# Lemonade, jelly, and biscuits (and other foods people outside of the US have wrong) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 28, 2009, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lemonade-jelly-and-biscuits-and-other-foods-people-outside-of-the-us-have-wrong/483401 "2009-01-28T17:26:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2009, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lemonade-jelly-and-biscuits-and-other-foods-people-outside-of-the-us-have-wrong/483401/41 "2009-01-28T22:38:36Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > [Digestive biscuit - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digestive_biscuit) So, they’re [not exactly the same thing](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_crackers) after all. Huh. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2009, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lemonade-jelly-and-biscuits-and-other-foods-people-outside-of-the-us-have-wrong/483401/42 "2009-01-28T22:40:12Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > My, what small coins you have? Smarties are much smaller than even a dime. Yes, I think they’re being confused with Necco Wafers, which are a chalky abomination. Smarties are a tart, tasty, food-of-the-gods. ---
**Author:** ![GraceTX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c4cdca/32.png) [@GraceTX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GraceTX)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2009, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lemonade-jelly-and-biscuits-and-other-foods-people-outside-of-the-us-have-wrong/483401/43 "2009-01-28T22:43:47Z")
My husband, **Wash** , is English. The US lemon-lime drinks like Sprite and 7-Up, he calls them lemonade. What we consider lemonade, he calls that old-fashioned lemonade. Not a food item, but the the one that I always find amusing is the difference between fanny (US) and fanny (UK). We use the word to refer to the buttocks and to them it’s women’s genitals. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2009, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lemonade-jelly-and-biscuits-and-other-foods-people-outside-of-the-us-have-wrong/483401/44 "2009-01-28T22:44:32Z")
> [@dmheat](#): > > When we sat down to eat the potatoes were literally mashed potatoes. Just boiled potatoes mashed down on the plate. That’s how my (American) mother usually served potatoes when I was a kid. We put butter or gravy on top, though. Doesn’t British lemonade, in addition to being carbonated, typically contain saccharin? Or am I confusing it with the horrible memory of the saccharin-laced popsicles they sell over there? ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2009, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lemonade-jelly-and-biscuits-and-other-foods-people-outside-of-the-us-have-wrong/483401/45 "2009-01-28T22:48:59Z")
> [@dmheat](#): > > I (an American) used to date a Canadian guy. I live about 15 miles from the US/Canada border, so it wasn’t difficult seeing each other. He invited me over for dinner and was preparing potatoes. He asked me what kind of potatoes I’d like for dinner and we agreed that mashed would be good. > When we sat down to eat the potatoes were literally mashed potatoes. Just boiled potatoes mashed down on the plate. Here in the US, our version also contains milk or cream, butter and salt whipped together with a mixer. > When I questioned this, he said, what us Americans call mashed potatoes, Canadians call creamed potatoes which technically makes more sense. Well, to my (brit) ears, he just sounds like a guy who couldn’t cook. Our mashed potatoes are the same as yours. ‘Creamed’ potatoes, sounds a bit nouveau-restauranty to me. ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2009, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lemonade-jelly-and-biscuits-and-other-foods-people-outside-of-the-us-have-wrong/483401/46 "2009-01-28T22:54:23Z")
> [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](#): > > Doesn’t British lemonade, in addition to being carbonated, typically contain saccharin? Or am I confusing it with the horrible memory of the saccharin-laced popsicles they sell over there? Only the ‘diet’ stuff. Normal lemonade has a bucket full of good old fashioned sugar in it ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2009, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lemonade-jelly-and-biscuits-and-other-foods-people-outside-of-the-us-have-wrong/483401/47 "2009-01-28T22:56:27Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > Aren’t “digestives” graham crackers? I don’t know, do people consider them a type of cookie (or biscuit) or a type of cracker? They don’t come to mind when I think of cookies. I don’t know what Graham’s crackers are, but ‘digestives’ are sweet, so would always be biscuits (cookies), whereas crackers tend to be a savoury biscuit you have with cheese ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2009, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lemonade-jelly-and-biscuits-and-other-foods-people-outside-of-the-us-have-wrong/483401/48 "2009-01-28T23:01:21Z")
> [@Dublin11](#): > > Saying that lemonade is to lemons what orange juice is to oranges and what pineapple juice is to pineapples made no sense to me. > Does it really make sense to you? You’re right, of course. Squeeze an orange, and you have orange juice. Squeeze a pineapple, and you have pineapple juice. Squeeze a lemon, and you have lemon juice. But lemonade is only partially lemon juice, mostly sweetened water. And served very cold, in summer. There is also orangeade and other types of “ade.” ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2009, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lemonade-jelly-and-biscuits-and-other-foods-people-outside-of-the-us-have-wrong/483401/49 "2009-01-28T23:02:41Z")
> [@Brynda](#): > > Every time I use the term “jelly” to a British person, they assume I mean gelatin. Yes, that’s the common usage of the word, it just happens to mean more than one thing. The context tends to make things clear - if it’s a recipe for making from scratch, or something involving quinces, it ain’t a pack of gelatin from the supermarket shelf! > [@SanVito](#): > > Well, to my (brit) ears, he just sounds like a guy who couldn’t cook. Agreed. Although there’s an eternal battle of wills between those who want them pulped versus those who still want a bit of potato texture in there, they should be full of butter and salt! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Sonnenstrahl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@Sonnenstrahl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sonnenstrahl)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2009, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lemonade-jelly-and-biscuits-and-other-foods-people-outside-of-the-us-have-wrong/483401/50 "2009-01-28T23:08:07Z")
Ooh, I have a question. In the UK, is Mars bar ever used as a sort of generic word for a chocolate bar? I get that impression from reading British books. Or is it just that Mars bars are (or were, at some point) wildly popular compared to other types? I’m Canadian and have the same kind of disgusting Mars bars as the UK (the nugget is horrible!), but I’ve never seen them to be particularly prominent in real life. (Also, is the term chocolate bar used in the UK? Or is it candy bar? Or is that American? Gosh, I can’t keep them all straight!) ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2009, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lemonade-jelly-and-biscuits-and-other-foods-people-outside-of-the-us-have-wrong/483401/51 "2009-01-28T23:09:17Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > Agreed. Although there’s an eternal battle of wills between those who want them pulped versus those who still want a bit of potato texture in there, they should be full of butter and salt! 🙂 I have an Irish friend who insists the ‘only’ correct way is with butter and milk. She won’t listen to any alternatives (olive oil, just butter, whatever) because, being Irish, she reckons she’s the only one who can lay the law down on mashed potato. I ignore her. I’m sure we had potatoes first. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2009, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lemonade-jelly-and-biscuits-and-other-foods-people-outside-of-the-us-have-wrong/483401/52 "2009-01-28T23:31:52Z")
> [@Sonnenstrahl](#): > > Ooh, I have a question. In the UK, is Mars bar ever used as a sort of generic word for a chocolate bar? I get that impression from reading British books. Or is it just that Mars bars are (or were, at some point) wildly popular compared to other types? As far as I know, I don’t think it’s ever been a genericism, although others may have reason to disagree. It does hold a certain prominence in the collective memory as a particularly successfully-advertised product in times past, with the now-impermissible slogan ‘A Mars a day helps you work, rest and play’. > [@](#): > > (Also, is the term chocolate bar used in the UK? Or is it candy bar? Or is that American? Gosh, I can’t keep them all straight!) Chocolate bar. Candy is VERY American. > [@SanVito](#): > > I have an Irish friend who insists the ‘only’ correct way is with butter and milk. She won’t listen to any alternatives (olive oil, just butter, whatever) because, being Irish, she reckons she’s the only one who can lay the law down on mashed potato. > > I ignore her. I’m sure we had potatoes first. Butter is necessary. Olive fucking oil? The day you get the Italians to make pesto with butter, I’ll add that to my mash. It just HAS to be dairy, no questions asked. Unless it’s a pinch of white pepper. Or if you’re daring, a crumbling of stilton…wait, that’s dairy, too 😛 ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2009, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lemonade-jelly-and-biscuits-and-other-foods-people-outside-of-the-us-have-wrong/483401/53 "2009-01-28T23:41:05Z")
> [@Kal](#): > > Lemonade is a clear (though there are cloudy yellow and pink versions as well) carbonated lemon flavoured fizzy pop. What you describe would be a lemon squash. Ah, but here, a squash is what you’d call a marrow. Zucchini, things like that. They grow like melons but aren’t sweet. > [@](#): > > KFC here did (might still do for all I know) sell American style biscuits at one time and I loved 'em. Savoury scones, I always thought. I wouldn’t call them savory so much as unsweetened. Though you can add savory to them. They’re great, aren’t they? > [@](#): > > Jelly is a gelatin dessert. What you call jelly is jam. In the states, there are four different words for jam: Jelly: jam with no seeds or skins; this is what we do with grapes because the seeds are bitter. Jam: regular jam; what we do with strawberries & brambles. Preserves: more or less the same thing. Marmalade: sort of jam made from oranges, with bits of peel. Or what [Gary said.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=10754366&postcount=6) ---
**Author:** ![Dublin11](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Dublin11](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dublin11)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2009, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lemonade-jelly-and-biscuits-and-other-foods-people-outside-of-the-us-have-wrong/483401/54 "2009-01-28T23:47:27Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > Chocolate bar. Candy is VERY American. I agree with you that a candy bar sounds American to me, too. But I think that British people in real life call the item in question “a bar of chocolate” far more often than they call it a “a chocolate bar”. Irish people tend to call it “a chocolate bar”. Sometimes just a bar. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2009, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lemonade-jelly-and-biscuits-and-other-foods-people-outside-of-the-us-have-wrong/483401/55 "2009-01-28T23:56:44Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#): > > Ah, but here, a squash is what you’d call a marrow. Zucchini, things like that. They grow like melons but aren’t sweet.] Marrows are huge things, beloved of competitive gardeners but nobody ever talks about eating the things. I always assumed zucchini=courgette, but I may be wrong. If I heard ‘squash’ mentioned by a Brit, by itself, in a culinary context, I’d probably assume butternut. ‘They grow like melons’ doesn’t help much for Britons - AFAIK, melons need a warmer climate. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2009, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lemonade-jelly-and-biscuits-and-other-foods-people-outside-of-the-us-have-wrong/483401/56 "2009-01-28T23:58:15Z")
> [@Dublin11](#): > > But I think that British people in real life call the item in question “a bar of chocolate” far more often than they call it a “a chocolate bar”. > Irish people tend to call it “a chocolate bar”. Sometimes just a bar. Ah, now, ‘a bar of chocolate’ would to me mean a slab of Dairy Milk or similar, not Mars Bar-shaped item. ---
**Author:** ![Dublin11](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Dublin11](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dublin11)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2009, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lemonade-jelly-and-biscuits-and-other-foods-people-outside-of-the-us-have-wrong/483401/57 "2009-01-29T00:08:12Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > Ah, now, ‘a bar of chocolate’ would to me mean a slab of Dairy Milk or similar, not Mars Bar-shaped item. Heee! You’re very particular, aren’t you?! Where do you draw the line? What’s a Fudge? A Milky Way? A Curly Wurly? A Freddo? Or do you have a different name for all the shapes? That said, I’d never call a Walnut Whip a bar of chocolate. Nor a Creme Egg. Nor those giant single Quality Street ones. I’m trying to think what I would call them. But nothing’s coming to me, so I suppose I’d just call them by their actual name. ---
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2009, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lemonade-jelly-and-biscuits-and-other-foods-people-outside-of-the-us-have-wrong/483401/58 "2009-01-29T00:11:03Z")
Yeah, I must agree on the juice thing. Orange juice, pineapple juice, lemon juice, mango juice, apple juice, lime juice: unsweetened, no-additive, squeezed liquid from a fruit. Lemon juice and lime juice are extremely sour ingredients used as an acid for cooking, sometimes used as a topping for certain things (such as fish). When you squeeze a slice of lemon into your tea, that’s lemon juice. Lemon_ade_ and lime_ade_ are called something different because both are _sweetened_ juices. Orangeade likewise suggests that it isn’t pure orange squeezin’. Don’t ask about grapefruit juice and tomato juice and carrot juice. I have no idea if those have additives. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2009, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lemonade-jelly-and-biscuits-and-other-foods-people-outside-of-the-us-have-wrong/483401/59 "2009-01-29T00:12:09Z")
> [@Dublin11](#): > > Heee! You’re very particular, aren’t you?! > Where do you draw the line? What’s a Fudge? A Milky Way? A Curly Wurly? A Freddo? > Or do you have a different name for all the shapes? > > That said, I’d never call a Walnut Whip a bar of chocolate. Nor a Creme Egg. Nor those giant single Quality Street ones. I’m trying to think what I would call them. But nothing’s coming to me, so I suppose I’d just call them by their actual name. It’s simple. ‘Chocolate bar’ is anything that is vaguely phallic. That does make a Twix an interesting prospect, mind… ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2009, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lemonade-jelly-and-biscuits-and-other-foods-people-outside-of-the-us-have-wrong/483401/60 "2009-01-29T00:16:21Z")
> [@GargoyleWB](#): > > Yes, I think they’re being confused with Necco Wafers, which are a chalky abomination. Smarties are a tart, tasty, food-of-the-gods. No! Not at all! [These are Smarties](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smarties_(Ce_De_Candy)) to an American. Joe [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lemonade-jelly-and-biscuits-and-other-foods-people-outside-of-the-us-have-wrong/483401.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lemonade-jelly-and-biscuits-and-other-foods-people-outside-of-the-us-have-wrong/483401.md?page=4)