American cookery terms

as many of you know i'm an american expat that's been in scotland for just shy of 7 years now

i've often answered questions concerning conversion between weights and measures and food substitutions or 'what exactly IS 'XXX'?' type questions

i thought i'd start this thread to offer anyone to ask any of those questions you've been wanting to know because let's face it, at least 80% of recipes online are american based (sad but true!)

also, i got a pm asking for help, and couldn't actually send my reply because the recipients pm box is full... hope you don't mind me posting it here akronite babe, i thought it would be a good starting place

arkonite_babe wrote:

Hi holsale,

hope you don't mind, but I wondered if you could help me out on clarifying a few american cookery terms??

I have a muffin recipe book and in it one of the recipes I want to try asks for shortening. What is it?? I have no idea and I don't want to substitute anything else incase it messes up the recipe.

Thanks in advance!!


arkonite_babe

shortening is weird! it's the consistency of not quite room temperature butter but it's actually oil... it's thick and white (normally)... i just use butter (not margerine)

as for muffins and shortening, ewwwww

i'd recommend plain old veg oil instead, or again butter...

feel free to ask me about american stuff any time

c