*snickers*

[conuly]

You brits...

How do you boil water? I'm reminded of the classic complaint "he doesn't even know how to boil water". *grins some more at the silliness*

Although, honestly, I hope youse guys never lose power over there. You'd be helpless. Apparently.

Edit: Actually, this reminds me of the time I slept over at Lizziey's and made pancakes. All the time, Kassondra (whose name I never can spell) was going on and on about not having pancake mix and I was just grabbing the flour and salt and baking soda and whatnot.

Comments

[missfahrenheit.livejournal.com]

Wow. The kettles thing is actually really weird. But I feel the need to add that mum ditched the electric kettle a few years ago for a whistly hob that goes on the hob, because it looks cooler, she likes the sound, and it ends up with less horrible limescaley white stuff in it.

As for the pancake thing: we hardly ever do stuff like cake mix on packets. And those of us that don't look down on those who do, because we are Horribly Smug And Domesticated.

(Also, wtf is up with meaturing things in cups and having sticks of butter? It makes it such an arse to translate an American recipe!)

[conuly]

Also, wtf is up with meaturing things in cups and having sticks of butter?

Just get yourself some American measuring cups and spoons if you translate recipes so much. Or go proportionally - 1 part this to three parts that.

[marveen.livejournal.com]

It's just as bad as the British recipes that have everything in weights. Not everyone has a kitchen scale over here, and they're much more expensive than a set of measuring cups.

[conuly]

In fairness, my previous snarky reply notwithstanding, kitchen scales are much more reliable than measuring cups. A cup of sifted flour is less flour than a cup of unsifted flour, but an ounce of flour is always an ounce, sifted or otherwise.

[marveen.livejournal.com]

Ah, unless the humidity is acting up on you.

But that's why most American recipes specify sifted or unsifted and why most cookbooks place great emphasis on correctly measuring flour. (Spoon and level, not scoop and tap.)

[conuly]

I know that's why recipes specify it, but it's still annoying.

[gingembre.livejournal.com]

Eh. I go by the finished dough anyways - by feel that is. Too wet? More flour. Too crumbly? A bit of water, or more butter as the case may be. Occasionally more egg, with cookies.

I do most of my cooking by the "how does it feel" method. :-)

[conuly]

That's how God intended us to cook.

[missfahrenheit.livejournal.com]

My scales were less than $2, and they're not swishy or interesting or anything, but they work.

Weights are universal- a gram is a gram wherever you are. This is what's confusing about cups, because I have many different sized cups and have yet to find any properly-standadised measuring type things.

[conuly]

This is what's confusing about cups, because I have many different sized cups and have yet to find any properly-standadised measuring type things.

*giggles*

You need to buy a measuring cup. Hold on, I'll find a link.

[conuly]

A measuring cup.
A set of larger measuring spoons.
A smaller set of measuring spoons.

It's completely standardized - one cup is always the same size. A tablespoon is always three teaspoons, 16 tablespoons will always make one cup. A stick of butter is always one quarter pound (eight tablespoons).

[marveen.livejournal.com]

conuly already told you about standardization, so I'll restrict myself to the WTF about the scales.

Two dollars? Are you sure that's not a typo? My mother has kitchen scales that I thought were pleasingly inexpensive, and they were $14, fourteen dollars, plus tax.

King Arthur Flour carries a rather pricy model: http://shop.bakerscatalogue.com/items/catC82subC148.html .

[conuly]

Well, I suspect it's the same thing with the electric kettles. Over there, they seem to be fairly cheap (judging by the comments on the post) because they're used by everyone. Here, they're only used by real afficionados, so they're expensive.

Over there, everybody uses scales. They're cheap. Here, it's only serious cooks who use scales. They're expensive.

[missfahrenheit.livejournal.com]

I can't show you the model I've got since the company has a very unhelpful website (Asda, the cheapest UK supermarket, owned by WalMart), but these (http://www.argos.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Search?storeId=10001&referredURL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.argos.co.uk%2Fwebapp%2Fwcs%2Fstores%2Fservlet%2FSearch%3FstoreId%3D10001&referrer=FG13P&searchTerms=8400987&params=P12462) are terribly inexpensive.

[innerbrat]

The biggest culture shock I suffered in the US was things in packets. the supermarket had an aisle dedicated to macaroni cheese, for chrissakes. I was tryign to figure out how many ways of putting pasta, dried milk, flour and dried cheese together there were.

And I thought my hosts were just being "ye oldie quaint" with their old-fashioned kettle.

[conuly]

1. And people wonder why we have such high heart attack rates.
2. Nope. But now you know.

Which American supermarket was this again?

[marveen.livejournal.com]

Because I've never seen a supermarket with a whole aisle dedicated to macaroni AND cheese. *grins* I've always seen just a shelf or two of the boxes next to the pasta (far outmatched by the dozens and dozens of bottled/canned spaghetti sauces).

Re: Which American supermarket was this again?

[innerbrat]

I think it was an organic place. I want to say Wild Oats, but I'm not sure that's even a place. Sorry. I spent most of my time in the desert.

Re: Which American supermarket was this again?

[rachelkachel]

That's a real place, but it's not the type I'd expect to have packaged macaroni and cheese. Though I've never been there, so what do I know?

Re: Which American supermarket was this again?

[innerbrat]

Well it might have been another place, but I can't remember the name of that one. I do know that Wild Oats sold a wide range of varients on the pasta and cheese sauce theme, including one with vegetarian parmesan, which was nice.