American cookery terms

AussieLass

What's passata? I definatly need to get out more.

thriftlady_2

I have an excellent book called American Cooking in England by Delora Jones.She's an American living over here.

This book says that 'tomato sauce' is almost indistinguishable from passata(sieved tomatoes), and that 'tomato paste' in US recipes is the same as tomato puree.

Here's a link to the book if anyone's interested.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0953355705/qid=1149245084/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl/026-4355519-1659606

OGB03

Hello all. I was wondering if anyone could help me with some products that I haven't been able to find over here:

Betty Crocker - Marble Cake Mix & Yellow Cake Mix & Corn Bread Mix

Aunt Jemimas - Pancake Mix & Syrup

Jello

Hawaiian Punch

Is there an American ex-pat shop that I don't know about in London that sells these items? I don't really want to buy the items over the internet, I'd rather go shopping myself. Much more fun.;)

whistler-alison

casper6116 wrote:

I have some recipes from an american cookbook that require 'tomato sauce', usually says an 8 oz can of tomato sauce, in recipes for dishes like chicken cacciatore. Any ideas what this is?

Hi - I have asked this before of an american friend and she says it is a plain cooked tomato sauce, so in the past I have simmered passata for 20 minutes before using it just to take the rawness off and thicken it up. Frankly though, I don't know if I would bother with chicken cacciatore. I just make make that with passata or tinned tomatoes anyway - it cooks long enough to thicken up on it's own. I've found that the Heinz tomato in the jars is quite thick and rich (can't remember if they call it passata or something else).

halloweenqueen_2

I make passatta with tomato puree 1 part puree to roughly 4 parts water.
Betty crocker - gorgeous cake mixes but expensive here, nothing quite like their yellow cake mix!!
However if you are looking for a very good betty crocker like chocolate sponge, you might try www.topsecretrecipes.com and look for the duncan hines, moist choclate cake recipe. You can make up a dry batch the same as it would be in the packet and use it when you want.

Topher

I have quite a few American recipes, and although I have appropriate cup measures, I recently realised that their teaspoons and Tablespoons may well be of a different size to the British ones. Does anyone know if .....
a) My guess is correct
b) There is an easy way to convert or find equivalents (given that weight isn't appropriate when comparing say a teaspoon of baking powder with a teaspoon of Golden syrup.)
c) Where I could buy American measures or actual teaspoons & Tablespoons.
..... ?

Topher

Thistle-down

just found this:

One British teaspoon is the same as an American teaspoon
One British tablespoon liquid = 17.7ml
One US tablespoon liquid =14.2ml

I would try to buy a measuring set off of the US ebay - prices should be reasonable right now with the dollar being so low, and a set of spoons won't cost much to ship.

Churchmouse

My british measuring spoon is 15 mls for a tablespoon, close enouh to USA not to matter.

thriftlady_2

They are different but so close as to make no difference. I use a lot of US recipes and always use 15 ml tbsp and 5 ml tsp and have never had any problems with recipes.

This thread is useful http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=160645

jordylass

I'm surprised, I used to own a house out there and i had to take teaspoons from here as their teaspoons were just a tiny bit smaller than our tablespoons.