Australian to American Food Translation

I’ve been feeling a little ‘under the weather’ these last couple of days with some kind of tummy bug. Not much cooking has been going on nor much of anything else. Even the thought of food has made me feel sick which is very unlike me. I thought I’d take a moment to explain some of the more commonly used food terms here in Australia. I’ve seen quite a few ‘hits’ on my blog from all over the world and, in particular, America (and my lovely friend Megan) and thought I’d explain a few of the terms relating to food, well the ones I know of.

Australian vs American

tomato sauce = ketchup
minced meat = ground meat
plain flour = all purpose flour
icing = frosting
115gm butter (approx) = 1 stick of butter
hot chips = fries
biscuits = cookies
scones = biscuits
chips = potato chips
fish fingers = fish sticks
rolled oats = oatmeal
prawns = shrimp
sultanas = golden raisins
bi carb soda = baking soda
icing sugar = confectioner’s sugar
jelly = jello
jam = jelly
castor sugar = superfine sugar
wholemeal flour = whole http://1947partitionarchive.org/node/830 wheat flour
30 grams = 1 ounce (approx)
baking tray = baking sheet
beetroot = beet
coriander = cilantro
cornflour = corn starch
wheatmeal biscuits = Graham crackers
fry pan = skillet
capsicum = peppers
soft drink = soda/pop
cordial = Kool Aid
lollies, sweets = candy
entree = appetiser
main course = entree
chook = chicken
custard powder = use cornflour and 1 tsp vanilla extract

There’s probably quite a few more than that but these are the ones that first came to mind. It can be a nightmare trying to convert American recipes to Australian (or metric) sometimes because of ingredients. One web site that I use the most in cooking is “The Cook’s Thesaurus“. Anytime I don’t have an ingredient for a recipe, I look it up here to find an alternative. It’s great.

I could go on forever about the differences between American and Australian foods. I’ll just continue to keep eating and cooking as many recipes as I can, no matter where they originate.

Check out the Conversion widget in the side bar to convert grams to ounces or kilos to pounds.