Proof Americans and Brits speak a different language

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  • Roast beef and Yorkshire Pud' yes, buy I've not had Road in The Hole since I left home at 18.
  • Whoops, Toad not Road ...
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    Roast beef and Yorkshire Pud' yes, buy I've not had Road in The Hole since I left home at 18.

    That's bizarre. It's a staple in our gaff. First thing Boy#1 learnt to cook.
  • Even I make Toad in the Hole occasionally - it's one of the few things that works dairy and gluten free (GF sausages and flour, unsweetened soya milk, eggs) - and to irritate you all, I'll often measure the flour using a cup, because 4oz of flour is roughly a cup (and I'll make a half amount for two of us.)
  • I had no idea the name of sausages floating in batter was called toad in a hole. About 45 years ago a bad cook at a summer camp where I worked made it and another which was sauerkraut with sausages similarly floating in it. Horrible both. I thought both were Ukrainian foods. Who knew.
  • Regarding hardtack: The Wiki on hardtack.

  • The sausages don't 'float' in batter ...

    I tell a lie, I had Toad in The Hole at my mother in law's during the '90s. Unlike 'our Mam' and my late wife she was a terrible cook.

    I do bangers and mash but generally the staples chez Gamaliel are stir fries, curries, risottos, paella and French style casseroles. I do Welsh stuff occasionally.
  • I have a set of measuring cups and a set of measuring spoons. The spoons, in particular, are very useful for measuring “half a teaspoon “ and such like.
    Regarding the use of cups, could you use any cup for a particular recipe? American recipes would seem to work on proportions of ingredients. Mind, I have a Winnie the Pooh cookbook which measures things in yoghurt pots.
  • The only North American recipes I've tried are 'cobbles' - similar to UK crumbles - and I'll definitely add them to the repertoire more often.

    By and large, my diet is fairly Mediterranean / continental but with traditional British roasts and such on Sundays.
  • The only North American recipes I've tried are 'cobbles' - similar to UK crumbles - and I'll definitely add them to the repertoire more often.
    Do you mean cobbler?

  • Yes, it was a typo.
  • rhubarbrhubarb Shipmate
    When trying a new recipe I carefully measure ingredients, but most of the things I cook are known so well that I'm able to throw them together without any measuring or much thought at all. As my late mother would say, she made them up out of her own head. She was a brilliant cook.
  • Sure, but that only comes with practice. I don't bother measuring for familiar recipes.

    I'm surprised at those who say they don't use scales. I go 'by eye' mostly but have always had a set of scales of one form or other and always use them on first time recipes. I do have a repertoire of stuff that seems to do itself without my having to think too hard, but I do like to try new things. Mainly I improvise with bits and bobs that are left over.
  • Penny SPenny S Shipmate
    edited April 2020
    When I learned baking at home (school Dom Sci had scales), I used a tablespoon to measure ingredients. A rounded tbsp of flour was an ounce. Sugar would have been less rounded to be an ounce. Butter came in blocks which could be measured off as slabs - many wrappers were marked with ounce divisions. It could easily be done by eye. We were using volume, just with different measuring devices and calling what we were measuring by weight. I'm pretty sure it was general for home cooks to count the spoons into the bowl. Except for Victoria sponge where it was necessary to put the eggs (in shell) on one side of the scales and balance the flour and sugar on the other side.
    At school we had a set of measuring jugs - we even had gills (1/4 of a pint).
  • We call "cobbler' as in apple cobbler, "apple crisp".

    Re scales, I did get one given me, which I used for a while to measure out a scant 750g of dough to make identical loaves of bread. These are roughly 1.5 lb loaves. The battery went some years ago and I've not replaced.

    After writing that, do you say "scant" when measuring, it means "up to, but not over".
  • DooneDoone Shipmate
    Penny S wrote: »
    When I learned baking at home (school Dom Sci had scales), I used a tablespoon to measure ingredients. A rounded tbsp of flour was an ounce. Sugar would have been less rounded to be an ounce. Butter came in blocks which could be measured off as slabs - many wrappers were marked with ounce divisions. It could easily be done by eye. We were using volume, just with different measuring devices and calling what we were measuring by weight. I'm pretty sure it was general for home cooks to count the spoons into the bowl. Except for Victoria sponge where it was necessary to put the eggs (in shell) on one side of the scales and balance the flour and sugar on the other side.
    At school we had a set of measuring jugs - we even had gills (1/4 of a pint).

    Ah, yes, I’d forgotten doing all that, memories flooding back!
  • Re scales, I did get one given me, which I used for a while to measure out a scant 750g of dough to make identical loaves of bread. These are roughly 1.5 lb loaves. The battery went some years ago and I've not replaced.

    After writing that, do you say "scant" when measuring, it means "up to, but not over".
    Not here. “Scant” used in that way here would mean “not quite or just under 750g,” the general meaning of “scant” here being “not enough or insufficient.”

  • Gramps49Gramps49 Shipmate
    When I hear "jug" I think of a plastic container that has a cap on it that is usually used to contain milk. You can get them in either a gallon or half-gallon size. It is also a slang term used for female mammary anatomy. "She has a good set of jugs."

    This is the first time I have ever heard a measuring cup referred to as a jug. I continue to learn quite a bit on this thread.

    Also, "jug" can be used to refer to stealing or finessing.
  • Gramps49 wrote: »
    When I hear "jug" I think of a plastic container that has a cap on it that is usually used to contain milk.
    I think primarily of a pottery or glass container with a small mouth that can be stoppered with a cork, and a plastic milk container secondarily because it resembles a pottery or glass jug.
  • Gracious RebelGracious Rebel Shipmate
    edited April 2020
    A jug to me (and most Brits I imagine) is neither of the above and definitely doesn't have a stopper. It is an open topped container made of glass pottery or plastic, with a handle on one side and a lip on the opposite side, used to pour out liquids...I have a feeling that in the USA it might be called a pitcher.

    We don't have a special name for plastic milk containers...just 'milk container'.
  • Yes, it would be, at least around here. Speaking just for me, when I hear the word “jug,” I picture something like this or this.

  • A jug is like a pitcher per @Gracious Rebel , but tends to be smaller. Your first picture @Nick Tamen wouldn't load for me, your second one is a growler.
  • Sorry about the first picture, NP. Try this, which is similar.

    The second picture is what around here would be associated with moonshine, though it could be used for other things as well.

    Here, growler is only used with regard to beer, specifically beer from craft breweries and bottle shops. A growler is a specific kind of glass jug for beer, which can be taken back to the brewery and refilled.

  • Yes re "pitcher", and Nick's jug links.
  • Gramps49Gramps49 Shipmate
    More on the father of Little Women

    Formerly wealthy, Robert helped friends who could not repay a debt, resulting in his family's genteel poverty. A scholar and a minister, he served as a chaplain in the Union Army during the Civil War and was wounded in December 1862. His wife and daughters loved him very much, and missed him while he was away from home.

    Also, this.
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    'Pitcher' isn't much used in UK English IME - I'd never use or expect "pitcher" in spontaneous speech - always "jug"
  • Penny SPenny S Shipmate
    edited April 2020
    Nick's jug, I realise, is the sort used to make music, which one couldn't do with British jugs - except by hitting them, not blowing over the mouth.
    I searched images of jugs, which brought up both sorts, but also a few intermediate objects, which could be used for pouring out through a lip, as in British jugs, but with a narrowing of the top towards a spout - not narrow enought for a normal stopper, or to blow across. Interesting.
  • TheOrganistTheOrganist Shipmate
    edited April 2020
    Nick Tamen wrote: »
    Sorry about the first picture, NP. Try this, which is similar.

    The second picture is what around here would be associated with moonshine, though it could be used for other things as well.

    Here, growler is only used with regard to beer, specifically beer from craft breweries and bottle shops. A growler is a specific kind of glass jug for beer, which can be taken back to the brewery and refilled.

    In UK English those would be called flagons.

    Occasionally a flagon may have a handle and lip, in which case they have a hinged lid.

    As for a growler, I understand that to refer to a small iceberg, such as holed the SS Titanic.
  • Wet KipperWet Kipper Shipmate
    edited April 2020
    are none of you fans of the excellent "something rhymes with purple" podcast, with Susie Dent (OED and Countdown dictionary corner) and Giles Brandreth?
    30 minutes of chat weekly about the use and origins of words (usually in British English), I really recommend it (though warning, they don't hold back in discussions of rude words also).
    If you were, you might be "schoolboy sniggering" like me about all these mentions of growlers.
  • Robert ArminRobert Armin Shipmate
    edited April 2020
    I was about to comment on @Nick Tamen's flagons, but @TheOrganist beat me to it. And many thanks for the information on Mr March @Gramps49 .

    As for jugs, here is one. Jug
    Specifically one of the aforementioned Pyrex measuring type, which are essential for any cooking. (This is my first attempt at including a link on my phone, and I've clearly bolloxed it up. Could a kindly Host redeem the situation please?)

    [link redeemed by kindly HH!]
  • I'd probably call that second thing @Nick Tamen a jug. Because it's earthen ware.
    Wet Kipper wrote: »
    are none of you fans of the excellent "something rhymes with purple" podcast, with Susie Dent (OED and Countdown dictionary corner) and Giles Brandreth?
    30 minutes of chat weekly about the use and origins of words (usually in British English), I really recommend it (though warning, they don't hold back in discussions of rude words also).
    If you were, you might be "schoolboy sniggering" like me about all these mentions of growlers.
    We'd say "snickering" not sniggering.
  • Nick TamenNick Tamen Shipmate
    edited April 2020
    We'd say "snickering" not sniggering.
    As would we.

    Meanwhile, I rarely hear “flagon” used here, except to refer to the container from which sacramental wine is poured into the chalice at the Eucharist.

  • EnochEnoch Shipmate
    That's what a jug means to me. Specifically, a 'jug' is anything that shape with a handle and a pouring lip and a 'measuring jug' is one marked with mils, pints etc as in the picture. And definitely 'snigger' not 'snicker'. A snicker is a type of chocolate bar with nuts inside it.
  • Penny SPenny S Shipmate
    And used to be a Marathon, and should still be.
  • Enoch wrote: »
    That's what a jug means to me. Specifically, a 'jug' is anything that shape with a handle and a pouring lip and a 'measuring jug' is one marked with mils, pints etc as in the picture. And definitely 'snigger' not 'snicker'. A snicker is a type of chocolate bar with nuts inside it.
    The chocolate bar would be a Snickers, not a Snicker.

    And though this thread is full of fascinating differences, the jug difference is really interesting to me, since the wide mouth and pouring lip are what would make a container for liquid something other than a jug here.

  • Penny SPenny S Shipmate
    I am hearing Danny Kaye in "The Court Jester" singing about the flagon with the dragon.
  • KarlLB wrote: »
    You've not had a Toad in the Hole for decades? What's wrong with you man?
    I've had Toad in the Hole a lot more recently than that, and a decent Toad is pretty hard to come by here.

    Since we live in the US, we have measuring cups (because American recipes, and most of the things we cook are the sort where either "close enough" is good enough, or you can see how it's going and adjust a bit on the fly. But we obviously also own digital kitchen scales (which read in pounds and ounces as well as grammes and kilogrammes - I don't think anyone makes a digital scale that doesn't switch), and I weigh ingredients for anything that wants to be accurate.

    I also still have the UK plastic measuring jug (with volume markings in pints and ml, as well as weight markings for flour (in grammes and ounces)) that I've had since I was a student.
  • Since we're talking about jugs, why are they slang for the female chest? The physical resemblance isn't obvious to me, whichever sort you're using.
  • The Online Etymology Dictionary says that the first recorded use in this sense is from 1920, that it was Australian slang, and that it’s short for “milk jugs.”

  • That makes sense, but I had no idea it was an Australian term originally.
  • I get the feeling that the Easter Bunny is made more of in the States than in Britain. It seems to have a distinct personality, as far as I can make it, while over here we get chocolate rabbits and that's it. Or am I out of touch with my own culture again?

    It's definitely coming over here, particularly targeting the 'young enough to believe in Santa' age group, and those of an age to enjoy Easter egg hunts. It's also big enough in New Zealand the PM reassured children that the Easter Bunny is an essential worker, albeit he might not have the same access to chocolate this year.

    I call the plastic containers milk comes in bottles, just like the glass ones the milkman would deliver.

  • Gramps49Gramps49 Shipmate
    I call the plastic containers milk comes in bottles, just like the glass ones the milkman would deliver

    A profession that has all but died in the United States, though there has been somewhat of a resurgence because of the pandemic.
  • Pendragon wrote: »

    I call the plastic containers milk comes in bottles, just like the glass ones the milkman would deliver.

    I wouldn't call it a bottle if it looks like this

    although I suppose I would if it looked like this Basically I guess for me a bottle doesn't have a handle!

    But nearly all those we see in UK are the first type, for pasteurised milk. In Europe the second type is more common, and tends to be UHT milk (yuk)


  • "Gracious wrote:
    <snip> ... to be UHT milk (yuk)

    Years ago a friend from Iran introduced me to a useful trick. If forced back onto UHT milk (1) never use the full-fat variety, and (2) rather than using it neat, add the UHT to at least a tablespoonful of "real" milk. It doesn't totally disguise the taste but makes it much pleasanter.

  • I thought that jugs for boobs had almost died out in UK. Having said that, no doubt it survives in Kidderminster street slang, or somewhere.
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    Nah. Still in use around here. Causes sniggering amongst rock climbers...
  • Gramps49Gramps49 Shipmate
    Here is a question I hope our august participants will address:

    Which is "proper" English:

    "I am visiting Fred"?

    or

    "I am visiting with Fred"?

    I will check your answers later.

  • AravisAravis Shipmate
    We still have a milkman!
    And we eat toad in the hole (with Quorn sausages and some chunks of sweet potato in it).
  • BoogieBoogie Shipmate
    We have a milkman, who delivers the milk in glass bottles. Green top for full fat, red for semi-skimmed, gold for Jersey and blue for skimmed.

    :)
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Gramps49 wrote: »
    Here is a question I hope our august participants will address:

    Which is "proper" English:

    "I am visiting Fred"?

    or

    "I am visiting with Fred"?

    I will check your answers later.

    I always understood the second to be a borrowing from German where you besuchen mitt. In English English, it would mean the two of us - Fred and me - were doing the visiting.
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