35 US Baking Ingredients Explained in Your Language | ultimatepreppingguide.com
Food & Water

35 US Baking Ingredients Explained in Your Language

US Baking ingredients can sound very different to other countries’ names. The modern internet, whilst amazing, means many people access recipes from all over the world. That means many of the more specific names we call our foods, may not relate to local ingredients by name.

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Regardless of where you are, now there’s a way to get access to the world’s largest cookbook. But because US baking ingredients don’t always sound the same as some foreign websites, I’ve put together the following list, to help you understand the differences.

While there might be similar names where you live, most of the ingredients on this list are available from a number of online sources, particularly Amazon. I remember the frustration of finding a delicious recipe to try, only to find that half the ingredients sounded like they were  from another planet, often using brand names instead of what they actually were.

That’s why a list like the following helps you identify normal everyday ingredients that feature in many popular recipes. There’s also the option to create some of the ingredients yourself using the items from your very own pantry.

But if you get stuck, then there’s always a vast online community of willing people who readily share their own discoveries.

Check out some of the below items and see how many you identify with. If I’ve missed some, why not send me a message and I’ll be more than happy to add it to the list. It is, after all, meant to help those looking for simpler ways to identify necessary ingredients.

US Baking Ingredients Explained in Your Language

Ingredient #1: All-Purpose Flour

Also known as Plain Flour in many countries.

Ingredient #2: Baking Soda

This is also known as either Soda Bicarbonate or Bicarbonate of Soda

Ingredient #3: Baking Spread

Also known as Stork, this used to be margarine before it lost most of its original ingredients.

Ingredient #4: Bisquick/Biscuit Mix

A simple scone mix.

Ingredient #5: Bitter-sweet Chocolate

Dark chocolate with a minimum of 70% Cocoa solids or above. The cocoa gives the chocolate its bitterness.

Ingredient #6: Bread Flour

Also known as Strong Flour

Ingredient #7: Cake/Pastry Flour

Most common for cakes, this is called self-raising flour.

Ingredient #8: Cane Syrup

Golden Syrup

Ingredient #9: Candyquick

Called Candy Melts, great for dipping fruit and candy into.

Ingredient #10: Canola Oil

Had its name changed from rapeseed oil.

Ingredient #11: Confectioner’s Sugar

Icing sugar, which is the finest of all sugar, perfect for icing cakes.

Ingredient #12: Cool Whip

Also known as Birds Dream Topping

Ingredient #13: Cornmeal

Polenta or Maize flour

Ingredient #14: Dark Corn Syrup

Treacle, which has a very distinctive taste.

Ingredient #15: Graham Crackers

It can be shortbread, ginger biscuits, or a combination of digestive and rich tea biscuits.

Ingredient #16: Graham Flour

Wholemeal flour

Ingredient #17: Half and Half

Simply half milk and half double cream.

Ingredient #18: Heavy Cream

Double cream.

Ingredient #19: Kosher/Coarse Salt

Sea salt or rock salt.

Ingredient #20: Light Cream

Single cream

Ingredient #21: Light Corn Syrup

Golden syrup, great for use in pancakes.

Ingredient #22: Marshmallow Fluff

Melted marshmallows

Ingredient #23: Molasses

Another name for treacle.

Ingredient #24: Nilla Wafers

Also known as ladyfingers, great for trifle sponges.

Ingredient #25: Pine Kernels

Just pine nuts

Ingredient #26: Powdered Sugar

Another name for icing sugar.

Ingredient #27: Pudding Mix

Custard powder.

Ingredient #28: Saltines Crackers

Water crackers available in most supermarkets.

Ingredient #29: Semi-Sweet Chocolate

Like bittersweet chocolate, gets its name from the cocoa content. 50% cocoa is considered semi-sweet.

Ingredient #30: Shortening/Crisco

Similar to softened butter or lard.

Ingredient #31: Sweetened coconut

Easily prepared by using 35g desiccated coconut, 1 tbsp icing sugar, and 1 tbsp hot water and left to soak.

Ingredient #32: Sacanat

Demerara sugar, one of the many varieties of sugar grain.

Ingredient #33: Super Fine Sugar

Caster sugar, perfect for whipping into wet ingredients as it dissolves faster.

Ingredient #34: White/Table Sugar

Granulated sugar

Ingredient #35: Whole Wheat Flour

Another name for Wholemeal flour

Final Thoughts

There are many English-speaking countries in the world and most have their own unique names for food ingredients. So regardless of whether you live in America, England, Australia, Scotland, Ireland, South Africa, New Zealand, or any other of the dozens and dozens of countries, share those unique ingredients.

Tell the rest of us just what you call things, so we all benefit from the vast pool of knowledge. With the internet home to literally millions of online recipe sites, the mind boggles when trying to work out just how many recipes exist for us to try. They don’t even need to relate to prepping, although that would be extremely helpful.

Speaking of prepping, a few recipes already exist on the site to help you with using some of the foods as you rotate them out from your cache. There will no doubt be a nice variety of foods needing to be used as their shelf lives expire.

Now would be a great opportunity to load up on recipes, some of which may contain those elusive ingredients you don’t quite understand.

No matter where you are in your prepping journey, there’s always room for us to grow that little bit more. From what ingredients to store, to those we need for tonight dinner, our world is never quite complete. Knowing food terms that exist around the world is a great way to educate yourself for the unexpected even more.