help withamerican cooking

kiki55 · #1 Jul 5, 2005, 07:54 AM

I am a desperate ex pat..now living in Florida and I have always used my british bero recipe book in England and always had great results. Now after living in the states for a year and a half , NONE of my cakes rise and my yorkshire puddings are a disaster. Is the flour different here....is the butter different????please help, as I am bringing the flour over from England and its still not working....

wzartv · Jul 5, 2005, 08:04 AM

Hello and welcome,

Your situation is very interesting, but I think I may know why some things may not be working. I know this may sound farfetched but it could be true, perhaps atmospheric pressure and other environmental things are different here than in England. There are differences, in fact I know if you go to the Rocky Mountains, and are higher in elevation, you need to cook things differently, perhaps this also applies in this situation. It probably has nothing to do with the ingrediants you are using. You may need to alter amounts or cooking times here in the U.S. since the environment may be different. This may be challenging to convert everything, so perhaps you could lookup the recipes for the meals you like to make on the Internet and see how Americans make them.

I hope this helps you. Best of luck.

serialwife · Jul 5, 2005, 09:02 AM

Have you converted from metric to american weights and measures? What type of flour are you using?

kiki55 · Jul 5, 2005, 11:19 AM

you are probably absolutely right...I must try my hand at american recipies..mind you its hard when you have used the english ones passed down through the generations of us brits...thank you so much for your help in this...I wish my yorkshire puddings would rise too ho hum.

Quote:

Originally Posted by wzartv

Hello and welcome,

Your situation is very interesting, but I think I may know why some things may not be working. I know this may sound farfetched but it could be true, perhaps atmospheric pressure and other environmental things are different here than in England. There are differences, in fact I know if you go to the Rocky Mountains, and are higher in elevation, you need to cook things differently, perhaps this also applies in this situation. It probably has nothing to do with the ingrediants you are using. You may need to alter amounts or cooking times here in the U.S. since the environment may be different. This may be challenging to convert everything, so perhaps you could lookup the recipes for the meals you like to make on the Internet and see how Americans make them.

I hope this helps you. Best of luck.

wzartv · Jul 5, 2005, 11:21 AM

Yes I understand it is probably hard.... you wish you could keep these recipes, they are probably part of your heritage and history.... I wish you the best of luck in making them... Good luck.

Zach

kiki55 · Jul 5, 2005, 11:30 AM

I am using all purpose flour in the Yorkshire puddings and they are turning out like cookies...arggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

serialwife · Jul 5, 2005, 05:02 PM

are you adding baking powder and baking soda??? Maybe switch to a self rising flour

jennifer cummings · Jul 23, 2005, 03:50 PM

The only way I can get my "Yorkies" to rise is to use i/2 h2o and 1/2 milk in the receipe. Have you tried to use cup measurements?
1 cup all purpose flour
2 eggs
1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup milk (liquid measure)
Good luck! Jenny



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