hamlrt

Hello there ,
Well i have been brushing up on my '' idiots guide'' to the U.S books .
And i am steeling myself for the horrors of a american proffessional kitchen
And i cant get my head around the '' one cup of '' flour/ eggs/milk/ breadcrumbs whatever.
How many ounces/grams is ''one cup of ''
What the hell is Cilantro is it Coriander ?
Is suet called suet or something different
Does Custard powder exist ?

Any help on U.S culinary terms would be appreciated

John

avanutria

Conversions: http://www.nutribase.com/convert.shtml . Some will help, some will not. Use measuring cups in various sizes (1, 1/2, 1/3, 1/4 etc) for dry items like flour and sugar and a measuring cup with a spout and gradations on the side for liquids. I've never been asked for "a cup of eggs" and I have lived in the US for a long time.

Cilantro: Google suggests http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coriander which says "The leaves are variously referred to as coriander leaves, Chinese parsley, cilantro (in America, from the Spanish for the plant)."

The only suet I know of is the stuff you put in bird feeders. http://www.ochef.com/657.htm suggests substituting solid vegetable shortening for this rare cooking ingredient.

Custard powder as you know it doesn't exist to my knowledge. Try buying it from UK-food websites in the US or (at the risk of getting flamed by brits) try Jell-o vanilla pudding powder, which may be the closest you'll get.

traceym

One cup = 8oz. liquid or solids (as far as I can tell) nothing I've measured has gone wrong.
Cilantro = Coriander
Suet is minced beef fat, I've not seen it for sale here (except for stupid money in the Brit stores and then for some reason its low fat stuff.) Find a friendly butcher.
Custard powder is a brit thing, but if your working in a professional kitchen cant you make your own? If not Ethnic aisles in most supermarkets sell Birds Custard Powder.

As with most things here google is your friend, there's a recipe thread in the lounge maybe there's lots of answers in there too, good luck, its a nightmare at first, but you soon get used to it.

Sally Redux

Not culinary, but a cautionary tale - putting something "in the bin" means it should go in a storage locker, not in the trash. Luckily I realised my mistake in time

paddingtongreen

Careful. A cup is volume. 8oz liquid but weight varies. the standard conversion for flour is 5oz to the cup. There are some great digital scales, get one and use the British recipes. Suet is the dense fat around the kidneys, these days you have to find a butcher who actually cuts the carcasses.

Birds custard is atrocious, make a real egg custard.

traceym

Not in my kitchen, just chuck it in, seems to work!

MrEmjoy

Sadly not the case.

A cup of flour for instance is between 4 and 6 ounces depending on the type of flour and how/if you sift it, humidity etc.

A cup of rice can be just as tricky, coming in between 5 and 7 depending on what kind of rice it is.

The list goes on. My advice, by some scales and use a website such as Allrecipes.com to do the conversions.

MrEmjoy

Beat me to it. But don't knock all the yank recipe, not all of them call for 'One pack of cake mix' or '3 liters of Velveta'

traceym

There see I know nothing, but the only thing I measure / weigh is water and flour for the bread machine as I said everything else is chuck it in, never owned any scales, I use the guessology method

MrEmjoy

As long as you are happy with the results that's OK.

Before I went back to mixing by hand I'd stand over the bread mixer and add a little more flour or water until the dough felt right, which if you're making bread is good to know. Especially if you're guesstimating

traceym

Parents and sister were all chefs its how I've grown up, I really didnt know about the volume liquid thing (mind it sounds a bit too much lice science to me, I was off school the day they did science, ask me one on treacle sponge! )

MsElui

i just weigh if i need ounces - i brought my english scales with me.

Watch out for pint measurements - an English pint is 20fl ounces.
An American pint is 16 fl ounces or 2 cups.

suet - can get from a real butchers (i have gotten it in a packet at the butchers dept in the supermarket - but i had to ask. I grated off what i needed nd froze the rest for later. Nowadays - I just get relatives to bring me atora suet over when i can or buy in emergencies from Amazon.

tonrob

Have you heard of Google or are you just trying to make conversation?

MrEmjoy

Google is no match for hands on experience.

Be nice or the sprout gets it!

helwardman

The coriander you will know from the UK is the powdered seed. Cilantro is the chopped leaf.