It's not what you say it's way that you say it ...

[Lachlan09]

A question for our Americans here:- where do American pronunciations of certain cooking terms and ingredients come from , plus different names? I ask, having watched Food Network for some time and chefs like Bobby Flay, Rachel Rae and others mention ingredients in a different way to us olde worlde types !

A few examples:-

Herbs (Scotland) = Erbs (USA)

Basil (Scotland) = Bayzil (USA) (I really hate that one ! I use basil every week in cooking)

OreGAno (Scotland) = oRAgeno (USA)

Tomato (Scotland) = Tomayto (USA) (the famous one !)

Rocket (Scotland) = aRUgala (USA)

Courgette (Scotland) = Zucchini (USA)

Aubergine (Scotland) = Eggplant (USA)

Spring Onions or sybies
or syboes(Sco) = Scallions or green onions (USA)

streaky bacon (Sco) = bacon (USA)

back bacon (Sco) = Canadian bacon


and so on…..

[ANDY-J3]

I'm not American but the one I would hazard a guess at is zucchini, which I know is the italian word for courgettes so I would presume that that originates from the Italian immigrant community in the US.

[Polwarth]

I know that what we call coriander, ie the green, leafy part of the plant is usually called cilantro in the USA and other countries. They seem to reserve the word coriander for the seeds only.

Because of the close gastronomic links between the UK and France, we tend to use the French terms for many things, including aubergine and courgette.

[wullie m]

I must confess to still calling bacon, ham, as in ham & eggs! and the radio, the wireless. However, we are divided by a common language. "You say tomayto and I say tomato!" What really bugs me is BBC Scotland's hauf-biled Gary Robertson, when I'm at the Ham & Eggs! wullie m

[Sassenach82]

"Cilantro" is Spanish for coriander, and is used a lot in Spanish / Latin cooking (e.g. classic tomato salsa), hence the adoption of the word in the US, with its large Hispanic population.

"Corn" may be a confusing one. Am I alone in thinking that "corn" unqualified means "wheat"? Many Brits I know (including my wife) insist it means maize (as in the US). Used in compounds (e.g. cornflour, sweetcorn, cornstarch) it refers to maize on both sides of the Atlantic.

[Duthill]

Corns are the seeds or fruits of various plants , not just the cereal 'grains'
Peppercorn is a prime example of a corn that is not a grass grain .