Saturday 5 June 2010

Martha Or Delia**?

B has asked about 'single cream' - there is definitely a problem with converting recipes between UK/US cookbooks. I made a disastrous cheesecake when we were first married because the recipe said the UK equivalent of Graham Crackers was cream crackers!

martha

delia

Here's a helpful chart of alternative terms ...

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**For me personally it is Delia every time - Martha Stewart always makes recipes in such vast quantities, and uses too much butter, sugar and cream. Plus Delia acknowledges our human frailties, while Martha seems to expect perfectionism at all times. Follow a recipe carefully from a Delia cookbook and it will work and be edible [even if it doesn't look exactly like the photo] Do the same from a Martha book, and you will probably find yourself covered in guilt and confectioner's sugar because you don't have the exact essential piece of equipment [obtainable only from some obscure kitchen suppliers in upstate New York] to prepare the violet petal garnish!

5 comments:

  1. Your Graham Cracker comment is interesting. I ran a cooking club last year with 2 American collegues and when the recipe called for Graham Crackers they said the nearest they could find was cream crackers! For our purposes they worked fine but I can see it wouln't make a good cheesecake base.

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  2. Oh but I always make my own violet petal garnish......dont you?
    There was one occasion when Delia got a recipe for chocolate mousse wrong, or maybe the printers did. You ended up with an almost solid block of chocolate! So many people wrote to complain that it didnt work. I think they changed iot for the next edition.

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  3. Neither!! I agree with the quantities of amercian receipes,but Delia really is too precise for me. I am more of a Hugh girl myself!!

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  4. Very interesting post! Never heard of Delia in this country. Glad she is more down to earth than Martha!

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  5. There is something mildly odd to think of using a pancake turner to flip my fish... or a fish slice to flip pancakes! Entertaining.

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