SIGforum
British desserts explained for Americans
November 08, 2021, 10:59 AM
ensigmaticBritish desserts explained for Americans
quote:
Originally posted by tacfoley:
Cottage pie = made out of minced [ground] beef.
My wife makes one of these occasionally
Usually when there's left-over beef from something else.
quote:
Originally posted by tacfoley:
OTOH, my wife was not brought up weighing stuff - SHE uses tablespoons and stuff like that. However, she would like to know what a 'cup' size actually is?
Eight (8) fluid ounces.
Unless you're talking coffee, then a "cup" is five (5) fl. oz.
Don't ask me why. I've no clue.
My wife grew up on metric. She thinks Imperial measurements are nuts. Can't really argue that
"America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work within the system,,,, but too early to shoot the bastards." -- Claire Wolfe
"If we let things terrify us, life will not be worth living." -- Seneca the Younger, Roman Stoic philosopher November 08, 2021, 11:15 AM
Hamden106quote:
Originally posted by tacfoley:
Figgy pudding is a traditional Christmas pudding only encountered in a Christmas song - 'We wish you a Merry Christmas'.....
Look up 'mince pies'. No meat in mince pies.
You see, unlike the USA and the rest of North America, UK is not big on pies. Our local Shari's in Eugene OR Shari's
in Eugene OR has about fifty different pies, not one of which is savoury. Here in UK, apart from varieties of apple and apple and something, fruit pies are a rarity.
Cottage pie = made out of minced [ground] beef.
Shepherd's pie = end of a lamb joint ground up.
Both have a mashed potato topping and cooked in the oven.
Pork pie [a specialty of the market town of Melton Mowbray] - ground pork in a secret recipe encased in a hot-water pastry casing.
OTOH, my wife was not brought up weighing stuff - SHE uses tablespoons and stuff like that. However, she would like to know what a 'cup' size actually is? She does fair amount of cooking when we are stateside and always seems to use the same cup[s]... but there are large, medium and small cups, right?
Anyhow, the GBB is to ordinary cooking what 'Braveheart' is to Scottish history.
I have a Shari's pie almost gone here at home. One Shari's is 2 miles away. And I pass it and another one on the way to the range. Where I am going to shortly. I pass Costco as well. Costco pies are not bad. But Mother's pies are best.
Oh! and Cabelas is not far out of my way either....
SIGnature
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November 08, 2021, 11:17 AM
RogueJSKquote:
Originally posted by ensigmatic:
Unless you're talking coffee, then a "cup" is five (5) fl. oz.
Don't ask me why. I've no clue.
Because traditionally, teacups and coffee cups were 6 ounce vessels, which allowed for a 5 ounce pour of the beverage with a little extra room for cream/milk and sugar.
Nowadays, coffee cups are more likely to be 8/10/12+ ounces, especially in America.
But coffeemakers are still commonly described by how many 5 ounce traditional cups of coffee they will produce. (So a 10 cup coffeemaker, for example, will make 50 ounces at a time.) Therefore that "10 cup" coffeemaker may only be enough to get you 4 cups of coffee if you're drinking from a 12 ounce mug, or 6 cups if you're drinking from an 8 ounce mug.
November 08, 2021, 11:22 AM
HRKOK, someone had to do it.....
If you don't eat yer meat, you can't have any pudding.
How can you have any pudding if you don't eat yer meat?"
November 08, 2021, 11:58 AM
bordethquote:
Originally posted by HRK:
OK, someone had to do it.....
If you don't eat yer meat, you can't have any pudding.
How can you have any pudding if you don't eat yer meat?"
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This!
November 08, 2021, 12:28 PM
dsietsI made bran muffins on Sat. A pack of wheat bran is 8 oz. but I'm really good, I can get like 3 cups from one pack.
For bread baking, I like to figure the weights for future bake days.
November 08, 2021, 12:40 PM
GustoferSince I've become more serious about my bread baking, I have started weighing my flour. I think if you gave ten people a one cup measuring cup and a bag of flour you'd get ten different amounts varying probably 50-100g. It does make a difference.
That said though, I find bread baking to be anything but precise. There are so many subtleties and variables that make every single loaf unique despite being made in the same kitchen by the same person on the same day with the same ingredients. It's hard to measure "sticky" vs. "tacky" or "clearing the side of the bowl". How much flour does
that take? It's what makes it fun...and frustrating. Different temperatures, different humidities, different flours, different yeasts, etc....
Measuring small amounts (yeast and salt), though, I still do with spoons as I'd rather not spend several hundred dollars on a lab level digital scale. I do have a decent scale, but not one that does those small amounts consistently.
________________________________________________________
"Great danger lies in the notion that we can reason with evil." Doug Patton.
November 08, 2021, 12:40 PM
PASigWeighing everything in recipes IS way more precise.
An American dry measuring cup commonly used for flour and sugar is NOT a full 8 oz by liquid volume
Try it sometime, fill a dry measuring cup with water then dump it into a liquid measuring cup with ounce markings, it's like 7.75 oz
The other thing that is an issue with our method is how a cup measure of flour could differ pretty significantly depending if the flour is densely packed or sifted. With weighing, that is never an issue.
When measuring something like brown sugar, our recipes always say "lightly packed" when using a cup measure, but what does that mean exactly? My "lightly packed" cup of sugar may weigh an ounce more than yours!
November 08, 2021, 12:44 PM
old dinoquote:
Originally posted by tacfoley:
quote:
Originally posted by old dino:
quote:
Originally posted by tacfoley:
Figgy pudding is a traditional Christmas pudding only encountered in a Christmas song - 'We wish you a Merry Christmas'.....
Also known as Figgy Duff. My father-in-law referred to it as Figgy pudding ... as does this website :
https://www.tasteatlas.com/figgy-duffGuess the Christmas song needed to have a reason to say Figgy pudding.
There is a kind of pudd'n called plum duff. Personally I've never had it.
Interesting. We have a lot of Italian plum trees on our property (the plums have fallen and all eaten now by the raccoons) but next year I will have to try making Plum Duff (pudd'n).
November 08, 2021, 02:02 PM
jhe888quote:
Originally posted by flashguy:
Sorry. I prefer the American idea of "pudding"--a creamy sweet slightly gooey dessert that comes in several flavors: chocolate (my favorite), butterscotch, banana, etc. I would not even eat what the Brits call "pudding". (In fact, the only British dish I really like is fish & chips (either kind).
flashguy
Roast beef?
The fish is mute, expressionless. The fish doesn't think because the fish knows everything. November 08, 2021, 02:09 PM
jhe888quote:
Originally posted by old dino:
quote:
Originally posted by tacfoley:
quote:
Originally posted by old dino:
quote:
Originally posted by tacfoley:
Figgy pudding is a traditional Christmas pudding only encountered in a Christmas song - 'We wish you a Merry Christmas'.....
Also known as Figgy Duff. My father-in-law referred to it as Figgy pudding ... as does this website :
https://www.tasteatlas.com/figgy-duffGuess the Christmas song needed to have a reason to say Figgy pudding.
There is a kind of pudd'n called plum duff. Personally I've never had it.
Interesting. We have a lot of Italian plum trees on our property (the plums have fallen and all eaten now by the raccoons) but next year I will have to try making Plum Duff (pudd'n).
My mother's family makes plum pudding at Christmas. It is a plum duff, a sort of a steamed cake with fruit. Oddly, the one they make has no plums but does have raisins and currants. (Maybe it was a substitution for plums some generations back? Who knows?) It is good. We serve it with a rum and sugar sauce.
The fish is mute, expressionless. The fish doesn't think because the fish knows everything. November 08, 2021, 02:23 PM
Pipe SmokerI’ve always thought that Steak and Kidney Pie would likely be tasty. But it wasn’t mentioned in the link in my OP. And not, until now, in this thread either.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/w...nd-kidney-pie-138782
Serious about crackers. November 08, 2021, 02:24 PM
Mars_AttacksWhat about Blancmange?
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Here, poke at it with this stick.
November 08, 2021, 02:30 PM
Pipe Smokerquote:
Originally posted by jhe888:
<snip>
My mother's family makes plum pudding at Christmas. It is a plum duff, a sort of a steamed cake with fruit. Oddly, the one they make has no plums but does have raisins and currants. (Maybe it was a substitution for plums some generations back? Who knows?) It is good. We serve it with a rum and sugar sauce.
That sounds rather like Spotted Dick, mentioned in the article linked in my OP.
Serious about crackers. November 08, 2021, 03:18 PM
jhe888quote:
Originally posted by Pipe Smoker:
quote:
Originally posted by jhe888:
<snip>
My mother's family makes plum pudding at Christmas. It is a plum duff, a sort of a steamed cake with fruit. Oddly, the one they make has no plums but does have raisins and currants. (Maybe it was a substitution for plums some generations back? Who knows?) It is good. We serve it with a rum and sugar sauce.
That sounds rather like Spotted Dick, mentioned in the article linked in my OP.
Yeah, sort of, but this is a very dark colored pudding, with molasses and brown sugar, whereas I think spotted dick has a light colored cake.
The fish is mute, expressionless. The fish doesn't think because the fish knows everything. November 08, 2021, 03:33 PM
PASigquote:
Originally posted by jhe888:
My mother's family makes plum pudding at Christmas. It is a plum duff, a sort of a steamed cake with fruit. Oddly, the one they make has no plums but does have raisins and currants. (Maybe it was a substitution for plums some generations back? Who knows?) It is good. We serve it with a rum and sugar sauce.
What what I've read "Plum" is an archaic English term for any dried fruit, this stuff was all very expensive and often imported and not everyday food so that's why it was only featured for special occasions like Christmas.
November 08, 2021, 04:11 PM
old dinoquote:
Originally posted by jhe888:
quote:
Originally posted by flashguy:
Sorry. I prefer the American idea of "pudding"--a creamy sweet slightly gooey dessert that comes in several flavors: chocolate (my favorite), butterscotch, banana, etc. I would not even eat what the Brits call "pudding". (In fact, the only British dish I really like is fish & chips (either kind).
flashguy
Roast beef?
We make a Jiggs dinner using the Old Port cured beef ... once in each November and December in honor of my father-in-law (who came here from Newfoundland).
https://www.newfoundlandlabrad...dinner-for-beginnersLove it ... !
November 08, 2021, 04:46 PM
jhe888quote:
Originally posted by PASig:
What what I've read "Plum" is an archaic English term for any dried fruit, this stuff was all very expensive and often imported and not everyday food so that's why it was only featured for special occasions like Christmas.
I didn't know that. Thanks.
The fish is mute, expressionless. The fish doesn't think because the fish knows everything. November 08, 2021, 04:59 PM
tacfoleyquote:
Originally posted by Mars_Attacks:
What about Blancmange?
French muck.
November 08, 2021, 05:08 PM
maladatquote:
Originally posted by tacfoley:
Thank you - I will pass that on the Mrs tac. Funnily enough, I know about the Japanese metrics, as one of my work colleague's brother and nephew carry out repiars and maintenance of the many temples in Kikko, and paying them a visit a few years back was a highlight of a wonderful trip back.
Very neat!
As an occasional amateur woodworker but frequent woodwork appreciator, I find the traditional Japanese temple construction fascinating and really beautiful. They use some amazingly complex decorative joints that are all cut the old way by hand.