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Tools    ^

typical : "take one table-spoon of sugar"
But, is your table spoon as big as mine?

measure equivalent heu.. 'mericans
table spoon 10ml often abbreviated (tblspn, tbsp, tsp) American spoons are bigger (yeah, everything over there is bigger)
tea spoon   5ml   often abbreviated teaspn, tesp, tsp (especially this last can be confusing), sometimes it's called a 'dessert spoon' (dsp)    
cup   100~150ml   actually it's not defined, I have variuous cups ranging from 100 to 300 ml    
       
Frying pan   15cm ... 45cm   A very flexible term but usualy it indicates a wide, low rim pan with a single, perpendicular handle. They come in all sizes.    
Sauce pan   15cm ... 45cm   Much the same as a frying pan nut with a high rim, typically between 4cm and 8 cm. It's main use is to start off frying some ingredients, ex onions and then drown that in liquis and let it simmer/thicken in.   Sometimes they come with a lid and can be used as casserol.  
Casserol   yay   A typical casserol is as high as wide, has two horizontal 'ear' handles and has a lid. The main use is for cooking liquids. Oven-casserols are basic casserols but half-height and with plain handles, no wood or plastic insulation.   There are specialist casserols, like for example asparagus casserols that are about three times as high as wide in order to keep the asparagus upright. Or 'preasure cookers' that are casserols with a lockable lid so the inside gets a higher presure, thus cooking at a higher than 100°C meaning the food gets ready faster.  
       
       

 
 
 
 


Ingredients    ^

Pepper is pepper and salt is salt. But a lot of spices have different names depending on the place you're in.
And actually, pepper isn't just pepper, it also peper, poivre, Pfeffer, ... in different languages. Not to speak about the differences between green pepper, white pepper, black pepper, ...

 
 

Dutch English French German Heu ...
Vegetables
Aardappel   Potato   pomme de terre   Kartoffel   You cannot get more basic in the wetsern kitchen.
A large potato is larger than a fist and weight upward of 200g. A regular potatoes is about egg sized and weight between 50g and 200g. Small potatoes are anything smaller that regular. Many recipes mention large potatoes but most don't mind if you take two regular ones  
ui (ajuin)   onion   onion   schwiebel   One of the most global vegetables. It is used in about every culinar culture on earth and beyond.
And it comes in various sizes, shapes and colours. In most cases the bol is used but the leaves are also very much appreciated. The typical onion most used in the western kitchen is about fist sized and weight in around 300g. But there are many different types that can be used. So if a recipe mentions 1 onion without specifying a special type you should pick up about 300g of cleaned onion.  
sjalot   sjalot   sjalot     Sjalots arte easy ... to translate. ^_^.
Sjalost look much the same as onions but they are smaller and have a distincly different more refined, subtle taste. They are less easy to clean than onion but for most culinary purposed they are handled in the same way. The taste is in the same range as onion and in many recipes they can be interchanged.  
         
         
         
         
Spices
muskaatnoot nutmeg (noit de) muscade ? Nut ground (rough) for adding flavour to various vegetable or to give a spicy 'wild' taste to meats. Finely ground (powder) it can be used in pastries.
peper   pepper   poivre   Pfeffer   hot aromatic condiment from the dried berries of certain plants. Usually ground very finely
Also a capsicum plant, grown for its fruit (as a vegetable). [Sanskrit pippali]  
koriander   coriander   coriandre     This is both a spice and a herb. Using the seeds, which look like small white pepper, whole or crushed as a very aromatic spice, very dominant in mixtures. Or the fresh leaves in salads or as topping, just like basil they lose most of their flavour when cooked along in a dish or sauce.  
komijn   c[k]um(m)in       I suppose the English don't like it seing that they can't decide between a C or K nor between a single or double M.
Normally we use the small, long seeds (5~6mm long, 0.5~1mm thick) either whole, crushed or ground. 
rosemarijn   rosemary        
basilicum   basil   basille     'basilicum'  
gember   ginger   gingembre     Most common only the root is used. Either dried and ground to a powder, good for sauces or bakeries, or fresh shaved of grated.
It has a rather strong taste if eaten raw (even cooked it keeps a lot of that sharpness) so if you shave it by knife make sure it is cut very thin (less than 1mm). Grated and mixed with (grated) cheese it gives a good taste to oven dishes but use it sparingly to prevent it from overpowering all other tasts.
Eaten raw, or in a tea, it has a healthy effect on the troath (keeps your voice from fading after singing).   I Japan it is often found pickled and preserved, as an alternative/addition to washabi.
tijm / tijmus   thyme       Usually a whole branch is used to cook along with the meat or vegetable. Loses a lot of it's taste with drying. It is one of the main ingredients of "Herbes de Provence" where only the leaves are used.  
kaneel   cinnamon        
         
         
         

And ...

Basics
olijf olie   olive oil   huile 'd olive     Without olive oil one can't cook.  
rijst   rice   riz     Type of grass, the seeds thereof.
In kitchen the 'peeled' or 'polished' (without seed-skin) grains are used mostly. Most often the rice is 'parboiled' meaning it's already partially boiled (steamed) so in stead of needing 20 minutes it's ready in five or ten. Which can be a problem as some dishes, for example Paella, need the rice to be in from the start but the other ingredienst need more cooking time than the parboiled rice.  
         

I am Dutch speaking so Dutch is the first collum, and determines the sort-order.
I completely agree that it's mean. ^_^

 
 
 
 


Translations    ^

Not only spices and basic food items have different names depending on the place you're in, other more specific ingredients also enjoy that privilege.
Even in a single language some regional naming can throw people off. Most common dictionaries don't give translations for names of ingredients unless they are very common. To get, for example, the names for all the different parts, from a butcher's point of view, of a cow you need a specialised dictionary or, more likely, a butcher-school book. Of course these don't offer translations.
And an animal is not cut up in entirely the same way in different countries and cultures.

Another dificulty in translating is, for example with fish, that some products simeply are not available in all cultures. For example there are no see-turtles to be found on the Belgian and Netherland's coasts so they don't have common Dutch names.

 
 

Dutch English French German Heu ...
Fish
goud brasem gilthead      
         
         
---
herbs / vegetables
Citroen melisse Lemon balm      
Linzen   Lentil   Lentille     Dahl (India)  
Bloemkool   Cauliflower   Shou fleur      
         
         
Mushrooms
--zie mushrooms- --to be included later      
         

I am Dutch speaking so Dutch is the first collum, and detrmines the sort-order.
I completely agree that it's mean. ^_^

Notice I am lazy. I have not meticulously researched my topic so I don't have all the possible translations. Basically I look them up when I need them in a recipe and only copy that translation back here when I feel like it. And even there I am rather lazy so I will piuck up the first translation I find.
I would appreciate it when you mail corrections.
 

 
 
 
 


...    ^


Know what you talk about.

© 2008 Swijsen