British food terms

[torakris]

I have borrowed my friend copy of Nigella lawson's 'How to Eat' and have stumbled across some ingredients that I am not sure what they are.

If anyone could help....

what are:

mangetout

swede

muscovado sugar

There maybe more coming as I have not finished the book yet!

[Saffy]

Mangetout - snow peas - the flat ones in the pod that are nice to eat whole and raw.

swede - rutabaga ( sorry not sure of your spelling )

muscovado sugar - this is a type of sugar that is unrefined and still has a high molasses content. look to see if the recipe states light or dark and substitute light or dark brown soft sugar if you can't get muscovado. Muscovado is also called barbados or moist sugar I believe.

[torakris]

Thank you!

I thought a swede was a rutabaga, but wasn't sure.

Mangetout was one of those words i had heard before but couldn't place.

muscavado sugar was a new one for me.

A couple more:

English round lettuce (iceberg?)

smetana

Italian 00 flour (more info about this please! protein content?)

[Jon Tseng]

smetana is eastern european/russian sour cream (i think).

italian oo flour would be "strong flour" or pasta flour.

iceberg should do on the lettuce front. am not aware of any other particularly english lettuce, but note than as a rule of thumb i tend to avoid healthy food

cheerio

j

[Tonyfinch]

I think smetana has a lower fat content than conventional sour cream but more than yogurt.

[Miss J]

Iceberg is too crisp. I think what we call English round lettuce is also referred to as Bibb in North America - although I'm making a guess here, as I grew up calling it Butterhead lettuce. Whatever you choose to call it, you're looking for a small, round lettuce with soft, light green, slightly floppy leaves. Good luck!

Ah, found some pics:

http://www.foodsubs.com/Greensld.html

[torakris]

Ah, found some pics:

http://www.foodsubs.com/Greensld.html

Great site! Thanks!

What is gem lettuce then?

I assumed this was bibb/Boston type and then couldn't find it on the page.

[Miss J]

Little Gem is small and very crisp - like a more flavourful and textured iceberg. Again, I've found a pic:

http://www.langmead-farms.co.uk/little_gem.htm

[Vanessa]

Italian Flours

Last year I got in a right tangle with Italian flours - hard, soft, pasta etc and realised that most English-language books on the subject don't make logical sense. These are my conclusions, based on common usage in Italy now:

0 & 00 Flours: the numbers relate to the grind of the flour - nothing else. OO is the finest, then 0, then 1. 00 Flour is used for making fresh pasta. These flours are soft wheat.

Farina di grano duro: here is where the confusion really sets in. This gets translated as hard/strong wheat flour when in fact it is DURUM wheat flour - a specific type of wheat which happens to be hard, and is mainly used for dry pasta manufacture. Grind tends to be quite coarse.

Farina Manitoba: this is strong/bread flour - the name is self-explanatory really. Not used for making pasta.

[torakris]

Thanks everybody!

I amy be back after my new Jamie and Nigella books arrive, they were shipped from England on Monday.