Expat Guide

Cooking Conversions and Equivalents

Food Ingredient Equivalents
 
Different names, same thing. Some foods in Britain have a different name to what it’s called in the US, here are the most common confusing foods.
Food Equivalents, Substitutions, and Common Measurements
BritishAmerican
aubergineeggplant
beef, Rump Steakbeef, Top Round
bicarbonate of sodabaking soda
caster sugargranulated sugar
clotted creamno equivalent
coriandercilantro
cornflourcornstarch
courgettezucchini
cream, clottedno equivalent
cream, doubleheavy cream
cream, singlehalf and half cream
digestive biscuitsGraham crackers or other crackers
emethalerswiss cheese
flank steakLondon broil
flour, strongbread flour
flour, wholemealflour, wholewheat
gelatinegelatin
glucose syruplight corn syrup
golden syrupcorn syrup
icing sugarconfectioners' sugar
madras curry powdercurry powder
mince "meats"ground "meats"
pastry casepie shell
pine kernelpine nut
plain flourall purpose flour
polentacornmeal
salad onionspring onion, scallion
self raising (SR) flouruse all purpose flour adding a raising agent
swederutebega
tomato pureetomato paste
vanilla essencevanilla extract
whipping creamheavy cream
Butter/Margarine
1 pound/ 450grams2 cups
4 ounces1/2 cup
2 ounces1/4 cup
1/2 ounce1 Tablespoon
Flour
1 pound/ 450grams4 cups
8 ounces / 250 grams2 cups
4 ounces / 125 grams1 cup
2 ounces1/2 cup
1 ounce1/4 cup
Sugar (Granulated/Caster)
1 pound/ 450grams2 cups
8 ounces1 cup
4 ounces1/2 cup
2 ounces1/4 cup
1/2 ounce1 Tablespoon
 
Equivalent Measures
 
To aid you in your kitchen, this area includes the most common cooking conversions and tips such as dry measure, spoons, liquid measures, and metric equivalents.
Spoons - British Tablespoons vary slightly, UK holds 17.7ml while the US version holds 14.2 ml.
UKUS
1 teaspoon1 teaspoon
1 tablespoon1 tablespoon
2 tablespoons3 tablespoons
3.5 tablespoons4 tablespoons
4 tablespoons5 tablespoons
Metric Conversion - US to Metric 
CapacityWeight
1/5 teaspoon 1 milliliter1 oz 28 grams
1 teaspoon 5 ml1 pound454 grams
1 tablespoon 15 ml   
1 fluid oz30 ml  
1/5 cup 47 ml  
1 cup 237 ml  
2 cups (1 pint) 473 ml  
4 cups (1 quart) .95 liter  
4 quarts (1 gal.) 3.8 liters  
Oven Temperatures - Farenheit, Celsius, and Gas Marks 
degrees Fdegrees CGas Mark
15070
17580
200100
2251101/4
2501201/2
2751401
3001502
3251603
3501804
3751905
4002006
4252207
4502308
4752409
 
Liquid - British Pints differ to US Pints, UK pint measures 20 fluid ounces while the US pint holds 16 fluid ounces.
UKUS
1/4 pint2/3 cup
1/2 pint1 1/4 cups
3/4 pint2 cups
1 pint2 1/2 cups
1 1/2 pints3 3/4 cups
2 pints5 cups (2 1/2 pints)

 

Note the UK and US Gallons actually differ by a bit!

Metric Conversion - Metric to US 
CapacityWeight
1 milliliter 1/5 teaspoon1 gram .035 ounce
5 ml 1 teaspoon100 grams 3.5 ounces
15 ml 1 tablespoon500 grams1.10 pounds
100 ml 3.4 fluid oz1 kilogram 2.205 pounds35 oz
240 ml 1 cup  
1 liter 34 fluid oz4.2 cups2.1 pints1.06 quarts0.26 gallon    
Bakeware Sizes - Equivalents 
1 Round Cake Tin1 Square Pan 1 inch smaller
800ml/1-1/2pint pudding basin 14cm/ 5-1/2 inch round deep cake tin
1.2 litre/2 pint pudding basin (UK Pint)15cm/6inch round deep cake tin or 12.5 cm/5inch square deep tin
1kg/2lb loaf tin 18cm/7inch square shallow cake tin or a 33 x 23 cm/13 x 9 inch Swiss roll tin

 

US / UK (Europe) Egg Sizes

UK eggs are actually larger than US egg sizes, so where a US recipe calls for large eggs, you'll want to use UK medium eggs. (Canadian egg sizes are close to US sizes.)

You may come across eggs without a size label, take the weight in grams and divide by the number of eggs and match to the size. You may find your UK small egg is a US peewee and in that case you may want to measure by cups to get the equivalent of large eggs as the table further below.

SizeUSUK/EU Weight
Peewee35 - 42g 
Small43 - 49g <= 53g
Medium50 - 56g53 - 63g 
Large57 - 63g63 - 73g 
X-Large64 - 70g>= 73g 
Jumbo>= 71g 

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_egg_sizes

Convert by cup measurement (for US Recipes) if you're unsure:


TO MAKE 1 CUP

EGG SIZEWHOLEWHITESYOLKS

Jumbo4511
X-Large4612
Large5714
Medium5816
Small6918

Source: http://www.georgiaeggs.org/pages/sizeequivalents.html

 

US Recipe US Egg Size Substitutes 

LARGEJUMBOX-LARGEMEDIUMSMALL
11111
22222
33334
43455
54467
6557

 

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