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From school and the office to relationships and even the kitchen, we all make mistakes. Some of them, however, are a tad more embarrassing than others. Like not realizing that coriander and cilantro are the same thing and then not being able to find what you need in the supermarket after you move to another country, like what happened to redditor u/annamagda. Or being me and honestly not understanding how onions, shallots, scallions, and spring onions are any different from one another.
Redditor u/annamagda asked the people browsing r/Cooking to make them feel better after their coriander/cilantro fiasco and share their very own food mix-ups and cooking mistakes. It’s honestly a lot of fun reading what these redditors shared, and we’ve collected the very best responses for you, dear Pandas. Don’t forget to upvote your fave answers and if you’d like to spill the tea about your own supermarket and kitchen sins and blunders, Gordon Ramsay will take your confession in the comment section.
I spoke about (im)perfection in the kitchen and making food-related mistakes with well-known pie artist, food expert, and author Jessica Leigh Clark-Bojin. She urged everyone to embrace mistakes because “they are the best teachers!” Scroll down for Bored Panda’s interview with her about developing a growth-oriented mindset and shedding our fears of making blunders.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
When I first moved out and started cooking I decided to get fancy and make a lasagna. The sauce called for 3 cloves of garlic. It was so cheap compared to everything else I assumed it meant 3 heads of garlic. That lasagna was intense.
Vicky Z 3 years ago
That's not only anti-vampire it's anti-human anyway😅😅😅But like this it's easy to keep social distancing
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Mary Jaye 3 years ago
imho that is fine. I love garlic. I like to cook the cloves whole they are wonderful. two is a lot but I bet IF you did not dice them they were great! baked garlic is awesome. one of the few things I CAN cook.
Michael Fuhry 3 years ago (edited)
Mmm, roast them whole in foil, then drop them on homemade pizza.
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Celia McReynolds Tinsley 3 years ago
I did the same thing the first time I attempted to make meatloaf! I didn't even allow it to finish baking the smell of garlic was too strong.
renee brack 3 years ago
I love garlic. A lot. So am salivating while imagining what your lasagna tasted like. Mmm...
Robin Roper 3 years ago
Garlic is an antioxidants, so you have both less free radicals and fewer friends.
RELATED:
#2
One of the funniest memories I have is of grocery shopping with my college roommate. We were waiting in line at the deli counter and behind us was a sign for cheese from the Isle of Man. My roommate, fully serious, scoffed and said, “we can’t even have cheese anymore? That’s gotta be gendered now too?” Through my tears, I explained that the Isle of Man is an actual place off the coast of England, at which point she whispered, “never tell anyone about this.” I promptly told everyone I knew.
Jorge Gonzalez 3 years ago
It exists! In front of cancun , Mexico there is an island named "Isla mujeres". Literally "women island"
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Fritz Baumeister 3 years ago
In my home state, there's a place called Assawoman Bay. I don't think I would eat any cheese made there.
KatHat 3 years ago
Yes, like the other post with the entry questioning the need for an "ethnic" food aisle, since food is just food so specific sorts don't need to be sequestered by country - and whole lot of Pandas scoffing at that, completely missing the point. Misunderstanding is common, and very forgivable, but not learning is less excusable.
Harri Ellis 3 years ago
I know 2 things that come from the Isle of Man. Manx cats and Mark Cavendish, the Manx missile. Oh, and Rick Wakeman lives there.
#3
Moved to the UK from the US a little over a year ago. We looked around the store for whipped cream for like 20 minutes before asking for help. Apparently, they call it squirty cream here. Sorry. But I'm not calling it "squirty cream".
Alison Duckmanton 3 years ago
Squirty cream is a processed product. It is often just sold at ambient temperatures on the supermarket shelf. You will find whipping cream in cartons in the fridge. If they don't have whipping cream you can also buy 'double cream ' and whip that yourself. Do not use 'single cream ' - the fat content is not high enough to be able to whip it.
Kira Okah 3 years ago
This is weird to me, as someone British, because I have not seen whipped cream seriously called squirty cream - they are different things. Squirty cream is the nasty heavily processed sugary stuff, whipped cream is whipped cream.
Parthania Dawson 3 years ago
In the US there is a product called Reddi Wip. It's gas propelled from a canister too. I can be found in the refrigerated section of US grocery stores. It's probably the "whipped cream" they wanted.
Load More Replies... Radek Suski 3 years ago (edited)
I don't understand why people are buying it. It takes like 5 minutes to do it by yourself
ForgotMyPWSendHelp 3 years ago
But you can't squirt it from a can directly into your mouth when you make it yourself.
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InfectedVoice 3 years ago
I love squirty cream, as an adult you can just spray it in your mouth for as long as you want without anyone telling you off.
Sinkvenice 3 years ago
English person here. Squirty cream is disgusting processed cream. Whipped cream is just double cream (I think Americans call it heavy cream) that's been whipped.
Eb 3 years ago (edited)
Squirty cream's a bit insubstantial and artificial. If you want proper stuff you buy whipping or double cream and whip it yourself. I'm told in an emergency you can create cream by whisking unsalted butter into milk; makes sense but never tried it myself.
Auntriarch 3 years ago
We used to have a Kenwood attachment that did exactly that
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According to pie artist and food expert Jessica, we ought to think of mistakes as small opportunities to get better. However, in order for this to happen, we actually have to be able to learn from them.
“We want to make sure we learn and grow from our mistakes, or they can quickly lead to frustration,” she warned Bored Panda, stating that there are, generally, two types of mistakes—good and bad—when it comes to everything related to the kitchen.
#4
My husband learned last year that popcorn is corn.
GoddessOdd 3 years ago (edited)
I know someone else who thought this, but it's because the eggs are usually in the dairy cooler at the grocery store... of course, she also didn't know prunes were plums, so I don't know. 😀
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PurpleUnicorn 3 years ago
But not all corn can be popped, there is a specific type for that. Others are no good for human food but perfect for livestock
Dr. Carlos Dangercat 3 years ago
I learned THIS MONTH that baby corn (frequently in stir fries) is just small adult corn ears.
glowworm2 3 years ago
I've actually seen one of those after peeling some corn brought home for dinner. It was too small to cook though, having very underdeveloped corn kernels.
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Luis Hernandez Dauajare 3 years ago
When I was a kid, I was sad to find out eggplants were not made of eggs...
Orange is aging 3 years ago
I always like to believe it’s not. Then I see these kinds of things
#5
This reminds me of the first time I made Lasagna. This was before the internet and I was a teenager. I was working with a poorly translated recipe from a magazine in South Asia. The recipe called for 2 tablespoons of red chili powder for the meat sauce. That would be paprika I know now. I only knew of our red chili powder. I used 2 tablespoons of our Indian red chili powder and I kept that up for many more tries to come. It was the first-ever “Italian” recipe for my family and friends, made for fancy occasions only because of how difficult it was to procure the cheese. Everyone ate it with gusto, wiping tears pouring down their face, and commenting on how strangely the heat of the chili complemented the “coolness” of cheese in the dish and that Italians were oh so intelligent for that.
Frannie Kaplan 3 years ago
No chili is not always paprika, and italians don't put paprika in their lasagne
Giovanna 3 years ago
I confirm we don't put chilli nor paprika in our lasagne, but to each their own!
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marianne eliza 3 years ago
No on the paprika, yes on a bit on ground cayenne pepper, which I substitute for the more traditional dried red pepper flakes. We're from Northern Italy.
Miss Cris 3 years ago
It happened something similar to me, but my fault! I cooked for may family in law, in another country, and I bought what I thought were green Italian peppers. They aren't spicy at all. However, they came to be giant chili and strogly spicy!!!
Candia Lee 3 years ago
My Italian BiL was used to eating pickled Italian peppers so showed off by chomping a tiny jalapeño only to discover it was way hotter. Fun to watch.
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Elaine Elder 3 years ago
Paprika is made from Capsicum annuum varietals in the Longum group. Varieties of Spanish Peprika include Jaranda and Bola for sweet smoked paprika or Pimenton Dulce. Jariza and Jeromin for hot smoked paprika or Pimenton Picante; and a blend of Picante and dulce make bittersweet smoked paprika or Pimenton Agridulce. Hungarian Peprika comes in 8 varieties from mild sweet to hot. Bell peppers are from the Grossum group. They are the only pepper that produces no capsaicin. The green bell pepper is the least ripe with a very bitter taste. As bell peppers ripen they change color from yellow to red. Bell peppers become sweeter as they age.
#6
My parents met and married in the States. My dad is from Scotland. They moved to Scotland shortly after getting married, because my dad had been on scholarship and part of the terms was that he had to work for the Church of Scotland for a few years, so off they went.
My mother had wanted to bake something with coconut. She couldn’t find it on her own. She asked my dad. My dad told her that you could not buy coconut in Scotland. It just wasn’t something you could get. My mother, in her naïveté, said to the women at a church group that it was too bad she couldn’t buy coconut in Scotland. Needless to say, the women were quick to tell her that wasn’t true and where she could get it.
My mother went home and tore a strip off my father because he knew full well you could, he just wanted to see how long he could keep it going. They’ll be married 46 years in June. I’m honestly surprised my father lived to their first. It still comes up.
Zobi123 3 years ago
My Scottish father convinced my mother that haggis was a real animal that you could catch by chasing it the wrong way round the mountain (because one side of its legs were shorter than the other side). 51 years and going strong!
Bitemabum 3 years ago
I'm just back from my New year's Day haggis hunt and I bagged 3 of the little critters.lol
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Got Myself 4 Dwarves 3 years ago
My husband and I wind each other up regularly about daft things like this, and then tear strips off each other when we realise the other one is at it - must be a Scottish quirk
Mrs. Mir 3 years ago
Ooooohhh yay maybe I’m Scottish!! My husband and I do stuff like this alllllll the time. Lol Love, a lady in the US xx
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renee brack 3 years ago
See? It is possible to build a beautiful relationship on lies and distrust :)
Beth Arriaga 3 years ago
"Tore a strip off" is my new favorite expression regarding being angry at someone.
“Good mistakes are the ones that come from intentionally trying something new, just to see what will happen. Bad mistakes are ones born of haste or ones that compromise safety,” the expert explained to me that the intention behind the mistakes that we make matters a whole bunch.
For instance, mistakes born from experimenting with ingredients, recipes, and styles of cooking are generally positive experiences because we can quickly improve our skills as we iron out any errors that we make. However, mistakes made from carelessness aren’t all that positive and we need to be aware that they can happen so that we don’t repeat them.
#7
I just learned three years ago that paprika is just dried ground-up red bell peppers. I'm 44. I felt like the world had betrayed me.
Lousha 3 years ago
Hungarian here and this picture hurts my soul :) What you English speaking people call paprika is indeed dried and ground peppers but of a specific kind. It's actually called "spice pepper" in Hungarian. It is not the giant bell pepper in the picture but a small red thing, most similar to chili peppers in appearance. There are hot and mild versions as well but the main thing is you can't just dry any sort of peppers and call it paprika. And yes, in Hungarian (and a bunch of other languages) every bell pepper is also called paprika, usually with a moniker like stuffing paprika, Californian paprika (that would be the one pictured) etc.
Vicky Z 3 years ago
Hungarian paprika is so much better!! I brought back from a trip and loved it! I use it almost everywhere!!
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Gaby Almodovar 3 years ago
In fact, not just bell peppers. There are plenty of pepper-species., even from the sweet-ones.
Miss Cris 3 years ago (edited)
Yes. And in Europe each one has its proper name, taste and uses: cayena, bitxo/guindilla, pimentón, nyora, romesco, piment d'espelette, etc. Paprika is just one more of them.
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debrina blackmoon 3 years ago (edited)
One type IS. See the link in reply to Sinkvenice.
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#8
I've lived for about 7-8 years in Germany broken up over 20 years, but from the US. I try to do most of my shopping in the local grocery stores as opposed to the American store. One thing I never buy in the American store was cheese (except sharp cheddar). But I kept thinking how odd it was that the German stores didn't carry Swiss cheese, considering Germany borders Switzerland. Any time I had a recipe that needed it, I'd sub in edamer or emmentaler or titilser or gouda or whatever. It wasn't until like this past fall, after living here and shopping here for years, that I put it together that the Swiss probably don't call it Swiss cheese. I don't exactly know which of the 18,000 varieties of cheese my store carries is what I know as Swiss, but they're all good.
Candia Lee 3 years ago
In the common grocery, Swiss and Baby Swiss, which has smaller holes so I presume is less aged an milder. DK what other cheeses are "Swiss". We have other "holey" cheeses, like meunster and havarti. I don't know what others a specialty shop might have.
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Nikki Sevven 3 years ago
Every American grocery store has a real cheese display separate from the "dairy" section near the milk. It's usually located near the deli. Mine has everything from a fantastic local smoked Gouda to imported Danish Havarti. Also, so-called American cheese is not the only type of cheese that originated in the US. And real American cheese is NOT that crap where they individually wrap the slices. Real American cheese is creamy and tangy, similar to a really mild Cheddar.
ForgotMyPWSendHelp 3 years ago (edited)
Yep, you have to get your American cheese from the deli, not the dairy section. That's also where I get most of my cheese except for my daughter's snack cheese.
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Vanta Black 3 years ago
Not for me. I hate them, so I eat the cheese and leave the holes on the side of my plate.
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Nirdavo 3 years ago
Actually, many of us Germans call Edamer with its trademark holes cheese simply "Swiss cheese". This comparison even made it into a colloquial expression: When there is something riddled with holes , it "looks like a swiss cheese" :-)
Marianne Knuit 2 years ago (edited)
Edamer is a dutch cheese from Edam, the rond balls of cheese, sometimes with holes in it.
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MyOpinionHasBeenServed 3 years ago (edited)
Swiss cheese in Switzerland is likely the equivalent of Canadian bacon in Canada. We call it back bacon, or a slice of ham.
Me 3 years ago
Or how my European friends ask me, an American, if i eat American pizza. I think "American" pizza is what Americans call "New York style" pizza.
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Mike Flodin 3 years ago
In Sweden we don't call it Swedeish meatballs, we call them meatballs. :)
Lilith the Demon Panda 3 years ago
but swedish meatballs are actually turkish köfte
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#9
Not so much a mix-up,
But when I first ate asparagus it was the same day I had quit smoking cigarettes. I'm the lucky individual whose pee smells after eating asparagus and can also smell it. I swear to god I thought I was either dying or that stopping smoking had some adverse effect on my pee. It's only when I googled "why does my pee smell..." and googles auto-complete added "after eating asparagus" so I put two and two together and breathed a sigh of relief
Olga Dremina 3 years ago
But wait, there's more! Only about 30% of people can smell this. I just imagine Mother Nature: "this one will have 2020 vision, this one will have perfect hearing... And for you, my dear child, i have the ability of smelling bad scent in your pee after you eat asparagus!"
Lord Mysticlaw 3 years ago
Don't forget the "cilantro tastes like soap" gene
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advice5cents 3 years ago
More than once, I've eaten beets, forgotten, and then thought I was hemorrhaging internally
Kenny Kulbiski 3 years ago
I never had much asparagus when I was a kid and it was canned. As an adult I started growing my own. The first time I peed after eating a batch scared the hell out of me. I thought my kidneys must be dissolving or I've got some rare fatale disease.
Tami 3 years ago
And how about the red or pink pee some people get from beets? Which I learned recently can be a symptom of anemia.
Sarah McGowne 3 years ago
My husband loves beets and after having a large portion one night, he thought he was dying. I didn't know any better either until we googled it and I laughed so hard I cried.
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Ray Martin 3 years ago
I'm one of the 'lucky' ones who can not only smell it, but my pee is horrible after eating asparagus. It's a shame, because I love it, but I rarely eat it for that reason.
According to Jessica, some mistakes that we can definitely classify as ‘bad’ include things like not reading all the way through the recipe before you start cooking or not having a proper BC fire extinguisher “handy in the kitchen” in case you need it.
In the food expert’s opinion, a lot of silly mistakes get made because we’re not attentive enough. “To ensure that you have only the ‘good’ type of mistakes and fails, I recommend making your recipes ‘as is’ the first time so you get a feel for what the chef’s intended outcome is before you start tinkering with your own spin and substitutions,” she told me that anyone who is a cooking beginner and isn’t feeling overly confident should follow the rules without making major changes.
Though, this includes knowing the alternate names of food items, too. A simple Google search can help, even if we think we already know what an ingredient is or isn’t.
#10
At 38, I learned that pickles are cucumbers. My wife’s still laughing years later. I feel the pain!
Lousha 3 years ago
I read this lots of times from lots of people and could never understand how you just can't see what they are. Most of the time they are not chopped up in the jar so they just obviously are... cucumbers. But yeah, languages are weird. In mine everything in this family is called uborka, be it small or large.
Autumn 3 years ago
I mean it has a different name and flavour. Also, I was 19 before I saw a small cucumber, so I never thought that pickles could be cucumbers.
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Vicky Z 3 years ago
Actually pickles can be anything! The cucumbers are the most common but you can pickle so many things! In master chef the only thing they haven't pickled is the contesters!!!
Giamaica 3 years ago
that's because you have a single word for them. in italy we call them cetriolini that means small cucumbers, so no misleading errors ;-)
Miss Cris 3 years ago (edited)
Same in Spanish: pepinos and pepinillos (little pepinos/cucumbers). Full name: pepinillos en vinagre (little cucumbers in vinegar), so the name explains everything.
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#11
All my life i thought that curry is a spice on it‘s own but in reality curry is just a mix of many spices
Miss Cris 3 years ago
I thoght the same when I was a child. I saw yellow curry, red curry, green curry... and I thought it should be like pepper.
Animelover13ฅ(• ɪ •)ฅ 3 years ago
Wait curry is more spices!?! How did I not know this (I’m actually telling the truth I didn’t know this until now)
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Firefoxy3121 3 years ago
We do have a curry plant, which can be turned into curry spice. That's what we call curry powder
Ryan-James O'Driscoll 3 years ago
Erm...Who's "we" because that is not what curry powder is. Curry leaves are a thing, but different.
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OCD Mom 3 years ago
Haha! This is funny. Actually there is a spice called curry powder, which itself is a mix of some spices. Again, in India, curry also means gravy. Any kind of gravy can be called curry. Like a spicy chicken with spiced gravy is a curry. Same for a gravy of potatoes, fish or anything. A mixture of spices, water and the stock is called curry. So curry is a very generic term in India.
Troux 3 years ago
Yes I was going to explain this. I use the same comparison (gravy) when someone asks what curry means. There's a generic understanding of what a curry is, but a million varied recipes for it.
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Randolph Croft 3 years ago
Basically, 'curry' just means 'stewed' - as in, it's about the method, more than any seasoning. Hence different 'curries'. Garam masala is the name of the most common mix, but Thai curries are very different. Just as an example.
Princesz Anne Fernandez 3 years ago
I am from the Philippines and I always wondered why our version of curry is not spicy compared to other countries and I think that this explains it.
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El muerto 3 years ago
I think curry powder was first sold in England, since most indians would use the spices separately and put it together, but to make it easy for Britts they started selling a ready made powder...I'm not 100% sure of how accurate that is. but most people from india I know use their own selection, as do i
Mohammad Ammar 3 years ago
Pakistani here. We don't use curry powder, we mix the spices separately.
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Gary Davidson 3 years ago (edited)
There is a curry leaf which is used in some Indian cooking (see JPG picture below), however the spice known as curry powder that most people are familiar with, is a blend of various spices, and one curry powder can be quite different from others. 41vYscJnI4...7a9f08.jpg 
Artur Niedzielski 3 years ago
Because only one and real spice you can find exclusively on Dune planet ;)
#12
When I started cooking and following recipes, a lot of recipes required scallions. I kept going to the store looking for scallions but they would never have them in stock. They only had green onions. I kept thinking “oh well, I guess I will just use green onions. And once they have scallions in stock, my dinner will be way better”
Nubis Knight 3 years ago
That's what they're called in Germany too: Frühlingszwiebeln. (Sometimes Lauchzwiebeln = leek onions).
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lazy panda 3 years ago
I honest to god only figured this out thanks to Hello Fresh lol
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Jayne Kyra 3 years ago
We call it "cibuľka" (little onion, from Spring Onion - Jarná cibuľka). When I first read "scallion" I thought it was seafood.
Richard Portman 3 years ago
You can also say cebollita if you are with people from Jalisco.
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Katherine Boag 3 years ago
In the picture those are spring onions. Scallions are a bulb similar to normal onions but a funny shape (and could be the same plant, i dunno)
Candia Lee 3 years ago
Internet says those are scallions, that spring onions have round bulb.
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James016 3 years ago
Those are called spring onions in the UK. I have never heard the term scallion before
Lee Kerr 2 years ago
When I was a child in the NE. they were called scallions but I think it went out of fashion over the years
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Leslie Burleson 3 years ago
Green onions are called green onions or spring onions in the US . Here scallions are like a small bulb that's kind of a cross between onion and garlic
Victor Botha 3 years ago
Shallots are not spring onions, they are smallish onions that are more oval in shape almost like a pickling onion, also milder flavour than a normal white onion.
Jessica added that, in the kitchen, we should always work ‘mis en place,’ “that is, have all of your ingredients and supplies measured out and ready to go before you get started,” so that fewer blunders happen. And you can then focus on the pleasure that is cooking, whether the recipe has coriander/cilantro or not!
#13
I was making a cake at school that called for cream of tartar... I used tartar sauce.. fishy kinda cake it was.
Mad Dragon 3 years ago
Cream of tartar is a dry, powdery, acidic byproduct of fermenting grapes into wine. Its sciency name is potassium bitartrate, aka potassium hydrogen tartrate or tartaric acid. It can be used in baking to stabilize creamy ingredients such as meringue or whipped cream.
lazy panda 3 years ago
I use it in my Christmas cookies to make them hold their shape!
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Cyd Charisse 3 years ago
Why would tartar sauce make her cake fishy? There's no fish-tasting element in tartar sauce, it just complements seafood. Ugh! Why post a made-up story?
Jo Choto 3 years ago
Originally, cream of tartar was sourced from the pulp of the seeds of my favourite tree, the baobab.
Auntriarch 3 years ago
Ah that explains kremetartarboom (please excuse spelling it's been a while)
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Lory Kallio 2 years ago
Tartar sauce wouldn't be fishy, it's just mayonnaise and relish. Nice try though!
Mariele Scherzinger 2 years ago
Unlike my mother, I'm not much into baking. I once suggested a recipe to her. It required cream of tartar. Absolutely clueless what this is, I looked it up in a German translation. Found out the German translation is "Weinstein" (wine stone). Puzzlement galore.
#14
I once grabbed cayenne instead of the little jar of "cake spice" (it's a mix of cinnamon & cloves & anise & nutmeg, etc) when making an apple cake. I realized the mistake before mixing it in and was able to scrape most of it out, but there was a distinct bite to that cake! We referred to it as the "apple oops cake" and have occasionally added a dash of cayenne to cakes since.
Sanne H. 3 years ago
I always add a little bit of black pepper when baking an apple pie too. Read it once in a recipe and it indeed adds some extra flavour.
MyOpinionHasBeenServed 3 years ago
Accidentally mixed my paprika with cayenne pepper in a jar. Didn't realize it until I needed to use it.
advice5cents 3 years ago
The last line is the best. A little cayenne improves a lotta things. (Hot chocolate)
Violet Smith 3 years ago
I did the same thing as a kid - saw "cayenne" on the label and thought it was the French for cinnamon ("canelle") - that was a spicy apple crisp!
#15
I kept hearing Americans talk about "arugula" and I just assumed it was something that only grew in North America.
It's just rocket.
DE Ray 3 years ago
And there you see the linguistic link: "rucola" with an "a" on the front is like the American "arugula", "rucola" with a "t" in place of the "-la" is like the British "rocket".
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Dorothy Parker 3 years ago
So that's what rocket is in the English novels l devour like arugula.
Candia Lee 3 years ago
👍 I love learning British terms. Current fave is "car park".
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Rijkærd 3 years ago
Rocket? Space X and NASA is all that comes to mind when I hear about rocket
Nikki Sevven 3 years ago
Interesting... “Arugula” is an English corruption of the word in some Italian dialect, perhaps from Lombardy where they call it “arigola.” In Latin, “eruca” was a type of cabbage, and the English word “rocket”, the German word “Rauke” and the Italian “rucola” can be traced back to that word.
Heather Steinbrink 3 years ago
I don't know why the US hadn't embraced the name rocket! It was cooler than arugula.
Sawdust 3 years ago
Yeah, "arugula" sounds like an old-fashioned car horn.
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MyOpinionHasBeenServed 3 years ago
Pizza Pizza has arugula for a topping. It's a bit leafy for pizza.
Bexxxxx 3 years ago
I worked at a very fancy, expensive, “authentic”pizzeria that for some reason had a “pizza salata” - basically margherita pizza with a cold arugula/romaine/red lettuce/ICEBURG LETTUCE salad dumped on top. It’s so hard to eat and very leafy, your comment just reminded me of it 😂
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#16
Laurel leaf = Bay leaf. The same laurel you see in wreaths and made into head crowns. Also the same as in the phrase "rest your laurels" as well as the term "poet laureate."
Joy Hunter 3 years ago
One does not "rest (one's) laurels," one rests ON one's laurels...as in, "I won the race, so now I get to go lie down."
Jennifer Dibble 3 years ago
You said it before I could. It's what I get for resting on my laurels instead of responding faster. 😆
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Hugh Cookson 3 years ago
Do NOT get these two mixed up. Bay leaf is god for cooking, Laurel will make you extremely unwell - think vomit, shits, severe sweats and joint pain for about 2 weeks if you have enough of it. Good for weight loss though .... ;0))
Lillukka79 3 years ago
Bay and laurel are just two names for the same tree; Laurus nobilis.
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DC 3 years ago
And ... I learned that the default cooking situation for potatos shall always include 1/3 leaf per large potato +1 ... so, if you have like 12 large potoats, 5 leaves go into the pot and leave a little special taste in the potatos that just is a match made in very fertil soil, = plant heaven.
Jayne Kyra 3 years ago
The bay leaf is magical though. Add two or three to soup, sauce, meat, and something is always different and better. Hell, I put a leaf into instant ramen once and never stopped. Delicious!
Miss Cris 3 years ago
No. They both are the same plant. Adelfa is a similar plant with beautiful pink flowers which indeed is poisonous.
Load More Replies... Roxy Eastland 3 years ago
NO!! Laurel leaves are poisonous and definitely NOT the same as bay leaves.
#17
One day I bought a can of garbanzo beans...on the other side, it said, chickpeas. Mind blown!
Miss Cris 3 years ago
Garbanzo is the Spanish word for chickpeas in English, pois chiche in French.
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DaVo 3 years ago
What's the difference between a garbanzo bean and a chickpea? Trump has never had a garbanzo bean on his face.
Baby Panda 3 years ago
my family calls them both chickpeas and garbanzo beans, and we're completely american. (we do speak a lot of spanish, but it's cuban spanish)
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Puck 3 years ago
We call them kikkererwten, .... litterally translated: frog peas
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Huddo's sister 3 years ago
And if you use them to make flour I believe it is called garbanzo flour
#18
Bicarbonate soda/baking soda/baking powder always have me double-checking a recipe before I add them in
Katherine Boag 3 years ago
Baking powder is baking soda + cream of tartar (not tartar sauce XD )
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Amber Hartman 3 years ago
I did that once in accident baking a carrot cake. Not a good taste. 😕
Load More Replies... Ploploplop 3 years ago
Soda is activated by the presence of an acid. Powder is double acting. It reacts to acid and moisture. If a product needs to leaven and does not have acid present, powder is required.
marianne eliza 3 years ago
Really important to check the expiration dates on baking soda and baking powder. Don't use it if it's old.
#19
From watching American Masterchef I’ve also found out that aubergine, courgette, and swede are called eggplant, zucchini, and rutabaga. Apparently UK English uses the French wording, but the US is more likely to use Spanish or Italian.
Panda Kicki 3 years ago
Sweden here, not sure if I should feel offended about being called a kålrot or not 😂. They taste horrible.
DDmaybeandor 3 years ago
I’ve not looked up the “aubergine, courgette, and swede”, but as someone from the US what’s pictured (left to right) is an eggplant, yellow squash (also called summer squash), and a huge zucchini. We normally don’t eat zucchini that size but I learned a few years ago that other cultures do. We prefer them yellow squash size and know many gardeners become very upset because their zucchini got too big and had to be composted rather than eaten. (Too tough and bitter and we don’t have recipes for that size).
Diana Pahule 2 years ago
One year I had so many loaves of zucchini bread made from over sized fruits I haven't made it since.
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Stannous Flouride 3 years ago
In case you've ever wondered why they're called eggplants, here's some before they turn purple: egge-61d24...e7-png.jpg 
John Topper 3 years ago
I wish we would call it aubergine. That sounds sooo much better than "eggplant".
Bengt Höglund 3 years ago
Suede in french is swede, so don't eat my blue swedish shoes.
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Daniel (ShadowDrakken) 3 years ago
I'm curious how folk in the UK differentiate zucchini (green) and summer squash (yellow) since they have different textures and flavors from one another. I tried asking before and people said they're both courgette. Which is great, but how do you ask someone to get the right one for your recipe? XD
Richard Portman 3 years ago
They are very similar. The yellow ones are slightly sweeter. The zucchini have a little more texture.
Load More Replies... DDmaybeandor 3 years ago
A rutabaga in the US is a root vegetable, kind of like a turnip and potato mix.
#20
As a Brit, I love blackcurrant squash (for those that don’t know, it’s a type of juice that you add water too and it’s delicious). Imagine my surprise in America when I asked a Walmart worker for help finding it and she took me to the root vegetables
Nikki Sevven 3 years ago
In the US, the term "squash" refers, in general, to all gourd-type vegetables, including pumpkin, butternut squash, acorn squash, etc. It comes from the Narragansett (Native American) word "askutasquash."
Got Myself 4 Dwarves 3 years ago
Bought my usual diluting juice the other day only to discover they gave doubles the strength of it from double to quadruple- I like mine quite weak so was a total shock to the system! Kids were loving it though, never seen them drink so much
rumade 3 years ago
Blackcurrant isn't really available in the UK because of an infection that targets both currant bushes and pine trees. The lumber companies were worried about ruined crops, so currant bushes were essentially banned!
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Samantha Lomb 3 years ago
You will find no currants in the US. The US Department of Agriculture banned then in the early 20th century after fear of a crop disease and we do not grow them
M O'Connell 3 years ago
That's changed, we import many current products from overseas, and cultivation of currants is permitted in the southern states, which are outside the growing range of the White Pine.
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Andrea Jones 3 years ago
Same here, in NYC and having Ribena withdrawals, went into walgreens and asked if they sell, squash... "We don't sell vegetables here m'aam", ... do you sell cordial? "we're trained to be polite m'aam"... No i mean juice, that you dilute to add to water... pointed out powders... not great so had to live on shnapple. Went to Ohio and my friend who has lived in europe took me to Kroger and got this little squirty bottle of juice concentrate, not ribena but was too happy to care!
Eiram 3 years ago (edited)
We know of it, but we don't use the term. (It's commonly thought to be a slightly alcoholic juice, made from dandelions or berries historically)
Load More Replies... #21
I went to live in the US and went to a restaurant in night 1. I had to ask the waitress where the "main courses" were in the menu. I had no idea that Americans use the term "entree" and had to google the reasoning how you can have a plate of food before your entrance dish.
Save Bandit 3 years ago
I'm a little lost - if the main is called 'entree', what do they call an entree? Is that what Americans call appetisers?
Dave P 3 years ago
Yes, we appetize, then enter the meal and then the most important part, the Dessert
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Niall Mac Iomera 3 years ago
Entree literally means entry. As in the entrance to your meal. I have no idea how the US messed this one up.
Aria Whitaker 3 years ago (edited)
You have NO IDEA how many languages/countries/cultures do this...this is FAR from an "American" phenomenon...
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Summer Mason 3 years ago
Conclusion.... In America it's appetizer before entree and everywhere else it's entree then main corse?
Daniel (ShadowDrakken) 3 years ago
Because we rarely eat in courses in the USA, ain't no one got time for that XD
#22
Mincemeat is not minced meat. Like, what?
CatGirl 3 years ago
It once was - it was minced meat with spices and dried fruits, bottled to keep it good over the winter months.
Devil's Advocate 3 years ago
Yep, they changed the recipe, but kept the name
Load More Replies... Save Bandit 3 years ago
When I went to the U.S, I was lucky enough to go to a baseball match, and I loved that they actually had people walking around with their trays calling out 'Hotdogs! Get your hotdogs here!' And 'Ice cream sandwiches!' etc. I said toy friend how cool it was and that the food choices were great. He asked me what we usually had a sporting matches and I said 'usually just meat pies and stuff.' And he was very confused. He was like 'Meat pies? What is THAT?' So I explained 'You know, pies. Like with gravy and mince' and he, even more confused, exclaimed 'PEPPERMINTS?!'. We worked out that pies in the U.S are generally sweet, and the savoury pies are called pot pies lol
Mistralok 3 years ago
Mincemeat is a mixture of chopped dried fruit, distilled spirits and spices, and sometimes beef suet, beef, or venison. Originally, mincemeat always contained meat. Many modern recipes contain beef suet, though vegetable shortening is sometimes use
CrunChewy McSandybutt 3 years ago
American here. My father LOVED mince pies, and therefore so do I. Come to think of it, he was a pretty big Anglophile. He loved Dr. Who, Hitchhiker's guide, Benny Hill, etc.
Kira Okah 3 years ago
Spiced mixed fruit, has had liquor used in production, sometimes contains suet or venison.
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v 3 years ago
Depends on who's making it. It's called mincemeat for a reason. The other big thing, again depending on who's making it, is what type of meat is used. Seeing as how it originated as a way to preserve and stretch available food stuffs, the meat was typically from the parts of the animal that don't provide large cuts of meat.
#23
Way late to the party, but when I lived in Belgium, I got really into hot chocolate—like melting bars of chocolate in milk, kind of hot chocolate. However, the colors of the milk caps were different than the ones I’d normally buy at home in the States. I was blown away by how good the milk tasted by itself and it was even better with chocolate bars melted into it.....and then realized I wasn’t buying 2% milk, but rather full fat. I was essentially melting bars of chocolate in cream and couldn’t figure out why I was gaining so much weight.
Zobi123 3 years ago
Right? Also, milk cap colors are not consistent across brands of milk in the States.
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Miss Cris 3 years ago
He was "melting bars of chocolate" and then worries if he gained weight by using 3% milk instead of 2%.
Akos Barati 3 years ago
Oh I see your confusion. Here in Belgium you can buy creme room in the same height and content as normal milk, that is to say, one liter, except the creme room is from what you can make whipped cream. So yeah it wasn't 3% fat. IIRC there's just 3.5% in milk.
Load More Replies... Lord Mysticlaw 3 years ago
Full fat milk isn't the same as cream, but I'm sure it resembles cream if you're used to 2% 😁
Tina Bennett 3 years ago
"Full fat" milk or whole milk is literally only 3% milk as compared to 2% milk. :) Sneaky, sneaky marketing!
Annamagelic 3 years ago
Only in the US. "Whole milk" is 3.25% milk fat due to the FDA saying that is the minimum that can be called whole milk. True whole is generally a bit higher, but exactly how much varies.
Load More Replies... Daniel (ShadowDrakken) 3 years ago
I had fun with a similar thing in Honduras. In the USA, we typically see Skim (might as well be colored sugar water), 1%, 2% and Whole Milk (3% to 3.5%). But in Honduras, their Whole Milk is 4%-5%, and they have a "Semi-Whole" that takes the place of the 3% backet. So when I first moved there and was buying my whole milk it was just WAY too rich XD
Eb 3 years ago
Don't blame the milk! Whole milk is about 3.5% fat, unless you buy whati called gold top in the UK, so it's technically a low-fat food. Single cream is about 18% fat vs clotted which is more than halfway to butter. I'd blame the chocolate (presumably at least 30% fat, more if dark chocolate as there's less sugar).
#24
Reminds me of my search for zucchini. Moved to a new town, wanted to buy some at the local mart. Far as I could tell, no zucchini. Took a good long while before I learned that the oddly zucchini-like thing labeled "Italian squash" was, indeed, zucchini. I facepalmed so hard at that.
Becky Samuel 3 years ago
Oh dear. Did nobody explain to you that courgettes and zucchini are the same thing? Embarrassing.
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Lena Flising 3 years ago
It used to be generally known as squash here in Sweden, but more and more it's called zucchini.
Niall Mac Iomera 3 years ago
Zucchini when making spaghetti; courgette when making ratatouille
Buzz 3 years ago
I talk to myself and always have. When I was learning french I talked to myself in french so I could be more fluent. Now I mix up french and english words and zucchini is one of them. Sometimes I words up so badly that I'll spend like a super long time looking for like sucre or courgette and the store employees will just be like wtf
#25
All Purpose Flour and Plain Flour for me. Was searching the shops for months!
Pungent Sauce 3 years ago
Cake flour has a lower protein content than AP, @9% vs 12% making for a ‘softer’ dough. Check out the King Arthur Flour site for way too much info about flour.
Robin Roper 3 years ago
As bread flour has far more protein than regular or cake flour. It's the protein that develops the stringy gluten strands and gives a kneaded bread it's yummy and chewy texture.
Load More Replies... Lord Mysticlaw 3 years ago
I live in South Africa and when I started getting recipes online I was also confused about All Purpose Flour because we don't have that here. Eventually figured out it's what we call cake flour.
Cyd Charisse 3 years ago
Not quite. Cake flour is MUCH lower in protein than all-purpose. Bread flour is at the other end of the protein spectrum.
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Marlowe Fitzpatrik 3 years ago
We add numbers to the flour. So we have wheat-flour with 550, which is ideal for bread, and 1050, which comes close to whole-grain and then we have the soft, all-purpose-flour that's .. I think 405? I don't know exactly what measurement would come after the numbers, but iit's about the protein-content.
Lena Flising 3 years ago
I was trying to follow a Jamie Oliver recipe a couple of months ago, and he mentioned "self-rising flour". Being Swedish, I didn't think it existed here, but why not check, right? Nope, here we have to mix the baking powder into the flour ourselves.
#26
It's a different sort of conundrum, but using Ceylon Cinnamon as opposed to the much more common (in the US anyway) Cassia or Saigon Cinnamon confused me for awhile. I eventually learned the difference, and I do prefer Ceylon Cinnamon - which is more tightly curled and far more brittle. So a 'stick' of Ceylon Cinnamon will have layers you can see where it's been wrapped around itself to dry, and Cassia Cinnamon is much harder and usually just has a single 'layer' in the stick. Ceylon you can crumble in your hand, Cassia you have to grate or whatnot.
El muerto 3 years ago
ceylon has the better taste...cassia was develop to make it easier to grow in places less optimal to grow ceylon, it's cheaper yet less tasty
BieneMaya 3 years ago
Cassia is not only cheaper, but can contain large quantities of cumarin. This can be toxic. Ceylon on the other hand is known to regulate the blood sugar.
Load More Replies... KatHat 3 years ago
Most "cinnamon" in the US is actually cassia, and it can be a lot more firey to taste - hence why you get "Red Hots" and so on that don't bear much resemblance to the cinnamon most of the rest of the world knows. Ceylon Cinnamon is more floral and a much softer taste, and is more common in the UK and Australia (as well as other places). Which one you consider "real" depends on where you grew up, but technically, cassia is not cinnamon.
Sarah 3 years ago
I grew up with the cassia, having no idea it wasn't "real" cinnamon. When I read that Ceylon cinnamon is good for you and cassia can cause problems, I bought some Ceylon. I tried it on cinnamon toast and was quite disappointed. It just wasn't cinnamon to me.
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Caiman 94920 3 years ago
Ceylon cinnamon is the best to use as a supplement to regulate blood sugar for diabetics.
Ray Martin 3 years ago
Caiman 94920 - Stop promoting woo-woo health advice for "likes".
Load More Replies... Ray Martin 3 years ago
... and then there's the powdered kind that grows in a small box at the supermarket.
Axle Einhorn 3 years ago
Ceylon, or "true" cinnamon, is named for the country of origin (Sri Lanka). I used to do product R&D work for Cinnabon through one of the world's largest food companies. They use korintje, of principally Indonesian origin, which pairs well with sweets and is highly aromatic. At Cinnabon corporate they had us do a whole cinnamon school, complete with tasting notes like you might have for a wine tasting.
RandomHumanBean 3 years ago
ceylon also has kinda a fruity sweet smell/taste wheras saigon is sharper
#27
Learned in a game of Trivial Pursuit with friends that grapefruit and grapes are not the same thing.
Lena Flising 3 years ago
Maybe they have English as a second language? In Swedish, grapes are called "vindruvor" (and wine is called "vin", pretty logical). I know that grapefruit and grapes are two very separate things, but I have mixed the names up a couple of times.
Ray Martin 3 years ago
Thanks to my medications I'm no longer allowed to eat grapefruit. For a time I seriously pondered if it was worth living longer if I couldn't eat grapefruit again, but I reasoned that I couldn't really enjoy it dead, either, so here I am.
Lauren Sartor 3 years ago (edited)
Anziz Ansari has this great skit about 50 cent getting the two fruits confused. So funny! https://youtu.be/waCF81HdKAA
Susan Montgomery 2 years ago
I wonder if this person also struggles with pineapples not being apples. ;)
#28
Here’s another one: Chipotle and Jalapeños are the same pepper.
Rob Chapman 3 years ago
Chipotle specifically refers to a smoked and dried jalepeno pepper. All chipotles are jalepenos, but not all jalepenos are chipotles.
chonky_rubberband 3 years ago
i thought chipotle was a made-up word just for the restaurant. #tmyk
Mike Loux 3 years ago
I love that pretty much every chili pepper in Mexican cuisine has a dried/smoked counterpart. For example, a dried and smoked Poblano is an Ancho. And it's absolutely delicious.
Axle Einhorn 3 years ago
Check out the triads of dried chilis that are used in various regional moles. The depth of flavor you get from the various classic triptychs is really nice. Toasting chilis on a clay comal makes a kitchen smell incredible.
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Emily Ducat 3 years ago
And here I was thinking Chipotle was basically like Nando's a restaurant chain possibly named after a dish, I don't know, I have such a pathetically pasty white palette that even the mildest of spicy food burns my mouth so I don't really eat out much.
Ray Martin 3 years ago
That's like saying anchovies and smoked salmon are the same thing, because they're both fish.
Jacalyn Margittay 3 years ago
Most of the jalapeños in the stores are green (unripe) therefore little sting to them. The riper ones have little scratch-like lines on them. Who knew? Now you!
#29
I used to think an artichoke was a kind of fish.
Martin Burley 3 years ago
Globe or Jerusalem Artichokes? Very different vegetables, just to confuse matters more.
#30
I just learned a few weeks ago that green, yellow, and orange bell peppers are all just red bell peppers at different stages of ripeness when harvested.
Mistralok 3 years ago
Uhm... not really. All bells begin as green, but different varieties turn to different colors when fully ripe.
Roxy Eastland 3 years ago
A few people in this list have 'learnt' incorrect facts
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You kidding me 3 years ago
I've worked in produce for many, many years and for some reason this falsehood bothers me the most. It's amazing how many people believe this and will argue to the death that it's true, but it's not. They all come from separate seeds and plants.
DragonflyGreen 3 years ago
This is categorically false. The different colors are different species of bell peppers. They even each have distinctively different flavors.
Robin Roper 3 years ago (edited)
Actually, they all start as a different variety of green peppers. The variety that fully matures as red isn't the same variety that fully matures as orange, yellow or red - they are all different varieties. A green pepper will not first mature into yellow, then mature a bit more to orange, then fully mature to red. Also, by allowing the peppers to mature to their final color the production of the plant will be reduced meaning the plant will not produce as many total peppers. That's way the red, orange and yellow peppers are more expensive. The farmer is loosing production by allowing the fruits to fully mature on the plant.
Becky Samuel 3 years ago
Don't believe everything you read online. This is a factoid commonly trotted out for these lists, and it's not even half true. All bell peppers are green when they're unripe, but the fancy coloured ones in the shops are all different varieties, not different stages of peppers from the same plant.
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Katelynn Breukelman 3 years ago
https://www.naturefresh.ca/debunking-common-myths-about-sweet-peppers/
Jennifer Germain 2 years ago
nope, I grow red peppers all the time, I pick them early when they are green or wait till they turn red. They NEVER turn yellow, ever.
#31
I was stationed in England for 3 years. One day I was having a conversation with some locals who worked with me and the topic of breakfast came up. I told them how much I liked biscuits and gravy and one of them said "got blimey, no wonder you Americans are so fat!". I was shocked and confused until someone else said "aah mate, biscuits are cookies!" I ended up cooking a batch for them the next week.
Summer Mason 3 years ago
I can understand the confusion. As I didn't understand tea and biscuits because here ours are buttery and flakey and I don't think a proper English tea would taste well with them. However educated myself cause I love my friends from the UK. Biscuits and gravy here come from the American revolutionary War Era. So essentially alot of southern family's mainly slaves where poor and this was a Harty meal. Slaves where not afforded the luxury of adding sugar to alot of their meals in the slave homes out side of the big houses their masters lived in. So that's where is started and now it's an American staple like you all have your scones as we call them here.
Aria Whitaker 3 years ago
Thanks for this Summer! Rare to see a bit of Black American history on here! My family is descendants of slaves and this is precisely what my grandma told us her grandma (who was a slave in Virginia) told her about where biscuits originated from!
Load More Replies... Lord Mysticlaw 3 years ago
"Biscuits and gravy" shocked and confused me for a very long time until I figured out what they are in America 🤣
Seedy Vine 3 years ago
If you haven't had an American biscuit, you must try one. They're like our best thing.
deathrose 3 years ago
A light, flaky/crumbly scone. No sugar though. Usually buttery tasting. We eat them with either butter and jam or with sawmill gravy. Sometimes we add herbs, garlic or cheese to them.
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Wang Zhuang 3 years ago
I love (American) biscuits. It's one of the things I miss most living overseas
Upstaged75 3 years ago
I'm American and I've never had biscuits and gravy in my entire life. The idea of it grosses me out! I do like biscuits as a breakfast food, but why ruin them with lumpy gray gravy? Ick!
Aria Whitaker 3 years ago
The gravy tastes like sausage, and since many like sausage biscuits...they pair together nicely. Too bad you have not bothered to actually try it and find out others like it so much...
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Diane Aguilar 3 years ago
Do NOT disrespect biscuits and gravy like that -- it is one of the finest things anyone could ever have for breakfast and other cultures are seriously missing out on that rich, delicious treat!!! A great Saturday or Sunday morning breakfast feast is biscuits and gravy served with hash browns and fried eggs and lots and lots of coffee, with some fresh fruit to round off the breakfast (e.g. red grapefruit or melon). That's the kind of breakfast that will stick with you throughout the day.
Load More Replies... #32
Had a coworker bring slow cooker Mac and cheese to a department potluck. I tasted it and it tasted sweet. She has said before she's not a very good cook, but I was very confused as to how you could screw up one pot Mac and cheese?
Apparently, the recipe called for evaporated milk, but she used condensed milk instead haha
Jayne Kyra 3 years ago
Sweetened condensed milk is so incredibly high calorie and so stupidly delicious! You can buy it in toothpaste-like tubes here and squirt it into your mouth.
Ploploplop 3 years ago (edited)
If you simmer condensed milk unopened in the can for 3 hours, you get a great and easy caramel.
Terry Tobias 3 years ago (edited)
Sweetened condensed milk is used to make sweet things like candy and desserts. Evaporated milk is milk that has had some air removed or "evaporated" from it to make it shelf stable. I always try to keep some cans of evaporated milk on hand for when I'm out of milk or 1/2 & 1/2 and need some for my coffee or to make mashed potatoes. It works great!
AnnaBanana 3 years ago
Condensed milk absolutely grosses me out. I can't even watch people eating it, I have to turn away!
Miss Cris 3 years ago (edited)
In Europe we have sweeten evaporated milk and not sweetened. And (sweetened) condensed. So three types. They were strategies to conserve milk and were widely used and appreciated during the war and postwar period. You used to mix it with water to obtain sweetened or plain milk. Not everybody could afford it.
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#33
Ordering Chinese in the USA I asked for no prawns.
The server had no tucking clue what I meant until my wife corrected prawns to shrimp.
Save Bandit 3 years ago
I've never quite understood why Americans think Australians would say 'Throw another shrimp on the barbie', when we never, ever use the term shrimp. I assume there was some kind of Foster's advertising campaign at some point? (Also, we don't drink Foster's sorry..!)
Pungent Sauce 3 years ago
“We don’t export Fosters, we deport it” -Australian coworker after seeing those ads.
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Andy Acceber 3 years ago
Prawns here in the U.S. means a specific type of large shrimp. Most people would understand what you're talking about even if your word isn't exactly what we'd use.
Les Izmore 3 years ago
shrimp and prawns are actually two distinct animals. Though both belong to the family of marine life called Decapod crustaceans, the various types of shrimp each fall under the suborder Pleocyemata, while prawn species belong to the Dendrobranchiata suborder. Shrimp live in salt water and prawns in fresh water. They taste quite different as well
Aria Whitaker 3 years ago
Exactly Les. I am a Bio major and this post frustrated me since they are quite literally TWO DIFFERENT ANIMALS.
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Elizabeth Elliot 3 years ago
Shrimps in the Uk are generally plural and tiny! Prawns are the big ones.
Summer Mason 3 years ago
We still call them prawns here too. I guess you had an uneducated waiting staff.
Katchen 3 years ago
I wonder if the OP has a strong accent and the waiter couldn’t tell they were saying the word “prawn”? Trevor Noah told a story about how he had a hard time ordering water because of his accent.
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#34
I thought that 'celeriac' was an adjective for "celery-like". I only found out it was an actual vegetable when I saw it used on MasterChef
#35
Followed a recipe that required 1 cup of 'tomato sauce'. Tomato sauce in Australia is similar to ketchup. Thought it was weird but went with it. A week later I realized they Americans call tomato puree (passata) tomato sauce. Definitely wasn't supposed to use ketchup.
Ell Torn 3 years ago
They're also different here in Australia, one being a thick paste and the other just being watery pureed tomatoes. i would not use passata in a recipe that calls for tomato puree.
Load More Replies... Lord Mysticlaw 3 years ago
Haha same, in South Africa ketchup = tomato sauce and we don't use the word ketchup. One of the things to make very sure of when you get a recipe online.
Daniel (ShadowDrakken) 3 years ago
Nope, tomato puree is different than tomato sauce. Tomato sauce generally has garlic and salt added, and a high water content. Tomato puree just has salt added and a low water content.
Candia Lee 3 years ago
Tomato sauce is plain pasta sauce. You can make it from canned tomato paste and tomatoes. Tomato puree I have not seen.
InfectedVoice 3 years ago
Tomato puree is very sharp and good for thickening up sauce, passata is a pre-blended sauce you can cook quickly.
Becky Samuel 3 years ago
If you're cooking properly then you don't want to use ketchup because it's full of sugar, salt, thickeners, etc. Passata is just pureed tomatoes without all the garbage. Then your own seasonings, herbs and spices get a chance to shine instead of more of the same old processed flavors.
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#36
I thought a lime was just an unripe lemon
Hono Klatuu 3 years ago
Easy mistake to make, limes will even turn completely yellow if left on the tree to ripen further.
Daniel (ShadowDrakken) 3 years ago
This was another weird one to me in Honduras... Spanish has separate words for all the citrus food; lima, limon, poma, etc... Honduras, nope, everything in Honduras is limon. You'll almost never see an actual lemon in Honduras either, just limes and the occasional white grapefruit, all called limon...
Richard Portman 3 years ago
I worked in a kitchen that spoke mexican spanish. They used both lemons and limes. One day i just couldn't stand it anymore. What do you call this? Limon. Ok, what do you call this? Limon Verde. I decided to just forget about the whole thing.
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#37
American living in London: my friends refuse to believe that arugula (rocket) is a real word. They think I’m making it up as a joke.
Parthania Dawson 3 years ago
As an American who used to watch Jamie Oliver, I got confused every time he said he was putting rocket in his salads.
Kat Rob 3 years ago (edited)
They also call rutabaga swede or vice versa depending on your perspective
AnnaBanana 3 years ago
I had no clue what a rutabaga was when I lived in the US!
Load More Replies... Pittsburgh rare 3 years ago
I'd never guess what rocket is but arugula sounds more like rúcula, the Spanish name, so l could make a guess if I didn't know.
DE Ray 3 years ago
I have to get in my rocket to go fight the fierce arugula!
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#38
When I was a kid, my parents and everybody else - even grocery stores - called bell peppers "mangoes". When I left home, it was a shocker to discover what mangoes really were.
I suspect it was one of those regional things that have mostly died out by now thanks to better communication. We lived in rural Kentucky, the Tri-State area, Ohio River Valley. It was a very backward place in the '60s and '70s.
Hono Klatuu 3 years ago (edited)
Actully this is still common in a wide area including Cincinnati. Here is one theory why-Food historian Karen Hess and author of Martha Washington’s Book of Cookery told Segal that in 18th-century England there was a demand for Indian-style pickles like fruit mangos stuffed with spices and kept in a vinegar brine. Mangoes weren’t available in England so they used substitutes such as green peppers. By way of English cookbooks printed in America, the recipe for stuffed mangoes using peppers spread across America," the Indianapolis Star wrote.
Karasi Mills 3 years ago
Cassava/yucca flour are used in a lot of recipes but it is a nutty almost bitter flour like garbanzo flour. It is the STARCH from cassava that is used in tapioca and recipes like Brazilian or Bolivian cheesy bread (pão de queijo/cuñapes). You cannot substitute the flour for the starch in recipes.
Richard Portman 3 years ago
Well what did you call those peppers? We know that you used to be good gardeners. Mangoes, for pity sake.
#39
Not long ago, I found out that tapioca is made from the yucca root, which is also called cassava in other parts. In America, it is often called yuca when it is used to make tasty fries to go with Peruvian roast chicken.
Hono Klatuu 3 years ago
This is also confusing because Yuca (cassava) is different than Yucca which is a pointy leaf plant that grows in the desert of the southwest usa
Miss Cris 3 years ago
Oh, so the potato like is yuca, and yucca is another different thing, isn't it? I understood that taioca was powder made with the potato thing.
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Living Example 3 years ago
When I was stationed in Thailand there was a tapioca processing plant upstream from our base. The stream ran through the base in such a way as to separate the barracks area from the flight line so it had the be crossed over to get to work (or the NCO club!). You would see people stop and light a cigarette before walking across the bridge to try to mask the nasty, nasty odor of the plant's waste. I'm talking make me gag nasty. As a side note, Yuca is poisonous if eaten raw.
Candia Lee 3 years ago
I feel dumb that I looked it up when I know "Yucatan".
Load More Replies... #40
Kinda unrelated, but a friend and I once ate out and he got a salad. He liked the dressing so the waitress told him it's a simple vinaigrette. Fast forward a few days and he tells me that the salad he made is nothing like the one he ate in that restaurant. He can't figure it out, he put vinegar on it just like the waitress told him!
Maria Hermida 3 years ago
There's no such thing as a "simple" vinaigrette. The mixture can contain so many different ingredients! There are even over 100 types of the basic stuff, i.e. vinegar and olive oil.
Candia Lee 3 years ago
A simple vinaigrette: oil, vinegar, salt, sweetener, flavor (mustard, herbs, garlic, pepper, etc.) Five basic ingredients. Very simple. Not easy to match someone else's.
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#41
Scallions and Shallots. They're two completely different things but I always get tongue-tied on them.
Aimee Gregory 3 years ago
For 40 years I thought they were both a weird seafood...like a clam or muscle or something
Chich 3 years ago
I am not a big fan of onions in general but tried a recipe from 1792 that called for shallots. They are now on the weekly shopping list.
Terry Tobias 3 years ago
They're sweeter and milder than onions and great when making a pan sauce!
Load More Replies... #42
My mum went to the USA and tried to get "a glass of orange squash". In the UK orange juice is a drink made by squeezing oranges. Orange/lemon/tropical squash is the concentrated liquid you dilute at home with water. Orange juice and orange squash are two different drinks.
The waiter looked confused and asked if she meant orange juice. She insisted she wanted a glass of orange squash. The waiter came back with the hard-skinned, semi-savory fruit, similar to a pumpkin, also call an orange squash, and said "you want me to put this in a glass"?
Save Bandit 3 years ago
Actually yes! I remember having trouble with drinks too! So in Australia, lemonade is basically Sprite - a clear, fizzy, sugary 'lemon' drink. In America I discovered lemonade will get you the traditional cordial/non fizzy version. I ginger ale was the closest to our lemonade, which was weird because ginger ale to us is a light version of ginger beer. Both made with ginger.. 🤷♀️ That was nearly 20 years ago though!
Lord Mysticlaw 3 years ago
In South Africa lemonade is also basically Sprite, but in some restaurants they'll have something like "home-made lemonade" on the menu, which will usually get you the non-fizzy one.
Load More Replies... Timea Peter 3 years ago
We call it syrup in Hungary and Romania but I suppose syrup in the US is the maple syrup.
Kimi Tomminello 3 years ago
Depends on where you are. Here there's tons of different "syrups" used as flavorings for coffees and other drinks as well as maple syrup. Though you're right- if you were to just say the world "syrup" in most of America people would assume maple unless you specified. Most places call them concentrates in my region.
Load More Replies... 
#43
At a hotpot, there was sea cucumber. Some people were wincing and I didn't understand why. I happily ate it because... I thought it was the cucumber of the sea. Imagine the laughter that ensued when I told them why I wasn't grossed out.
Candia Lee 3 years ago
Like shark fin and rhino horn, they are illegal in many markets. Rather flavorless, they have a unique texture. OP had an rare experience.
Wang Zhuang 3 years ago
I've also eaten sea cucumber here in China. It's a bit strange, but not bad, actually.
#44
I've accidentally marinated chicken in vanilla yogurt more than once
Gaby Almodovar 3 years ago
Hey, honestly that's not even a bad idea! Some spices what everybody take as cake-spices, in fact are working well with meat too... like vanilla or cinnamon. Of course, one should make the own vanilla yogurt, without sugar.
Mike Beck 3 years ago
Salt the meat, let it sit for 30 minutes, submerge in yogurt or buttermilk for 24 hours. Very tender and even turkey is moist. I've also put a splash of vanilla in several marinades.
Load More Replies... Daniel (ShadowDrakken) 3 years ago
I'm confused on this one. What was it supposed to be? I've actually seen recipes that call for exactly this...
Poultry Geist 3 years ago
My dad use to cook chicken in coke! He boiled the chicken in coke then baked in a real hot ovens til the skin was kind of crispy
#45
I giggle every time I think about when I learned that "Ground Nut Oil" is Peanut Oil.
#46
“Oh! I love sweetbread! It’s so savory and delicious for bread!” [Sweetbread is usually the thymus gland of an animal. Very soft and can be funky tasting if it's not fresh]
Diane Aguilar 3 years ago
This is even more confusing if you come from a Mexican family because "pan dulce" refers to a variety of sweet dessert breads that are irresistibly good, so whenever someone talks about "sweetbreads" my mind immediately goes to "sweet bread" and I think about THAT instead of, you know, offal.
Richard Portman 3 years ago
I don't want to offend anyone, but fried sweetbreads are delicious. Haven't seem them for years. They used to come in two kinds.
#47
The first time I cooked Thanksgiving I put red curry powder in the pumpkin pie instead of nutmeg. I had bought things in bulk and hadn't labeled the jars. I was stressed so I just dumped in the red jar. It is so much better. We have never gone back. I use red curry instead of nutmeg in any recipe that calls for nutmeg.
#48
I also remember when I discovered plain yogurt and vanilla yogurt were not, in fact, the same.
Mistralok 3 years ago
Plain yogurt is just that, plain, without any flavorings whatsoever. Vanilla yogurt is plain yogurt flavored with vanilla.
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Lord Mysticlaw 3 years ago
This recently happened to my kid. She assured me that she likes plain yoghurt. I assured her that she does not, and that she was thinking of vanilla. I gave in and bought the plain yoghurt. She didn't like it.
Erika 3 years ago
This was me with my dad, “yeah dad grab the plain yoghurt, I like that one”. I didn’t, I was older than I care to admit.
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Summer Woodsong 3 years ago
Plain yogurt generally has no added sweeteners or spices - including vanilla extract. Vanilla yogurt regularly includes added sugar in addition to the vanilla extract. While I don't usually mind the vanilla, the extra sugar generally added extra calories to my diet plans.
DDmaybeandor 3 years ago
Yes, I thought yogurt always had a sweet flavor until I got more into cooking different cultural food. Just like tea is always assumed hot in some parts of the world, I thought plain yogurt was vanilla yogurt because it didn’t have berries or anything in it. So glad I found out differently, because I like plain so much better.
Diane Aguilar 3 years ago
I'm very much like you in that I didn't realize that yogurt wasn't normally sweet and in fact could be used in savory dishes until I was 18 and really got into Greek food; tzatziki sauce was my reckoning when I learned what it was composed of. I suppose older people might be facepalming at this because I understand in '60s/'70s hippie-type natural food stores they did sell plain yogurt you had to add sweeteners to, but I grew up in the '80s - '90s (and was 18 toward the end of the '90s) so all the yogurt I ever grew up with were the small containers of sweet Yoplait or Dannon yogurt. And yeah, these days I'll sometimes use plain yogurt in place of sour cream in dishes such as baked or mashed potatoes and it really tastes amazing.
Load More Replies... #49
My girlfriend bought a lavender plant thinking it was rosemary
Dorothy Parker 3 years ago
You can bake or cook with lavender, but too much you think you're eating perfumed soap.
DE Ray 3 years ago
Lavender is incredibly high in phytoestrogen - so much so that men are discouraged from drinking lavender tea daily.
Candia Lee 3 years ago
Interesting. Our ladies campout serves lavender lemonade ...
Load More Replies... deathrose 3 years ago
They are in the same family. Without the purple flowers lavender plants look a lot like rosemary plants.
Candia Lee 3 years ago
Rosemary also has purple flowers. They taste good.
Load More Replies... #50
I put cumin in pancakes when I was a kid.
Skye Mayhem 3 years ago
At first I thought it might work, but them realized they didn't mean caraway which is called kumina in Finnish. I always confuse cumin and caraway. *facepalm*
ilikeplants 3 years ago
Yep. I have grabbed the cumin when I meant to get cinnamon more than once!
RandomHumanBean 3 years ago
my brother put it in applesauce instead of cinnamon. oh, [insert name of my brother]
#51
Well, with regard to faucets/spigots I didn’t know lefty - loosey, righty - tighty until I was nearing middle age. I’m still embarrassed.
Dodo 3 years ago
If you're trying to tighten something, you turn it to the right; loosen it to the left. Hence 'righty tighty, lefty loosey'. Not food related though.
Load More Replies... Becky Samuel 3 years ago
You. You call them taps. Other people have different words for things. Amazing, right!
Load More Replies... Pungent Sauce 3 years ago
Your left hand makes an ‘L’ if you hold it up in front of you. I’ve done this trying to figure nuts/bolts at weird angles. I’m 51 😅
Hannah Edwards 3 years ago
I only found this out from seeing a Curious George episode that my kids were watching. Mind blown!
#52
Didn't realize that Parmesan and "Parmigiano Reggiano" were the same.
Rob Chapman 3 years ago
They're not, outside of Europe. "Parmigiano Reggiano" specifically refers to a type of cheese made only in the Reggiano & Parma regions of Italy. "Parmesan" is a generic name for ground dry cheese, typically sold in supermarkets & served in pizza parlors and usually made from similar but cheaper cheeses
Bobby 3 years ago
And, at least in the states, will contain "cellulose" which is a fancy way of saying sawdust
Load More Replies... Skara Brae 3 years ago
Well, not all parmesan cheese is the same. Parmigiano Reggiano is firmer, easier to crumble, and frequently has tiny, crunchy crystals in it: (https://culturecheesemag.com/cheese-bites/crystals-cheeses-best-friend/)
Susan Green 3 years ago
In Italy, parmigiano reggiano is known as the king of cheese. It’s way better than Parmesan.
Daniel (ShadowDrakken) 3 years ago (edited)
Even in the US where internationally protected food names are largely ignored, they're not the same thing. Parmesan is similar, but very cheaply made.
#53
Nutmeg is the seed of the Nutmeg tree while Mace is from the seed covering. Although they are different, Cumin and Caraway are, in some places, are considered the same.
Skye Mayhem 3 years ago
Cumin and caraway aren't considered the same. They just have confusingly similar names in Finnish, and Scandinavian languages.
Pungent Sauce 3 years ago
Caraway is the punchy black seed that makes rye bread delicious. Cumin is the warming brown seed that makes a 1000 Mexican and Indian dishes so good.
Pena Perkele 3 years ago
Cumin and Caraway just have confusingly similar names in some languages, like in Finnish for example, and I'm getting tired of having to argue with people about this! Completely different spices with completely different flavour profiles. Some people are just stupid and refuse to understand that there's a difference. Same thing happens with asparagus and broccoli, because asparagus is called parsa and broccoli is called parsakaali, A LOT of people call broccoli parsa and it just triggers me so f*****g much! It's not the same thing ffs!
#54
Bell peppers are called capsicum. The same thing happened to me when I moved to the US.
Mistralok 3 years ago
Capsicum is a genus of flowering plants in the nightshade family Solanaceae, native to the Americas. Jalapenos, cayenne, habenero, and multitudes of other varieties as well. Capsicum spray is a highly concentrated version used in crowd and riot control, and a handy thing for a lady to carry on her key chain to give the creeps a lesson.
Kira Okah 3 years ago
And some countries do happen call bell peppers capsicum. That is what this is saying.
Load More Replies... Jayne Kyra 3 years ago
I learned this from a video on British vs. American vs. Australian English.
#55
Wait until you find out OR26A SNP (single nucleotide polymorphisms) is a gene that determines whether or not you like cilantros taste.
chi-wei shen 3 years ago
Is this the gen responsible for making cilantro taste like soap to me?
Victor Botha 3 years ago
Just to throw another little gem out there, coriander/cilantro is also called dhania on the Indian subcontinent
Rijkærd 3 years ago (edited)
I've had a girlfriend who couldn't tolerate anything with a hint of cilantro...couldn't even eat at a restaurant where you could smell it..even buying grocery was a mission to avoid cilantro on the vegetables aisle....she'd go sick if she had a sniff of cilantro....now I get why she left...I love my cilantro/coriander.
Cheri Aline Sydney 3 years ago
I'm with you, Rijkaerd, when it comes to cilantro but I understand her dilemma as I have the same reaction to licorice /aniseed... Yikes!
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Daniel (ShadowDrakken) 3 years ago
In the US, the herb is called cilantro and only the seed is called coriander. And thankfully the seed doesn't have that nasty soap flavor XD
Cheri Aline Sydney 3 years ago
I'd love to know what % have the gene... I think cilantro is heavenly yet I hear so many people say it tastes like soap ..?
Daniel (ShadowDrakken) 3 years ago
There're actually three genes responsible, and the more of them you have the worse cilantro tastes XD I can only just barely tolerate cilantro; it has to be a subtle background flavor.
Aimee Gregory 3 years ago
I can't taste cilantro but I can briefly smell it if I rub it between my fingers...am I ok? Or magic?
Radek Suski 3 years ago
I fu...ng knew it. People looking at me strangely where I say I can't stand it.
#56
Wait until you learn about white, cremini, and portobello mushrooms.
Radek Suski 3 years ago
I am under the impression that every kind of mushroom in English language is called mushroom. Or is it just everyday talking?
Kimi Tomminello 3 years ago
There's some differentiating in foodie groups, but, yea, for your average english speakers mushrooms are mushrooms.
Load More Replies... What do you think ?
Kady LaHaie 3 years ago (edited)
Heres how I got my entire family stoned as a small child. When I was a kid I loved to make spaghetti for my family. I made it all the time. My favorite thing was adding spices to the sauce. One day I was making spaghetti sauce and we were out of oregano. I remembered I had seen my mom and dad putting a green herb in a jar on the highest shelf. I crawled up there, way up on top of the cabinets, and grabbed the jar of herbs and happily added it to our dinner. Years later my mom told me I cooked my dad's weed stash.
Kimi Tomminello 3 years ago
Wish I could upvote this more 😂😂😂 that must've been some pungent spaghetti!! Hopefully your dad found a better place to stash his weed than in the kitchen where kiddos could get to it!!
Load More Replies... Save Bandit 3 years ago
Coriander by any other name, would still taste as gross. - William Shakspeare
g90814 3 years ago
but only if you were genetically disposed to taste it that way. Others (like me) love it lol
Load More Replies...
Charlotte A. 3 years ago
I'm reminded of the many years I spent looking for a certain melon that was quite different from any other melon I had ever had. Not too many years ago I suddenly found a pomelo (it's a large citrus fruit) in a store and realised I'd totally misunderstood the name when I first had it (as a child, mind you!)
Johanna 3 years ago
Thats what my children call them always "Po-Melone" Like ass-melon. XD
Load More Replies... SykesDaMan 3 years ago
I can't laugh at any of these, because I'm bad at naming food in 3 languages! Each season when the seasonal fruits come, I have to study!
Daniel Marsh 3 years ago
Rutabaga and turnips come from different varieties of the rape plant. Because "rape" has a very unfortunate alternate meaning, in North America, rapeseed oil is sold as "canola oil," or "colza oil," depending on the level of erucic acid in the oil.
Lawrencium 3 years ago (edited)
I remember once making some French toast with some friends, but we were out of cinnamon at our apartment. They quickly ran over to their apartment and grabbed theirs for us, and I happily dumped in a copious amount; only to realize that they had actually grabbed the cummin instead... We tried to fix it by adding spoonfuls of hot-cocoa mix. Overall it turned out not-the-worst... but not really a recipe I intend to reproduce in the future.
bonnyatlast 3 years ago
I only recently found out that oxen are just castrated bulls. I thought they were some old breed of bovine that was dieing out because we don't use them to pull wagons anymore. Just make soup out of their tails occasionally. (I never do).
McGovernor 3 years ago
My parents used to go to PTA meetings at the school and I naturally assumed they were going to the school to buy meat, because surely that is what a meeting is
InfectedVoice 3 years ago
My friend turned me to once in all seriousness and said "I don't think I've ever tried pig" and I started saying things like bacon, ham, pork chops etc and he asked me not to tell anyone what he had said.
Huddo's sister 3 years ago
I had to try to explain to a grade 4 student that 'pig' is not actually the name of the meat. I gave the examples of bacon, pork etc but he couldn't wrap his head around it because his family just ate pig cooked on a spit or whatever.
Load More Replies...
EvilK 3 years ago
I once found a recipe for cheese cake in a Finnish cook book, before I had ever tasted cheesecake or knew what it was. I was convinced that cheese cake is something really disgusting, since the recipe had "kermajuusto" in it. Kerma=Cream, Cheese=Juusto. But here's the fun part: cream cheese in Finnish is called tuorejuusto (tuore=fresh) and kermajuusto is like Danish Havarti. So when my mum gave me a strawberry cheesecake for my 11-ish birthday, I cried like a little spoiled brat, since I didn't like cheese then and that cook book had a bad translation.
Kady LaHaie 3 years ago (edited)
Heres how I got my entire family stoned as a small child. When I was a kid I loved to make spaghetti for my family. I made it all the time. My favorite thing was adding spices to the sauce. One day I was making spaghetti sauce and we were out of oregano. I remembered I had seen my mom and dad putting a green herb in a jar on the highest shelf. I crawled up there, way up on top of the cabinets, and grabbed the jar of herbs and happily added it to our dinner. Years later my mom told me I cooked my dad's weed stash.
Kimi Tomminello 3 years ago
Wish I could upvote this more 😂😂😂 that must've been some pungent spaghetti!! Hopefully your dad found a better place to stash his weed than in the kitchen where kiddos could get to it!!
Load More Replies... Save Bandit 3 years ago
Coriander by any other name, would still taste as gross. - William Shakspeare
g90814 3 years ago
but only if you were genetically disposed to taste it that way. Others (like me) love it lol
Load More Replies... Charlotte A. 3 years ago
I'm reminded of the many years I spent looking for a certain melon that was quite different from any other melon I had ever had. Not too many years ago I suddenly found a pomelo (it's a large citrus fruit) in a store and realised I'd totally misunderstood the name when I first had it (as a child, mind you!)
Johanna 3 years ago
Thats what my children call them always "Po-Melone" Like ass-melon. XD
Load More Replies... SykesDaMan 3 years ago
I can't laugh at any of these, because I'm bad at naming food in 3 languages! Each season when the seasonal fruits come, I have to study!
Daniel Marsh 3 years ago
Rutabaga and turnips come from different varieties of the rape plant. Because "rape" has a very unfortunate alternate meaning, in North America, rapeseed oil is sold as "canola oil," or "colza oil," depending on the level of erucic acid in the oil.
Lawrencium 3 years ago (edited)
I remember once making some French toast with some friends, but we were out of cinnamon at our apartment. They quickly ran over to their apartment and grabbed theirs for us, and I happily dumped in a copious amount; only to realize that they had actually grabbed the cummin instead... We tried to fix it by adding spoonfuls of hot-cocoa mix. Overall it turned out not-the-worst... but not really a recipe I intend to reproduce in the future.
bonnyatlast 3 years ago
I only recently found out that oxen are just castrated bulls. I thought they were some old breed of bovine that was dieing out because we don't use them to pull wagons anymore. Just make soup out of their tails occasionally. (I never do).
McGovernor 3 years ago
My parents used to go to PTA meetings at the school and I naturally assumed they were going to the school to buy meat, because surely that is what a meeting is
InfectedVoice 3 years ago
My friend turned me to once in all seriousness and said "I don't think I've ever tried pig" and I started saying things like bacon, ham, pork chops etc and he asked me not to tell anyone what he had said.
Huddo's sister 3 years ago
I had to try to explain to a grade 4 student that 'pig' is not actually the name of the meat. I gave the examples of bacon, pork etc but he couldn't wrap his head around it because his family just ate pig cooked on a spit or whatever.
Load More Replies... EvilK 3 years ago
I once found a recipe for cheese cake in a Finnish cook book, before I had ever tasted cheesecake or knew what it was. I was convinced that cheese cake is something really disgusting, since the recipe had "kermajuusto" in it. Kerma=Cream, Cheese=Juusto. But here's the fun part: cream cheese in Finnish is called tuorejuusto (tuore=fresh) and kermajuusto is like Danish Havarti. So when my mum gave me a strawberry cheesecake for my 11-ish birthday, I cried like a little spoiled brat, since I didn't like cheese then and that cook book had a bad translation.
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