Australian Cooking Terms

[JustJanS]

I just started this list using Sackville Girl's British one for inspiration. If you can think of anything to include, let me know. If you NZer's give me a list, I'll do the same for you. EG chilly bin = esky

Australian terms on the left, US on the right
27-30g = 1 square of chocolate
125g butter = stick = 1/2 cup

baking tray = cookie sheet
barbecue = grill
beef olives = rouladen
beetroot = beet
bi-carb soda = baking soda
biscuit = cracker or cookie
bottling = canning
bread rolls = buns
broad bean = fava bean

cake cooler = wire rack
cake tin = pan
capsicum = bell pepper
casserole dinner (or tea) = potluck
caster sugar = superfine granulated
celery stick = celery rib
chick peas = garbanzos
chicken pieces = chicken parts
chips = french fries or crisps
coconut, desiccated (unsweetened) = coconut, shredded (often sweetened)
copha = white vegetable shortening
coriander (leaves) = cilantro
corn flour = corn starch
cos = romaine lettuce
cream, whipping (37% fat) = cream, heavy/heavy whipping (min 36% fat)

demerara = sugar light brown cane sugar
dressing = mayonaise or viniagrette
dripping = fat from roasted meat

endive = chicory
entree = the course preceding the main course
essence = extract
evaporated milk - Pet Milk(brand name)

fairy bread = bread and butter with coloured sprinkles
fairy cake = cupcake
fairy floss = cotton candy
fillet (of meat) = tenderloin
french bean = green bean
frying pan = skillet

ginger nut = ginger snap
glacé = candied
glad bake = parchment paper
glad wrap = saran wrap or plastic wrap
golden syrup = similar to light corn syrup
greaseproof paper = wax paper
grill = broil

hundred and thousands = sprinkles

icing = frosting
icing sugar = confectioners' sugar, powdered sugar

jacket potato = baked potato
jam = jelly
jelly = jell-o
jelly crystals = flavoured gelatin
joint (of meat) = large cut of meat with bone

kitchen paper = paper towel

lolly = candy

maltesers = chocolate covered malt balls
Marie biscuits = vanilla wafers (any plain sweet biscuit will do!)
mince = ground meat
mixed peel = candied peel

offal = variety meats (liver, heart, kidney)
omelette = omelet
oven slide = cookie sheet

pasta sauce (jarred) = tomato sauce
pastie = meat turnover
pastry case = pie shell
patty cake = cup cake
pawpaw = papaya
pepper/capsicum = bell pepper
pig’s trotter = pig’s foot
pips = seeds
plain flour = all purpose flour
porridge = cooked oatmeal
prawns = shrimp
pudding = dessert

rasher = slice (most often used in terms of bacon)
rice bubbles = rice crispies (breakfast cereal)
ring tin = tube pan
rocket = argula
rockmelon = cantaloupe
roast = baked
rump steak = sirloin

saladas = saltines
self raising flour = all-purpose flour with baking powder
semolina = farina
shandy = beer with sprite
sherbert = powdered candy
silverbeet = Swiss chard
silverside = beef cut from the rump
skirt steak = flank steak
slice = bar
soft drink = soda
southern biscuits = scones
spring onion = scallion/green onion
sponge finger = lady finger
stock cubes = boullion Cubes
stoned = seeded
stuffing = dressing
sultanas = golden raisins
swiss roll tin = jelly roll pan
swede = turnip or rutebaga

tea towel = dish towel
toffee = taffy
tomato sauce = ketchup
treacle = similar to molasses

vermicelli, chocolate = sprinkles, chocolate

[Ilysse]

Hi Jan, some of these are really helpful, thank you.

I really am enjoying the Australian dishes here. I've never really looked into Australian cooking b4 but I love it now. I'm even eating Vegemite sandwiches lol (actually Marrmite is the only thing I could find around here).

I have been running into something alot in the recipes posted mostly by Australians that I hope you can help me with. Many call for a "tasty cheese". I have understood this, in some recipes, to be a cheddar or cheddar like cheese, but I was wondering if maybe there is an Australian cheese that I should be looking for or should I just wing it and understand that to mean I should use what I like?

Ok, so I never said it was going to be a good question, but some of these recipes look really good, regardless of the cheese, but I would hate to use the wrong stuff. How can I review something without using what the poster intended.

Thanks for your help.

[JustJanS]

Hi and welcome Illyse. Tasty cheese is a cheddar style cheese, we can buy it from mild to extremely sharp (extra vintage tasty) and it's very popular in Australia. I personally would use whatever hard, well flavoured cheese I could get if cheddar is difficult to find.
Of course you can review still, I find it a help for other people in the same situation if you tell about your substutuions

[Ilysse]

Thank you so much, I feel better now
Cheddar is easy, you should have seen me asking for vegimite .

I just ment if I had used, say, blue cheese in place of the tasty cheese called for and it was really bad, it would not seem fare to me to leave a bad review since I didn't use, at least, a close relative of the cheese. There is a big difference between cheddar and blue but subing american wouldn't be so bad. If its good then who cares

Now that I have confused every one. Thanks again

[Stella Mae]

Thanks for this list! Caster sugar is one I was not sure about, and now I know I can come here when I run into trouble with some recipes my New Zealand friend in Brisbane gives me.

[Chef #178115]

this helped me a lot as I was having trouble with the American terms.
could anyone tell me what is Bisquick and also Knox herb soup mix.

[mummamills]

I have a daughter in Philly,
I didnt realise how different a language she had to put up with

[mummamills]

I can help
bisquick is a biscuit mix like our bakeo
there are a few recipes here, so you can make your own.

[Stella Mae]

Bisquick -- it means "quick bisquits" -- is a packaged mix in a box, a short cut since the mix contains yeast and baking powder -- sort of no fail when you're in a hurry. Bisquick makes a good pizza crust, etc., and very nice biscuits. Here's a homemade recipe for biscuits -- what you might call a damper. Southern Biscuits are light and fluffy rolls, usually eaten for breakfast but good anytime.

Knox soup mix I'm not familiar with. Do you mean Knox gelatin (plain gelatin, no flavor) or Knorr soup mix? If there is such a thing as Knox soup mix, it'd be on the order of Knorr, packages you can open and pour into a mug and add hot water. Good!

[Chef #178115]

thank you mummamills & stellaMae thats helps me out, can work from ther now

[Stephen Dunne]

so they're exactly the same as british then??
why create ?

[JustJanS]

Stephen Dunne wrote:
so they're exactly the same as british then??
why create ?

Welcome to Austalian/New Zealand cooking Stepehen.
I used the British list as inspiration, but there are different terms still for the same words with in both lists.

[oriana]

ok i don't think I saw this on the list but is shortening their term for margarine as I always think of the vegetable shortening Copha but I'm sure that isn't what they use in some of these recipes or it would be gross!

[Daydream]

Jan, here are some more to add to your list:

cake cooler = wire rack
celery stick = celery rib
coconut, desiccated (unsweetened) = coconut, shredded (often sweetened)
copha = white vegetable shortening
cream, whipping (37% fat) = cream, heavy/heavy whipping (min 36% fat)
dripping = fat from roasted meat
fairy bread = bread and butter with colored sprinkles
fillet (of meat) = tenderloin
frying pan = skillet
ginger nut = ginger snap
glad wrap - also = saran wrap
hundreds and thousands = colored sprinkles
icing = frosting
jelly = jell-o
joint (of meat) = large cut of meat with bone
kitchen paper = paper towel
lamington tin = 13" x 9" x 2" pan
oven slide = cookie sheet
pastie = meat turnover
pastry case = pie shell
pawpaw = papaya
pig’s trotter = pig’s foot
porridge = cooked oatmeal
pudding = dessert
ring tin = tube pan
rockmelon = cantaloupe
rump steak = sirloin
semolina = farina
sherbert = powdered candy
silverbeet = Swiss chard
silverside = beef cut from the rump
skirt steak = flank steak
southern biscuits = scones
sponge finger = lady finger
stock cubes = boullion Cubes
swiss roll tin = jelly roll pan
tea towel = dish towel
toffey = taffy
vermicelli, chocolate = sprinkles, chocolate

[JustJanS]

Daydream wrote:
Jan, here is some more to add to your list

bream = sole
*sole is a flat fish, bream swims upright-look quite different in Vic

cream, whipping = cream, light/half-and-half
* I always thought whipping and heavy were the same, half and half like light cream

glace cherries = maraschino cherries
*glace are in a sticky syrup marachino are in a thin runny liquid

jew/dhu fish = halibut
dhu is an upright swimming fish, halibut a big flat fish

ring tin = tube pan
*I'm imagining a tube pan is what I would cook a date roll in

rump steak = sirloin
*Rump is from the rear, sirloin is cut from the ribs in Vic. It's waht we used to call porterhouse.


vermicelli, chocolate = sprinkles, chocolate

*I've never heard it called chocolate vermicilli


Thanks for those Wendy, and please don't think I'm being precious but there's a few I'm not sure on, I'll list them here. It might be a WA/Vic thing If anypne can help us, I'd appreciate it as I'd hate to list the wrong things there