfied customer.
I thought that castor sugar was more like icing sugar. I also think that your recipe is calling for double cream, the Devon specialty. Can’t get the exact equivalent in Canada since marks and Spencer closed here, but whipping cream should do the trick.
You are thinking of clotted cream, which is not quite the same thing.
You can beat double cream up into a thick consistancy and it does ok as a substitute but it is not the same thing.
Icing sugar is very fine indeed, more like dust, and I would not advise it for use in cooking for fear of lumps forming and caremelising when it sticks to the pan.The merest hint of dampness and it will lump together.
I should preface this by saying this is ‘advice’ from a batchelor who doesn’t have a stove or microwave, so if I were you, I’d take it well, with a pinch of salt.
Assuming this recipe originally came from a book, there would have been measurement conventions. For this kind of liquidy stuff I think the convention would have been in either flat table spoons (as opposed to heaped table spoons or tea spoons) or cups (not brassiere’s). ‘Cups’ are not mugs but like china tea cup size.
The above is a shot in the dark, best I can come up with. God luck!
London Calling, how do you heap a tbsp of cream? Hmm?
To get an approximation of castor sugar, put ordinary granulated sugar in the food processor and process until fine. I don’t bother to keep castor sugar in the house - most recipes do just fine with the coarse stuff.
What’s in the rest of the recipe? I don’t agree that it is necessarily Double cream because if I were abbreviating a recipe I would abbreviate the quantities the same way so if it is 5X eggs then I think it should be 2X tsp or tbps of cream. Or cups. Or buckets.
Your mother may also find that the cup measures are different. Aus uses metric measures with a 250 ml cup, 125 ml half cup, a 20 ml T (tablespoon) and a 5 ml t (teaspoon), and I think, (but do not know) that the Brits do likewise. However, unless it has changed recently, the US metric cup is 225 ml, the half cup 120 ml, the T 15 ml and the t 5ml.
I think 2Xcream is intended to be double cream, but if so, its an inconvenient convention. If it is in the same recipe as the eggs, maybe it is 2 containers of cream.
I suggest your mother contact the person from whom she got the recipe and ask for clarification before there is a terrible bubbling noise from the kitchen and a feral souffle starts glopping out the doorway.
(I’ll be back in a minute, I think I hear something from the back of the house…)
Hey, you’re asking me - of course, you are right. The convention must be flat tablespoons unless otherwise indicated. But as stated, an English bachelor is some way down the culinary food chain – you are advised to use the advice advisedly.
I found a recipie page with a crapload of xs, and I doubt 2x cream means double cream, unless there’s such a thing as “triple shrimp marinade” and “quintuple eggs”. JavaMaven1 is a culinary student and if he doesn’t know he should be able to find out. He posted last night in the “taste memory” thread, so he’s obviously still around. You can e-mail him directly or you might want to ressurect his Ask the culinary school student! thread.
