A Note On International Differences

I'm going to be using a sort of mixed metaphor when writing here, references from both the UK and US. This post is about some of the biggest differences between us so everyone can cook happily and understand what the heck I'm saying. If I don't address something, then let me know and I'll do my best to fix it, unless you have a gas mark oven. I can't help you with that because they just don't make sense. You know it's true. Get real numbers!

First, grocery stores/supermarkets. In the UK, you can shop in Tesco's, Sainsbury's, Waitrose, Mark's and Spencer's, Iceland, and a variety of specialty stores. Iceland is a frozen food store. Tesco's and Sainsbury's are equal to say, Stop and Shop, Safeway, Piggly Wiggly, etc. Waitrose is a high end specialty store like King's in the North Jersey area, or Whole Foods without the same hard focus on organics. Mark's and Spencer's is close to Waitrose, but they have only own brand foods and they're not as fancy. And specialty stores are specialty stores, we all know what you can get there.

Second, measurements. If you're in America and you see one of my recipes that has metric measurements, you can switch to the other side of your measuring cup if you have one of those pyrex ones. Most of the time though, I'll be using American measurements and UK people are going to have to do the adjusting. The biggest things that need to be said are that one cup is 8 ounces. 3 teaspoons make up a tablespoon. When you're dealing with tablespoons of butter, which is a common measurement over here, you should know that our butter comes in one pound (16 ounce) packages. They're separated into quarters, each quarter is 8 tablespoons. So, 4 ounces of butter is 8 tablespoons. 

Oh, and one kilo is 2.2 pounds, which makes 1 pound a little less than 500 grams.

Dizzy yet?