Pies, puddings, biscuits and tarts + rolls, buns, muffins, ...

[eloise_herisson]

> bboy_mn:
> 
> SUET!
> OK, your going to have to explain suet to me. I know what suet is;
> it's a big nasty dried out piece of beef fat. The only thing I've 
seen
> suet used for in the USA is to put in bird feeders during the winter
> so the bird have a high energy source of food. What I need explained
> is how anyone in their right mind (no offense intended) would ever
> conceive of making a sweet desert/pudding out of something so nasty.

Yeah. Well. I don't eat the stuff personally, if I can help it. But 
that's because I don't eat beef products.

The suet we use for puddings is what's called "shredded suet". I 
presume that it has previously been rendered and is then grated or 
whatever into little bits. I won't tell you what I think it looks 
like! It's a little like long grain rice in appearance (do you use 
that classification?)These days you can also get vegetarian suet, 
which is what I use, although the only things I ever make with it are 
Christmas pudding and mincemeat(the stuff we put in mince pies at 
Christmas).

Suet pastry is generally not very (at all?) sweet, just as you can 
make a sweet pie/tart/whatever with unsweetened pastry. It is also 
different in texture from normal pastry, not as short, more doughy, I 
suppose.

The steak and kidney pie to which David referred is made in a pudding 
basin, lined with suet pastry and then filled with meat and gravy. 
All suet puddings are, I believe, steamed.

> 
> In the USA, sometimes cake frosting is made from mixing food 
coloring
> and sugar with vegitable shortening (shortening: vegetable oil that
> has been saturated or hydrogenated to make it the consistency of 
lard
> or soft butter). 


We, of course, call it icing (as in the analogy - 'that's the icing 
on the cake'):-)

British icing is made, traditionally, from either plain icing sugar 
(I forget offhand what you call it) with water, to make a thin, soft 
icing, suitable for sponge cakes, or with egg white, which makes a 
really hard coating which can be piped, moulded, etc.
Recently a softer type which I think is made with glycerin has become 
the norm for celebration cakes. This can also be moulded, etc and is 
available in packets ready-,ade, even ready-rolled, which is a boon 
and a blessing to men.


> More on pudding-
> Pudding in the USA:
> Chocolate And Coconut Pudding Recipe
> 
> 2 cups milk, scalded
> 1/2 cup sugar
> 3/4 cup chocolate, grated
> 1/2 cup coconut, grated
> 3 eggs
> 
> Mix eggs, coconut, chocolate, and sugar together. Add slowly the
> scalded milk. Pour into a pudding dish. Set pudding dish in a 
roasting
> pan partially filled with hot water. Bake in moderate oven for about
> 45 to 50 minutes.

This is basically, as I suspected, a variant on what I would call egg-
custard.
Must try it! ;-)


> Pudding in the UK???:
> Suet Pudding Recipe
> 
<snip>
> Quite a difference.

And clearly from an American source as we measure dry ingredients by 
weight, not volume. And don't have molasses.

What's a hard sauce? 

<>> Cookies, biscuits, crackers, muffins, buns and rolls-
> 
> A cookie is any very sweet disk shaped (although other shapes are
> allowed especially at Christmas) food that is given primarily to 
kids
> as a treat; like afterschool milk and cookies. The exception is 
sweet
> wafer cookies which are usually served with an ice cream sundae. 
> 
> An English muffin really isn't a muffin to us; we, in the US, always
> thought it was odd of you English to call it a muffin when really it
> was a biscuit. A biscuit being a very unique bread-like food.

But nowhere near as odd as you calling something a biscuit that 
clearly isn't! ;-)

 The most
> common biscuit is the baking powder biscuit (usually made from a
> special flour called BisQuick) which looks much like an English 
muffin
> but is smaller and tastes better (most excellent for sopping up 
roast
> beef gravy). 

That's what Yorkshire puddings are for.
Which, of course, are *not* made with suet.
You wouldn't like us to be consistent, would you?

I think in the past we decided that a biscuit was closely related to 
a scone.


>Then there is what you call a bun, which we call a roll
> or a dinner roll. A roll could also be referred to as a bun, but 
most
> often the only bread that is referred to as a bun is the hamburger 
or
> hotdog bun.

Mmm.
I think there may be some regional variations here. I would certainly 
refer to a roll as a roll. Or possibly a bap, if it were big, soft 
and round.

Personally, I think of a bun as being sweet (unless containing a 
burger or hot-dog). We have something called the iced bun, which is a 
sort of largish finger roll (bit like a hot-dog bun), with soft icing 
on the top.
Otherwise, Chelsea buns, currant buns, etc, I think are all sweet. 
But as I say, there could be some variation on that.

> 
> Now we come to the muffin. A muffin is like a cup cake. 

Yep. As I think I indicated, we're very familiar with these over here 
now. In fact I have a packet of blueberry muffins in the kitchen as I 
speak.

~Eloise