I agree with you, **jjimm **- I’ve always called it a bacon press too, and seen it referred to that way in catalogs and such.
When watching Two Fat Ladies mention was made of demerara sugar. I looked it up, and it’s brown sugar. Is it a very specific type of brown sugar, or do Brits use that term for brown sugar in general?
We have ‘regular’ brown sugar which I think is just granulated with coloring, demarara which has a specific taste to it (though back in the day these two terms were interchangeable), soft brown sugar, dark muscovado and probably others.
From how I understand it, regular brown sugar is refined sugar with molasses added, and demerara/turbinado sugar is stopped just short of fully refined sugar so that it maintains some of its natural molasses. We can’t ever figure out how to keep brown sugar around when we need it; we used to either need it and not have it, or buy some when we needed it, leading to several bags in the house at once. Now we just use a little less white sugar and add some molasses.
Would people keep both around? Or could she have just used the word as a synonym for regular brown sugar?
In the US we have light brown sugar and dark brown sugar, one has less molasses, I’d never heard of demerara until that show.
Demerara is called turbinado sugar in the US; most people might encounter it in coffee shops in little brown packets under the Sugar In the Raw brand.
If I’d keep it in my cupboard, I’d probably use it for sweetening coffee. It doesn’t seem to clump and harden, unlike most baking-style brown sugar that I have, so that would be nice for that purpose. (I have both light and dark brown sugar at home.)
I don’t know about other US Dopers, but I associate it with the “natural foods” crowd, who probably don’t realize how processed it still is. Same people I’d associate with agave nectar, the sweetener du jour for the trendy health crowd. I’d WAG that there are people who use turbinado/demerara around and use it in place of white sugar. No evidence for this, just my experience with those people.
The Brits will have to weigh in also, my only experience with demerara is in those crazy across-the-pond cookbooks with recipes measured in grams and calling for such crazy ingredients as “capsicums” and “aubergines”. It seemed to replace brown sugar in recipes, but I’m not sure if they keep both around.
Which definitely wouldn’t fit either one of the “Two Fat Ladies.”
I guess I’ll have to try to catch the episode again and see if what she used was granular or clumped like brown sugar.
If they’re talking about demarara, it’ll definitely be brown and granulated. The clumping stuff I have in my kitchen is labeled “Light brown muscovado”.
I think the difference between the US and UK versions is that turbinado seems to have larger crystals. If converting between the two, any measurements done in volume (rather than weight) would need to be checked to make sure they’re equivalent.
Hijack: It’s not well known among most people, but the two major brands of kosher (aka koshering) salt in the US have quite different crystal sizes - the link gives 1 c of table salt as being equal to 1.5 c of Morton’s kosher salt, but 2 c of Diamond Crystal kosher salt. Measuring by weight is easier but most “average” American kitchens don’t have a kitchen scale.
Bump: this project is back on track.
New question: would “sausage-shaped” be understood by US cooks? By that I mean a cylinder rounded at both ends, like a hot dog.
I think so. Sausages/hot dogs are pretty common.
Next Q: Google and Wikipedia are letting me down - which is the most recognizable US term for the peppery leaf: aragula or rucola?
Thanks - would “hot-dog-shaped” be better though? “Sausage-shaped” is really common in UK English but your “I think so” makes it sound like it’s not totally common where you are. Is there another, better term?
Arugula. I’ve never heard it spelled rucola, and I’m a food nerd.
“Hot-dog-shaped” versus “sausage-shaped”: What comes to mind with hot-dog-shaped is a thin, straight cylinder. Sausage-shaped implies thicker, and may be slightly curved or straight. Really, either would work, but I’d go with sausage-shaped as it’s more generic, unless you specifically mean a thin straight tube.
Arugula by a landslide, though a fair percentage won’t know what that is either, other than a vague awareness that it’s some kind fancyish salad thingummy.
Hey chaoticbear!
I have granulated white sugar (for tea), Demerara sugar (for coffee), and white caster sugar, icing sugar (called Confectioners’ or powdered sugar in the USA, I believe) and dark Muscovado sugar (for baking) in my cupboard. I also have Golden syrup and Treacle, mostly used for drizzling over porridge, but occasionally for baking.
I am not a weird hippie.
I like the way different sugars taste, and the different types are useful for different jobs.
The smaller crystals of caster sugar are good for baking, I use white caster sugar for things like Victoria Sponge or fairy cakes, and muscovado for a dense fruitcake or ginger cake.
jjimm, if the UK baking recipes call for weights of caster sugar, there may need to be some experimentation to translate that to an appropriate volume of granulated sugar for the US market, in order to get the recipes to work properly.
As the caster sugar has smaller crystals it packs much more tightly than granulated sugar, and most UK baking recipes use caster sugar, which I am given to understand doesn’t exist in the USA.
Just a thought.
Isn’t it the same as superfine sugar?
OMGWTFBBQ. This is like eating McDonald’s in Japan. So close, but so far away.
Next up: parboil.
Is there a commonly-understood US equivalent term? Or is it the same?