CONVERTERS AND CONVERSION CHARTS

Food Charts

Australian cuisine has been shaped by the people who settled in Australia. For the majority of Australian history, food traditions were based on the native bush foods of indigenous Australians. British and Irish cooking came to Australia with the arrival of the settlers in the late 18th century. The 19th and 20th century immigrants from the Mediterranean and Asian culture had an influence on the Australia cuisine during this period.

Today food eaten by Aussies shows a world-wide influence and now includes organic and biodynamic, Kosher and Halal foods. British traditions are still dominant in takeaway foods as well as home cooking, with pies and fish and chips always popular with Aussies.

What? Food Confusion
An American was chatting with an Australian on the Internet, when she mentioned she had to stop to make her hungry son a peanut butter and jelly sandwich (also called P B & J). The very confused Australian said she had never heard of a "dessert" sandwich.

It took a while for the equally confused American to discover that jelly to Australians is the same as Jello (gelatin) to Americans.

In other words, the Australian wanted to know why her friend would want to eat a Jello and peanut butter sandwich.

The cultural differences in food can be quite entertaining. However, when you're trying to use a recipe from another country, it's nice to know what they're talking about. You'll find on this page some of the most common cooking conversions used.

Digestive Biscuits (Aussie)
Graham Crackers (USA)
These two items are fairly different, but are used similarly such as to make crumb crusts for a cheesecake.

In recipes calling for digestive biscuits, Americans and Canadians often use Graham Crackers as a substitute.

Graham crackers are sweeter, and come in a variety of flavours such as cinnamon and chocolate.

Digestive biscuits are richer, and while slightly sweet, are often eaten with cheese. They are also available coated on one side with milk or dark chocolate.

Cornflour (Australia)
Cornstarch (USA)
In Australia cornflour is frequently made from wheat and it is usually described as wheaten cornflour. There are some brands of cornflour that are made from maize, however.

Cornflower/cornstarch is used to thicken sauces. It has no taste of its own to interfere with your recipe. To use, blend it with double the amount of cold liquid. Stir it into the sauce to be thickened. Keep stirring as the mixture comes to a boil. It will thicken and become clear.

Australian	American
Dairy
full-cream milk skim milk Light or Lite milk cream, whipping cream, single	whole milk skim or fat free or non-fat milk 2% milk cream, heavy cream, half and half
Eggs, Meat & Fish
Balmain Bug prawns king prawns banger minced beef mince Devon skirt steak	small, sweet crayfish shrimp jumbo shrimp link sausage ground beef ground meat bologna flank steak
Fruit & Vegetables
spring onion Spanish onion shallots capsicum (red, yellow, green) beetroot chickpeas rock melon sultanas paw paw	scallion onion, purple / red scallions, green onions bell pepper (red, yellow, green) round beets garbanzos cantaloupe golden raisins papaya
Prepared Foods
gherkin apple crumble tomato sauce tomato puree gelatine or Aeroplane Jelly conserve biscuits scones Rice Bubbles potato crisps chips Icy Poles, Ice Blocks	pickle crisps ketchup or catsup tomato sauce gelatine or Jello jelly cookies biscuits Rice Crispies potato chips French fries popsicles
Baking and Baked Goods
flour, plain flour, self raising flour, whole meal corn flour bicarbonate of soda chillies essence vanilla essence zest, lemon, etc desiccated coconut stock cubes copha Golden Syrup molasses or treacle icing sugar caster sugar hundreds & thousands chocolate, cooking cocoa	flour, all-purpose flour, self-rising flour, whole wheat cornstarch baking soda chilli pepper extract vanilla extract zest or rind, lemon, etc shredded, dried coconut bullion cubes vegetable shortening (Crisco) corn or cane syrup molasses powdered or confectioners sugar sugar, granulated (but finer) sprinkles (closest equivalent) chocolate, baking cocoa powder
Baking Tools
baking tray oven slide cake cooler cake tin ring tin Swiss roll tin Lamington tin greaseproof paper patty cups tea towel trolley griller (separate from oven)	cookie sheet cookie sheet wire rack baking pan tube pan jelly roll pan 13" x 9" x 2" pan wax paper paper cupcake holders dish towel shopping cart broiler (inside oven)

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