UK/US Translations

[BizBuzz]

Sometimes there is difficulty in understanding British references, so this thread is for those times that there is confusion and there is a need to clarify meanings.

[WyKnott]

Thank you, Thank you,Thank you!

I'm glad we're carrying on the tradition started by the Every Planet Has an Atlantic board on TWoP.

[BizBuzz]

Is fish fingers and custard a real dish?

[HauntedBathroom]

No, although some fans have tried it.

[arizonamyrie]

Ooo thank you for starting this, it was another favorite thread back in the olde country.  *winks*  And amazed to see that food is already being discussed.  It is because of a thread like this that I became hooked on Nutella and lemon curd (thankfully not together), realized baked beans were way too sweet in the US to put on toast, and discovered that I don't necessarily care for the saltiness of Vegemite (which looking back now, I don't think I can even eat).  I have two questions, pick either one:

Speaking of custard - is it true in the UK you can actually buy it premade like they showed in the show? 

Also, how does one explain salt water taffy to someone in the UK?  I was chatting with a friend from there about a year ago - I tried to explain it to her best I could, but I don't think she got past the idea of "salt water" being in the name.  

[BizBuzz]

Shoot, I am American and I never understood why Salt Water Taffy was called that until I moved to Charleston, SC and visited a candy store.  They would make salt water taffy right in front of you so I got brave one day and asked - it seems to go back to a bad storm in New Jersey during the late 1800's where the ocean water soaked all the taffy and as a joke they sold it that way, and people actually liked it, so it began.  Me?  I don't like any candy that sticks to your teeth so I don't eat it (well, except caramel).  I would thank the UK has taffy?  Or something that is chewy?  Anyone?

Custard in a box just sounds oh so gross.  And is it really custard or is it what we call pudding?  It sure looked like pudding when he was dipping fish fingers in it.  Custard is more jello like, wiggly but firm. 

[Altered Reality]

Ooo thank you for starting this, it was another favorite thread back in the olde country.  *winks*  And amazed to see that food is already being discussed.  It is because of a thread like this that I became hooked on Nutella and lemon curd (thankfully not together), realized baked beans were way too sweet in the US to put on toast, and discovered that I don't necessarily care for the saltiness of Vegemite (which looking back now, I don't think I can even eat).  I have two questions, pick either one:

Speaking of custard - is it true in the UK you can actually buy it premade like they showed in the show? 

Also, how does one explain salt water taffy to someone in the UK?  I was chatting with a friend from there about a year ago - I tried to explain it to her best I could, but I don't think she got past the idea of "salt water" being in the name.  

Can't help with the salt water taffy question but I can say that premade custard is available in the UK.  Or at least it was in Scotland when I was there a few years ago.  We found it in individual servings as well as what I'd think of as a "family size" tetra pack.  Since then I have found the tetra packs at some of my local grocery stores (western Canada) in the British import section.

[Altered Reality]

Shoot, I am American and I never understood why Salt Water Taffy was called that until I moved to Charleston, SC and visited a candy store.  They would make salt water taffy right in front of you so I got brave one day and asked - it seems to go back to a bad storm in New Jersey during the late 1800's where the ocean water soaked all the taffy and as a joke they sold it that way, and people actually liked it, so it began.  Me?  I don't like any candy that sticks to your teeth so I don't eat it (well, except caramel).  I would thank the UK has taffy?  Or something that is chewy?  Anyone?

Custard in a box just sounds oh so gross.  And is it really custard or is it what we call pudding?  It sure looked like pudding when he was dipping fish fingers in it.  Custard is more jello like, wiggly but firm. 

Interesting story about salt water taffy.  I had no idea, but however it came about, it's still yummy.

That custard is really more of a sauce, still tastes the same (more or less depending on the skill of the cook ;D). And I think it's custard even if it's runny, pudding like or more solid.

Edited April 9, 2014 by Altered Reality

[Megras]

As we are on the topic what exactly constitutes "pudding" in the States. I've always used it as a generic term for deserts.

[BizBuzz]

As we are on the topic what exactly constitutes "pudding" in the States. I've always used it as a generic term for deserts.

Hmmmmm, I am starting to understand that pudding has a different meaning even in the states.  I remember that my Mom used to eat something called 'blood' pudding when I was young, and to me it was a gross looking sausage.  Pudding to me however was a very, um, 'slimy' custard for lack of a better word.  Custard is soft, but firm, pudding, if you put it on a plate, it flattened out. 

[Megras]

I think I know blood pudding as Black Pudding and it is tasty. I'd forgotten that sort of pudding...

Custard to me is a liquid that one serves poured over a sponge pudding (there's that word again) normally served hot.

[Lisin]

Pudding in the states is similar to custard in the UK, the distinction between custard and pudding in the US is that custard is a sweetened milk base thickened with egg yolks but pudding is thickened with corn starch.

Mostly when we talk about pudding it's an instant packet that you mix with milk and refrigerate until thick or it's pre-made pudding cups that kids get in their lunch. It's almost always Jello brand. I'd say it's not as thick as a traditional custard, and in my experience custard is generally the one vanilla flavour whereas pudding is most often chocolate.

Then there's bread pudding which is a dessert with cubed up bread and maybe some raisins or other fruit soaked in an uncooked custard base (eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla) and then baked in the oven and served hot usually with a creme anglaise poured over the top.

In the states you would call blood pudding and black pudding a type of sausage.

[April Bloodgate]

Here's a Jell-o Pudding commercial featuring Bill Cosby. He's been doing advertisements for Jell-o and Jell-o Pudding for decades. This isn't one of the funnier ones, but it does have a good shot showing the consistency of pudding.

[arizonamyrie]

See, I fully admit that I like/love US pudding - but to me, custard (and this is probably why I was asking) is like pudding but thickened further with eggs that can be later used for a decent pie filling or to freeze for a fuller ice cream as frozen custard.  But UK pudding to me, I think of Christmas Pudding which makes me think of our fruitcake (which I admit I also have a like/love relationship with).  What I saw in the episode with the fish fingers and custard made me think of slightly thicker Jello Vanilla Pudding.

[Lisin]

I think your assessment is basically correct arizonamyrie I think custard is thicker and it definitely has eggs. I think that's really the main distinction.

[Altered Reality]

Just to confuse the issue, there is Bird's Custard powder, an egg-free instant custard powder :D  I have a can in the pantry at all times.  Mind, I mostly use it in different recipes rather than serving it on it's own.  It's nice warm over peaches.

[BizBuzz]

Ahhh, that makes total sense, the egg thing.  So I guess my next question is, if you can get that "custard" in a box, does it look like what 11 was eating?

[Eozostrodon]

You can get ready-made custard in tins, boxes, or 'fresh' ready-made custard from the fresh/fridge section of the supermarket. Or custard powder that you make with sugar and milk, or the even lazier instant custard powder that you just add boiling water to. It is like what 11 was eating - UK custard can be thinner or thicker, but it always has more or less a pourable consistency. I had some ready made boxed custard the other week and it's sort of gloopy, but becomes more fluid on heating.

I can imagine it could get confusing as pudding is both a specific foodstuff (which can be sweet or savoury), or a generic word meaning the sweet course at the end of a meal (in which case anything eaten for that course - ice cream, cake, fresh fruit - would be referred to as pudding too).

Edited April 12, 2014 by Eozostrodon

[Meredith Quill]

Just to confuse the issue even further; the custard we use here in the UK also is used in trifles where it 'sets' like a jelly and is slicable! (I don't like trifle!). Yes, what 11 had in his bowl was the same as custard from a carton.

Fish fingers and custard is not a real meal haha- who would eat that...ewww, except maybe some expectant mothers perhaps?? :p

Also for us Brits the words dessert & pudding are interchangable.

[John Potts]

Though, as with many things, pudding/dessert is also a question of class (and region). Dessert is a more "high class" term and "pudding" is more common (similar to the napkin/serviette divide - oddly enough, "napkin" is the "proper" term and "serviette" the more common one). Though to my mind, pudding is more likely to be hot while dessert is probably (though not necessarily) cold.

[Ms.Sherlock]

Quick question, in Australia it is traditional to eat lamb at Easter time, either a roast or bbq but I’ve noticed a number of Easter Ham recipes stemming from other countries on the web for this past week, and that would be a rather strange thing to serve here for Easter.

My question; what is your traditional Easter fare?

[Lisin]

In the US (at least the parts I've lived in, keep in mind that food varies by region sometimes) we traditionally have a ham for Easter, it's generally a glazed ham of some sort, depending on what part of the country you live in the hams are different. I live near Washington, DC, we do Honeybaked Ham which is a salt cured ham that is glazed and has a crispy sweet crust, they're almost always spiral cut around the bone and you don't make them at home, most people buy their ham from the "Honeybaked Ham" store. Back when I was little there were only a few stores in the area and you had to pre-order months in advance and there would be crazy long lines to pick up the ham. It's bonkers. Now there's a lot more of the stores and it isn't quite as crazy. That is not to say that a ton of people don't make their own, traditionally though it's a sweet glaze on the ham that is baked and gets crusty and delicious. Bourbon brown sugar glaze, or a citris brown sugar glaze, that type of thing. This is where you'll also see those hams that are studded with cloves and have pineapple rings and cherries on the outside. Anyway we usually have the ham, some sort of rolls or biscuits so you can make a sandwich if you want, and I think most people have potato salad or macaroni salad, deviled eggs, maybe some mashed potatoes and/or macaroni and cheese instead of the salads, green beans or some other fresh veggie. 

People often will have Easter brunch also, what I described above would be more common as a meal later in the day, if you were doing an Easter brunch after church you'd still have the ham, and then probably some sort of quiche or other egg dish, hot cross buns, maybe another sweet pastry, and biscuits.  

I should note, at least in my area it's not always easy to find lamb at all, most grocery stores don't carry it so you have to go to a specialty store to get it and it isn't that common. 

[BizBuzz]

So I was watching an episode of Frasier, and Daphne is supposed to be from Manchester, and she was making what she called "bangers", which she said were what we call sausages.

Upthread we discussed that some pudding are sausages as well.  What is the difference between a banger and a pudding? 

[Altered Reality]

I'm in Western Canada and ham is the traditional dish, in recent years I've noticed turkey being promoted as well, but I don't know of anyone who has lamb.  I think in part that's because of the cost, sheep are not something that are raised locally, so the lamb I see in stores is all imported (from New Zealand) and is generally about $30-35 per kg.  In contrast, I can find ham on sale for $1.98 per kg.  

That said, I once lived in Montreal, Quebec in a neighbourhood mostly inhabited by Greek immigrants and on Easter Sunday all you could smell was roasting lamb.  So there are regional variations.

[jaytee1812]

So I was watching an episode of Frasier, and Daphne is supposed to be from Manchester, and she was making what she called "bangers", which she said were what we call sausages.

Upthread we discussed that some pudding are sausages as well.  What is the difference between a banger and a pudding? 

We wouldn't think of black pudding or white pudding as sausages. (I don't see them as food, but I digress). 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_pudding

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_pudding

[Lisin]

Here's the distinction I think, in the US there are sausages that we eat in the casing, that look like links. Then there is also sausage that isn't in a casing that we generally eat for breakfast that is very similar in look to black/white pudding. So, I think if you gave an american a piece of black pudding and didn't tell them what it was at all they would call it a sausage patty.

http://i.imgur.com/kZCLeVx.jpg

[Ms.Sherlock]

You'll also see those hams that are studded with cloves and have pineapple rings and cherries on the outside.

 

Thanks for the answer Lisin, what you are describing as a US glazed Easter ham is the ham that is traditionally served in ‘Strayla at the Christmas table, we glaze ours with bitter sweet marmalade rather than bourbon. Makes sense considering the reverse seasons and availability of produce/booze.

I should note, at least in my area it's not always easy to find lamb at all, most grocery stores don't carry it so you have to go to a specialty store to get it and it isn't that common.

 

That is such a shame, lamb is delicious.

I think in part that's because of the cost, sheep are not something that are raised locally, so the lamb I see in stores is all imported (from New Zealand) and is generally about $30-35 per kg.  In contrast, I can find ham on sale  for $1.98 per kg.

 

Thanks for the answer Altered Reality –in  Australia I cannot buy any fresh meat or offal for under $8.00 a kg which is one of the reasons that I am always looking for ways to meat minimise because fruit and veges are simply a cheaper option.

IMHO black and white puddings are sausages, which are savoury, if a pudding doesn't describe itself as black or white it sould be considered a dessert in which case you should ask your server because when it comes to puddings/sausages/desserts depending on  where you are in the world, it's far better to ask than be dissapointed with your choice.

[Lisin]

Lamb IS delicious, but Altered Reality gets it right, we don't really raise lamb here in the states the way they do in Australia or really anywhere, so it's crazy expensive and hard to find. We're friends with some farmers and get a leg every year but it's like a special treat, which is sad. 

[FormerMod-a1]

Lamb is available in most grocery stores here in MN (USA), but limited - mostly lamb chops and rack of lamb.

[Namarie]

In my family (I'm from the US) we did usually have lamb for Easter. This was a very special, very expensive meal, however - though I don't think it was that hard to find in grocery stores. And man is it delicious.

 

Growing up, I never realized until I was in my late teens that not everyone had lamb at Easter, and that in fact ham was more common.

Edited April 23, 2014 by Namarie

[sugarbaker design]

Growing up, I never realized until I was in my late teens that not everyone had lamb at Easter,

Ditto!  Everytime I hear "Mary had a little lamb", I salivate like Pavlov's dogs.

[April Bloodgate]

US family here. We normally have ham for Easter, ham and beef brisket for Christmas, and turkey for Thanksgiving. But this year for Easter we just had a cookout with hamburgers and hot dogs. Since I don't eat meat, I just make a meal of all the sides: scalloped potatoes, cheesy vegetable casserole, corn casserole (mix of casserole and corn bread), crescent roles, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole (at Thanksgiving). 

Edited April 23, 2014 by Denay

[FormerMod-a1]

We didn't have the "traditional" ham this year either.  But we did have pork - grilled and BBQ-ed pork chops with potato salad, cheesy broccoli, and home-made "quick" apple sauce.  Dessert was after-dinner liqueurs. 

 

Christmas dinners vary - usually a roast of some kind, but it could be beef, pork, turkey, etc.  Thanksgiving is always turkey though, except the one time I decided a giant chicken (8 lb) would be better (I prefer chicken to turkey).  I liked it, my dad wanted turkey.  

[Lisin]

I should point out that I'm the first person in my family to actually be born here in the US, my mom's British, Grandmom's German, Grandfather's Irish and step-father's also German so our food is a bit crazy. We almost always have Turkey at Thanksgiving (sometimes duck, sometimes roast) but none of the traditional sides, usually we do a potato gratin with maybe leeks and potatoes and gruyere cheese, maybe some green beans with bacon but no casserole, no stuffing in the traditional sense though recently I've been making stuffing with french bread, leeks, apples and sausage, I always make rolls, and there's usually some other side like maybe another gratin with sweet potatoes and apples which is more of a dessert. Also we don't do the traditional desserts, recently it's been apple bread pudding with a creme anglaise. It may not be traditional but it's damn yummy! 

[Eozostrodon]

To go back to the pudding/dessert thing, pudding is the upper middle/upper class word, and dessert or sweets are both considered common.

Edit - in the UK.

Edited April 24, 2014 by Eozostrodon

[Ms.Sherlock]

Excellent question Eozostrodon. Pudding is a cooking technique that can be applied to either sweet or savioury fair. Here in Straylia we love out sticky date pudding (uncious and sweet) but you will see little love for black pudding (blood sausage). Both are puddings because of the way that they are cooked, which involves water, various temperatures, and a whole lot of mucking about.

After an hour of reseach and phoning friends, I am so sorry that I don't have a definitive answer about Puddings, turns out it is a mine field out there but I can report that there is no class associated to the word. I use the terms sweets, puddings, desserts or afters when requesting a sweet treat at the end of a meal and all are acceptable. I will be judged on my accompaning wine choice however.

[Hannalee]

Chipping in on several previous posts:

 

In UK posh circles dessert is specifically fruit, which comes after the pudding!

 

Black pudding is not a sausage and I feel steak and kidney pudding would be considered savoury even in Australia.

 

It does surprise me (from way back on TWoP) how rare lamb seems to be in the US. Do farmers over there use upland pastures/poor grazing for other things or do they simply not use them at all? Are there any regions that do have a tradition of eating sheep and do you use a lot of wool?

 

[Lisin]

Most of the farms in the US are located in areas where we don't really have bad pastures for grazing. So much of our farmland is located in really flat open areas, even in the mountains we've still got enough land for beef. Doing a quick and dirty Google search I find about 5 farms in my area that raise sheep, however I'm in the Washington DC area so we're talking about a very large population of people and 5 relatively small farms. Lamb farmed near us would mostly go to either a specialty grocery store or be sold directly to small butchers or restaurants not any of our "normal" grocery stores. For example I know you can usually find lamb at Whole Foods but there aren't Whole Foods in every neighborhood, the closest one to me is 1.5 hours away. 

 

I don't actually know why beef got so big here, but when you think about the meat that people in the US are eating it's mainly chicken, beef, pork, and turkey, certainly you can find other meat and I am of course over generalizing but I'd guess your "average" american hasn't ever had lamb or goat, and maybe has tried goose or duck. 

 

Oh and we do have wool sweaters and that sort of thing but I'm betting a lot of that is imported? I'm not positive on that. It's possible we have sheep farms that have sheep for wool but not eating? I don't know really. 

[BizBuzz]

I have had lamb (my favorite meal at Outback is the rack of lamb), but never have had goat (ick), duck or goose.  I can't wear wool, allergic, but I grew up in Hawaii, so not a lot of need for wool there.

 

In fact, my main meat in Hawaii growing up was fish and pig.  Yum on both.  ::giggle::

[April Bloodgate]

I'm in the Washington DC area so we're talking about a very large population of people and 5 relatively small farms. Lamb farmed near us would mostly go to either a specialty grocery store or be sold directly to small butchers or restaurants not any of our "normal" grocery stores. For example I know you can usually find lamb at Whole Foods but there aren't Whole Foods in every neighborhood, the closest one to me is 1.5 hours away. 

 

I don't actually know why beef got so big here, but when you think about the meat that people in the US are eating it's mainly chicken, beef, pork, and turkey, certainly you can find other meat and I am of course over generalizing but I'd guess your "average" american hasn't ever had lamb or goat, and maybe has tried goose or duck. 

 

You're in DC but 1.5 hours away from a Whole Foods? I know I've seen Whole Foods in DC before. Did they close?

 

I would've said that Americans are more likely to have had lamb chops than goose or duck, but I don't have any hard basis for that either.

[Kalliste]

I never realised Lamb could be a rarity. It's so highly promoted in Australia but I guess that's because we have a lot of sheep.

 

On the pudding/custard/dessert debate:

Dessert is a meal after dinner, usually sweet like icecream or cake.

Pudding I always think of christmas pudding or fruit cakes covered in.. custard! - I don't particularly like either

Custard - there is runny and thick here. Runny is usually warm and goes with ice cream, custard, cake etc. The thicker variety I assume is like American pudding? Like this. I like to eat it out of the tub with a spoon :D

Edited April 29, 2014 by Kalliste

[Lisin]

You're in DC but 1.5 hours away from a Whole Foods? I know I've seen Whole Foods in DC before. Did they close?

Sorry, DC "area" which around here is a very large area, I live about 60 miles outside of the city but still commute there for work, which is pretty normal here. So yeah, there are Whole Foods in DC and just outside in Virginia and probably Maryland but nothing too far outside the beltway, however since I tend to do grocery shopping closer to my house so it's not really an option for me :).

[FormerMod-a1]

Here in St Paul, MN most grocery stores have lamb too.  But as mentioned previously it would just be lamb chops and sometimes rack of lamb.  I almost never see goose or duck though.  However, my dad is very jealous that my grocery stores carry turkey necks, chicken livers and gizzards and other not-so-popular parts and innards in my meat aisles.  And he's just in MI, so you wouldn't think it'd be that different.

[WyKnott]

Chiming in because food.

 

Here in So Cal, there's lamb in most grocery stores, certainly in specialty grocery stores like Whole Foods and Trader Joes, but it's expensive. It seems to be more for special occasions because of the price. As for duck or goose, it seems that lamb is more available here.

[Meredith Quill]

So I was watching an episode of Frasier, and Daphne is supposed to be from Manchester, and she was making what she called "bangers", which she said were what we call sausages.

Upthread we discussed that some pudding are sausages as well.  What is the difference between a banger and a pudding? 

A banger or sausage is made from pork or beef traditionally. To be honest, everyone I know calls them sausages (maybe generally referring to them as bangers is a northern thing? IDK I'm from down south and now live in the Midlands lol), unless specifically talking about a meal consisting of sausages, mashed potatoes and veg which is then fondly referred to as Bangers & Mash.

 

A pudding or dessert is the sweet course of a meal.

 

Black pudding is basically blood sausage which is a generic name for a type of sausage made by cooking blood or dried blood with a filler until it is thick enough to congeal when cooled (squick). But no-one would ever refer to black pudding as 'a sausage' it's always just called black pudding.

[Ms.Sherlock]

This is going to sound like a really dumb question but how do you get paid? One of my American friends mentioned getting a pay raise and receiving a bigger check on pay day. Which confused me because I thought that her work was being checked more thoroughly before being paid, then I remembered USA check=cheque in UK/Aussie speak.
My wages are credited to my bank account at 12.00 midnight on my pay day. Does anyone get paid by checks/cheques or is it just verbal shorthand for a deposit of wages into your bank account?

[Lisin]

@Ms.Sherlock it's mostly just shorthand, we say paycheck or check but many professionals at this point get direct deposit (wages credited to your bank account) though there are millions of Americans who still get actual checks (cheques) because a lot of people here don't have bank accounts. 

[Ms.Sherlock]

Thanks for the answer Lisin, that’s interesting because here you couldn’t cash in a cheque unless you have an account with the bank and then it would take 10 working days to clear. It must cause a bit of a security concern for people who get paid by cheque/check to either carry cash or risk losing their cheque.

[Kalliste]

wow, many people don't have bank accounts? I think chequing accounts are being phased out here as an old, unreliable system. We get direct deposit to our bank account each pay period (fortnightly for me, which I think is also lost in translation in the US :D). I always wondered if actual cheques were involved elsewhere though.

[Lisin]

We have these "Check Cashing" places that take a percent of the check they cash, also I think if you work at a store often they will let you cash your check there. Also, generally speaking you can cash a check at the bank from where it was written if you bring in two forms of ID. Sometimes they charge a fee as well. Then there's these check cards (basically pre-loaded visa cards) that the employers can put your wages on, McDonald's got in trouble for using a specific kind of these because they charged large fees and the McDonald's in question wouldn't pay people any other way so it was a big controversy. I'm oversimplifying this but only because it's so complicated. 

 

I hate physical checks, I pay all of my bills electronically but the stupid small town I live in only takes cash or checks to pay my water bill. It's a gigantic pain, you can't mail it, you have to go in person every month. It is so annoying. I think a LOT of people here are phasing out checks and opting for direct deposit and online payment but there are still people who don't trust that system.