I’ve lived in the US and became aware that the difference in terminology in the kitchen is wildly different from what we use in the UK. E.g. skillet = frying pan; broil = grill and many more.
I’m providing a bit of peripheral help in translating a cookery book, with the final output in US English, and there are a few questions I can’t answer with confidence. I suspect most of the terms will be similar to what I understand, but want to double-check. Hoping the many talented American cooks and chefs here can help:
Baking paper. Something that survives oven temperatures and can line, for example, a cake tin to allow the cake to be removed without sticking. This is different to the UK’s “greaseproof paper”, which is waxed and would melt in the oven; not sure if there’s a US equivalent to that.
Oven thermometer. Suspect this one is a shoo-in.
Probe thermometer. Like a meat thermometer with a metal stick that can be pushed into the center of the food, but multi purpose. Not even sure if this exists in the UK without the name “meat thermometer”, but worth a try.
Finally is there a specific term for the burst or split you get on the top of a loaf of bread while it’s cooking, or would “burst” do?
This is what I think of when someone says “probe thermometer”, it’s the one that we have, but when someone says “meat thermometer”, I think of this style, whether analog or digital.
I never knew there was a language difference until just a few weeks ago when I came across it in a thread. To me, a ‘skillet’ is a cast-iron frying pan – but I often call a cast-iron skillet a cast-iron frying pan. A frying pan (to me) is not cast-iron. I have a cast-iron ‘chicken fryer’, which is the same as a cast-iron ‘skillet’ but slightly deeper. (It also has a self-basting lid, which fits on the cast-iron frying pan.)
Kitchen paper = paper towels.
Agree with the parchment.
An oven thermometer is an oven that goes inside the oven, usually attached to the grate (which roomie informs me are called ‘racks’), and used to display the temperature of the oven (as opposed to the temperature of the food).
My wife says she’d use the term “burst” if it happened unintentionally (without cutting the bread top before baking). She says there’s a term for the cuts, perhaps “slash”, but isn’t sure if that’s used both before and after cooking.
I’d consider “skillet” and “frying pan” to be synonymous. “Frying pan” is probably a bit more commonly used, though “cast iron skillet” is more common than “cast iron frying pan”. “Skillet” also sounds a bit more rural. Either will be understood, though.
And I’ve never heard a term for the split on the top of a loaf of bread. As long as you explain what you mean, the readers will probably just say “Oh, so that’s what that’s called”, without realizing it’s a Britishism.
You may want to keep in mind the term “cookery book”, while likely to be understood, will provoke more than a few odd looks. The common U.S. term would be “cookbook”.
Not that this will matter too much, but not only are our pints 16 fluid ounces, our fluid ounce is of a different size than the UK fluid ounce. An Imperial pint is 20 oz. (Imperial), but 19.22 US fluid ounces.
Oh, and measurements in American recipes are often in cups or some fraction thereof. A cup is 8 fluid ounces, or half a pint. And for some reason, we measure almost all ingredients, wet or dry, by volume. The only case where we measure by weight is when we’re using all or half of a package of something that’s sold by weight.
The better baking recipes will give the flour in weight, since flour can easily get “fluffed up”, as it were, and take on a lot of volume.
There’s not many other common ingredients that are used in a large enough amount that really necessitate weight over volume…sugar stays pretty compact, and things like baking powder, cornstarch, etc… are used in small enough amounts that a volumetric measurement is fine.
Maybe this is true that “better” baking recipes do this (I have two shelves full of highly popular reference cookbooks, and none of them do), but most American homes don’t even have a kitchen scale, and it is vanishingly rare for mainstream cookbooks to present a measurement of any kind in weight. Usually for flour they will just say to measure after sifting, if it is important.
Butter is usually sold in a pack of 4 sticks that equal one pound or 16 ounces. This is divided into 4 sticks so a stick is 4 ounces or 113 grams.
Incidentally, the wax paper wrapping on most sticks of butter indicates where to slice it into tablespoons or fractions of a cup (1 stick of butter is 1/2 cup).
Crazy but convenient.
Thus the shorthand of “1 stick of butter” in recipes. The measure would be either 8 tablespoons, 1/2 cup or 4 ounces.