
BRITISH
COOKERY EQUIVALENTS

When confronted with an American
recipe, a British cook will usually see ingredients given in
cups, teaspoons and tablespoons. There may occasionally be references
to pounds, ounces, pints or fluid ounces, but they're not that
common. In addition, there will be several ingredients that are
unfamiliar, or simply unobtainable in the UK.
So, what's a British cook to
do?
When it comes to measuring, the
first point to remember is that if pints and fluid ounces are
given, then they should be converted to British pints and fluid
ounces. Fortunately, the British fluid ounce is only very slightly
adrift and, except for the most critical cooking, they can be
considered the same. However, the pint is markedly different.
So:
- To convert US fluid ounces to
British fluid ounces - multiply by 1.04
- To convert US pints to British
pints - multiply by 0.83
- Some US recipes do give the
measurements in metric ml, in which case no conversion is needed.
Measuring
Cups and Spoons
In America, a cup is 8 US fluid
ounces, a tablespoon is 1/2 US fluid ounce, and a teaspoon is
1/6 US fluid ounce. While you can use a British teaspoon or tablespoon
measure (5ml and 15ml, as used for medicines, are very close
to the US measures of a teaspoon and tablespoon), don't be tempted
to use a British cup. The standard British cup is half a pint,
or 10 fluid ounces, and it's about a fifth greater than the US
equivalent.
This table gives
the equivalents with an accuracy slightly greater than is practical
for measuring.
Equivalents:
|
US
Measure |
US Volume |
British |
Metric |
| 1 teaspoon |
1/6 fluid
oz. |
0.17
fluid oz |
4.9 ml |
| 1 tablespoon |
1/2 fluid
oz. |
.52 fluid
oz |
14.8 ml |
| 1 cup |
8 fluid ozs. |
8.3 fluid ozs. |
237 ml |
- 1 cup = 16 tablespoons
= 48 teaspoons / 1 tablespoon = 3 teaspoons
Although these measurements work
just fine for liquids, dry ingredients are also measured in cups
and spoons and this creates a further problem: British cooks
are used to flour, sugar and so on being measured by weight.
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