A Survival Guide to English Foods and Ingredients

Here is a list of some commonly used American ingredients with their UK equivalents:

Eggplant = aubergine

Arugula = rocket

Cilantro = coriander

Zucchini = courgettes

Belgian Endive = chicory

Bok Choi = Pak Choy

Green Onions = Spring onions or salad onions

Canadian bacon = back bacon

Ground Beef = beef mince (same with other meats)

Thick sliced ham (like Honey Baked Ham) = gammon

Cookies = biscuits (sweet)

Crackers = biscuits (savory/for cheese)

French fries = chips

Potato chips = crisps

Butty = sandwich (esp. chip butty or bacon butty)

Cornstarch = cornflour

Light cream = single cream

Heavy cream = double cream

Half & half = use half milk, half single cream

Graham crackers = use sweetmeal digestive biscuits

Dessert = the word 'pudding' refers to any dessert, not just custard, with notable exceptions being "black pudding" and "Yorkshire pudding", which are savory items

Granulated brown sugar = demarara sugar

Jell-O/Gelatin = jelly

powdered/confectioner's sugar = icing sugar

cake flour = sponge flour

Kool-Aid or flavored drink mix = squash

Baked potato = jacket potato

Tomato Paste = tomato puree

Ladyfingers = use sponge fingers or boudoir fingers

Shortening = use solid vegetable oil

Cheddar cheese = cheddar is usually white here; Red Leicester is closest to American cheddar

Swiss cheese = use Jarlsburg or Gruyere

Tomato Sauce (no seasonings) = try tomato juice or jarred pasta sauce & adjust seasonings

Minced garlic = 'easy garlic'

sugar sprinkles for cakes = hundreds and thousands

Below are some English dishes that I've seen on more than a few menus, but didn't know exactly what I'd be getting if I ordered it:

Welsh rarebit = is a savoury sauce made from melted cheese and various other ingredients and served hot over toasted bread, sometimes with the addition of ale, mustard, ground cayenne pepper or ground paprika and Worcestershire sauce

Bangers and Mash = a dish of mashed potatoes & sausages, usually with an onion gravy

Bubble and Squeak = leftover vegetables and meat from a roast dinner pan-fried together with mashed potatoes until mixture is browned on all sides

Toad in a Hole = a dish comprising sausages baked in a Yorkshire pudding batter (see definition below), usually served with vegetables and gravy

Faggots = a meatball traditionally made from pig's heart, liver and fatty belly meat or bacon minced together, with herbs added for flavouring and sometimes breadcrumbs

Black pudding = a type of sausage made by cooking blood with a filler (meat, fat, suet, bread) until it is thick enough to congeal when cooled.

Cottage Pie = a pie with a mashed potato crust and cooked beef filling

Shepherd's Pie = a pie with a mashed potato crust and cooked lamb/mutton filling

Scotch Egg = sausage in breadcrumbs wrapped around hard boiled egg and deep fried to crispy

Pork Pie = minced pork and pork jelly baked inside a firm pastry crust, sometimes with cheese & pickle, and usually served cold with spicy mustard

Cockles = a type of small, edible, saltwater clam

Crubeens = Irish dish of salted pig's feet or trotters, usually served boiled with cabbage

English trifle = a dessert dish made from thick (or often solidified) custard, fruit, sponge cake, fruit juice or, more recently, gelatin, and whipped cream. These ingredients are usually arranged in layers with fruit and sponge on the bottom, and custard and cream on top.

Stargazy Pie = a Cornish dish made of baked pilchards (a type of fish), covered with a pastry crust. The pilchards are arranged with their tails toward the centre of the pie and their heads poking up through the crust around the edge, so that they appear to be gazing skyward.

Bacon Butty = bacon rashers served on a soft roll, usually with brown sauce or ketchup

Yorkshire Pudding = a savory, well-shaped pastry made from batter (usually cooked in muffin tins, like popovers) and served with roast meat and gravy

Spotted Dick = a steamed suet pudding containing dried fruit (usually currants) commonly served with custard

Lancashire Hotpot = a stew consisting essentially of lamb or mutton, onion and potatoes left to bake in the oven all day in a heavy pot and on a low heat

Marrow = a type of squash or large zucchini

Angels on Horseback = poached oysters wrapped in bacon rashers w/a seasoned prune puree

Jaffa Cakes = a popular type of English cookie that consists of three layers: a sponge cake base, a layer of orange flavoured jelly and a coating of dark chocolate.

Cornish Pasties = seasoned steak, potatoes, onion, carrot and turnips baked inside a pastry case

Victoria Sponge = traditionally consists of jam sandwiched between two sponge cakes; the top of the cake is not iced or decorated. Named for Queen Victoria, who favored sponge cake with her afternoon tea

Mince Pies, Toad in the Hole & Other Oddities

Last week I was in for a bit of a shock when D requested 'faggots' for dinner. I'd never heard that term used in America except as a derogatory, anti-gay remark, but I knew D doesn't share the beliefs of those who use the word that way, so I was puzzled. It turns out that faggots are a kind of English meatball made from some leftover pig. I didn't think I could handle chopping up pig heart, belly and liver, so we opted to buy a 4-pack of pre-made faggots from the neighborhood butchers. We baked them for about 50 minutes, and served them with baked potatoes (called 'jacket potatoes' in the UK) and mushy peas. They were in fact very similar to meatballs, but tasted a little too gamey for me so I don't think I'll ever eat them again.

Since it's now the holiday season, we've been seeing mincemeat pies everywhere in the supermarkets. They look like mini apple pies, but are filled with something that tastes a bit like the filling in American Fig Newton cookies. In Victorian times, the pies originally contained actual meat, but now the only meat element is suet (a hard fat found around beef or sheep liver), and most pies now use vegetarian versions of suet. I've read that the 'mincemeat' filling is actually made from a mixture of various nuts, currants, raisins and spices, along with some brandy, but have not made the filling from scratch yet. Here's a recipe from the BBC if you are keen to try it out for yourself: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/christmasmincemeat_8893.shtml

Another classic English pub dish that I've seen on menus everywhere is Toad in a Hole. Apparently it's nothing more than a few sausages baked in a Yorkshire pudding-type pastry, but the name is so intimidating that I've never tried it. It is usually served with an onion gravy and vegetables. D has a Gordon Ramsey cookbook with a recipe I plan to try, but I also saw this one on the BBC website that looks pretty basic: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/beefsausagetoadinthe_86522.shtml.

When it comes to cooking other strange English foods, I've experimented a bit more in the dessert category since I don't usually eat that much meat. I have yet to try cottage pie, fisherman's pie, or anything containing liver, but I have made treacle tart with clotted cream (a shortbread pastry crust with a syrupy, breadcrumb filling), rhubarb crumble, a pomegranate pavlova, and a chocolate chip bread pudding from scratch.

I'll include an actual Guide to English Foods in another post soon with a list of American equivalents for strange UK foods, or definitions of those items I haven't come across in America at all.

Here's the recipe for Treacle Tart that I found on the BBC website:

Treacle Tart

Ingredients

For the sweet pastry
250g/9oz plain flour, sifted, plus extra for dusting
175g/6oz butter, plus extra (melted) for greasing
75g/2¾oz icing sugar
2 free-range egg yolks
1 tbsp cold water
For the filling
150g/5oz day-old brown or white bread, crusts removed
650g/1lb 7oz golden syrup (like corn syrup in US)
150g/5½oz unsalted butter
1 free-range egg
50ml/2fl oz double cream (heavy cream in U.S.)
2 lemons, zest only
large pinch salt
clotted cream or double cream, to serve

Method

For the sweet pastry, in a bowl, rub together the flour and butter using your fingertips, until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the icing sugar, egg yolks and cold water and mix until the mixture comes together as a dough. Wrap the dough in cling film, then chill in the fridge for two hours, to rest. Grease a 23cm/9½in loose-bottomed tart case with melted butter, then dust with flour, gently knocking out any excess. Meanwhile, line a baking tray with greaseproof paper and place the prepared tart case on top. Once the pastry has rested, discard the cling film and roll the pastry out onto a lightly floured work surface to a 4-5mm thickness. Lift the rolled pastry by rolling it loosely around the rolling pin, then lower it into the prepared tart case and press into the tart case to mould it to the sides and bottom. Trim off any excess pastry using a sharp knife. Chill the tart case in the fridge for a further 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6. When the tart case has rested, remove it from the fridge and prick the base several times using a fork. Line the base and sides of the tart case with greaseproof paper, then fill it with baking beans. Transfer to the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes, or until crisp and pale golden-brown. Discard the greaseproof paper and baking beans. For the filling, blend the bread in a food processor until it has formed breadcrumbs. Set aside. Heat the golden syrup and butter in a pan over a low to medium heat until the syrup and the butter has melted. Set aside to cool slightly. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg and cream until well combined. Pour in the syrup and butter mixture and stir to combine. Stir in the breadcrumbs, lemon zest and salt until well combined. Pour the filling mixture into the cooked pastry case, then return the tart to the oven and cook for a further 40-45 minutes, or until the filling is dark golden-brown. Remove from the oven and set aside for 15 minutes before serving to allow to cool slightly. Serve warm, with clotted cream or whipped cream.