CONVERTERS AND CONVERSION CHARTS

Food Substitution Chart

Australian Food Confusion An American was chatting with an Aussie on the Internet, when she said she had to stop to make her hungry son a peanut butter and jelly sandwich (also called P B & J). The confused Aussie said she had never heard of a "dessert" sandwich.

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It took a while for the equally confused American to discover that jelly to Aussies is the same as Jello (gelatine) to her. In other words, the Aussie wanted to know why her friend would want to eat a Jello and peanut butter sandwich.

The cultural differences in food can be quite entertaining. However, when you're trying to use a recipe from another country, it's nice to know what they're talking about. You'll find on this page some common cooking conversions.

Cornflour (Australia)
Cornstarch (USA)
In Australia cornflour is frequently made from wheat and it is usually described as wheaten cornflour. There are some brands of cornflour that are made from maize, however.

Cornflower/cornstarch is used to thicken sauces. It has no taste of its own to interfere with your recipe. To use it, blend with double the amount of cold liquid. Stir it into the sauce to be thickened. Keep stirring as the mixture comes to a boil. It will thicken and become clear.

Fats

Cooking with fats can be rather tricky when you're substituting one for another. In general, you can substitute butter for shortening.

For most things that substitution works for me, however, in a bickies recipe I have, it didn't work. They were runny when baked and looked awful. Luckily they tasted good, but not good enough to

serve to anyone. I'm still working on that recipe.

Shortening is a white, solid fat made from vegetable oil. (If you see a recipe calling for Crisco, they're talking about shortening. Crisco is a brand name.) You'll find it a common ingredient in US cooking, used for frying, cakes,

Australian	American
Dairy
full-cream milk	whole milk
skim milk	skim or fat free or non-fat milk
light or lite milk	2% milk
cream, whipping	cream, heavy
cream, single	cream, half and half
cream, double	cream, thick
Baking and Baked Goods
flour, plain	flour, all-purpose
flour, self raising	flour, self-rising
flour, whole meal	flour, whole wheat
corn flour	cornstarch
bicarbonate of soda	baking soda
chillies	chilli pepper
essence	extract
vanilla essence	vanilla extract
glace fruits	candied fruits
zest, lemon, etc	zest or rind, lemon, etc
desiccated coconut	shredded, dried coconut
stock cubes	bullion cubes
copha *	white vegetable shortening (Crisco)
golden syrup **	corn or cane syrup
molasses or treacle	molasses
icing	frosting
icing sugar	powdered or confectioners sugar
caster sugar ***	sugar, granulated (but finer)
hundreds & thousands	sprinkles (closest equivalent)
chocolate, cooking	chocolate, baking
cocoa	cocoa powder
Baking Tools
baking tray	cookie sheet
oven slide	cookie sheet
cake cooler	wire rack
cake tin	baking pan
ring tin	tube pan
Swiss roll tin	jelly roll pan
lamington tin	13" x 9" x 2" pan
greaseproof paper	wax paper
patty cups	paper cupcake holders
tea towel	dish towel
trolley	shopping cart
frying pan	frying
griller (separate from oven)	broiler (inside oven)

pastry and frostings as well as other things.
* Copra is a solid fat made from coconuts. Available in blocks or cubes, it is white but becomes clear when melted. While some people use lard as a replacement, you might want to try vegetable shortening instead for a healthier alternative.

Cream

Double cream has a fat content of 48% making it very rich. It's the most versatile of the creams because it can be boiled, whipped and frozen well.

Thickened cream has a fat content of at least 35%.

Single cream has a fat content of at least 18%. It's also known as pouring cream and commonly used in soups, sauces and desserts.

Creme fraiche has a fat content of at least 35%. It's a naturally fermented cream with a velvety texture. Used in both sweet and savoury dishes, creme fraiche has a slightly tangy, nutty flavour. It's a good choice when you need a cream that can boil without curdling.

Sugar and Other Sweeteners

Always remember, while a certain substitute might work fine for one recipe, it may not for another. So always test a recipe before using it for an important event. Or try it on a friend who has a good sense of humour and loves an adventure.

** Golden syrup is similar to corn syrup in the USA. For a sweet flavour choose light corn syrup and for a slightly molasses flavour choose dark corn syrup. (If you see a recipe calling for Karo, they're talking about corn syrup in the US.) You'll need to experiment to find which type of corn syrup works for the particular recipe you're trying.

*** Caster sugar is a bit finer than granulated sugar in the USA. The only thing that's about as close in the US is superfine sugar. However, for most recipes you can use caster sugar for granulated sugar.

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