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Using Australian Recipes

I’m Libby, a home cook and recipe blogger from the Hunter Valley in Australia.

If you’ve landed here from the United States, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa or someplace else… G’day! Glad you’re here!

Here, I want to help you to easily use and love my recipes. Because you may come across some slight differences in our ingredient names, measurements and temperatures.

using australian recipes

I have tried to incorporate the information into each recipe, but some older recipes may not contain this information. And it’s just good to have this as a reference in any case.

So, here are the things to keep in mind when reading and using my recipes:

1. Ingredient and food names

If I mention…You might instead know it as…
plain flourall purpose flour
SR flour (self-raising flour)SR flour = Self-raising flour
icing sugar confectioners or powdered sugar
bicarb sodabaking soda
glucose syruplight corn syrup
treaclemolasses (though I’m told treacle is slightly sweeter)
stock cubebouillon cube, granules or base
thickened creamheavy cream
beef mince ground beef
glace fruit candied fruit
eggplantaubergine
chokochayote, vegetable pear, christophine or mango squash
chips crisps or french fries
digestive biscuitsgraham crackers
tomato sauce ketchup
hard-boiled egghard-cooked egg
zucchini courgette
capsicumsweet or bell pepper
beetroot beet
rockmelon cantaloupe
celery stickcelery rib
prawnsshrimp
rocket arugula
pancakesflapjacks
coriander cilantro
scones biscuits
biscuitscookies

(And Aussies who are using the above table in reverse, might wonder what “cool whip” is in recipes from the US. Find out how to make a substitute for cool whip here.)

2. Measurements

  • 1 cup = 250ml (1 US cup = 237 ml)
  • 1 teaspoon = 5ml
  • 1 tablespoon = 20ml
  • 1 tablespoon butter = 20 grams
  • 1 stick of butter = 8 tablespoons of butter = 115 grams

Find a pounds to grams calculator here.

3. Oven temperatures: celsius to fahrenheit

degrees celsiusdegrees fahrenheit 
very slow120250
slow150300
moderate180350
moderately hot200400
hot220425

4. Kitchen equipment

baking tray = baking sheet

frying pan = skillet

greaseproof paper = parchment paper

kettle = well, apparently in the US you don’t bother with electric kettles! So if I mention boiling water in a kettle, I guess you just do that in a pot on a stovetop?

Ready to get started with Aussie recipes?

If you’re keen to dig into some great Aussie recipes, things you may not have come across in your country, then I suggest heading over to check out my Aussie recipe collection.

And before you read my posts, you may also want to read through this guide to understanding Aussie slang.

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Belinda

Monday 20th of February 2023

What about cool whip? What is the Aussie conversion in recipes?

Libby Hakim

Thursday 23rd of February 2023

Hi Belinda. Thanks for the question! I've updated the post and added a post all about what to use instead of cool whip here: https://www.cookingwithnanaling.com/cool-whip/ Cheers, Libby

Leonie O’Donnell

Monday 20th of February 2023

What about a ‘stick of butter?’

Caroline S

Monday 20th of February 2023

@Libby Hakim, can you please convert the stick of butter to grams for us?I’d never measure 8 tablespoons of butter, heaps quicker to weigh it.

Libby Hakim

Monday 20th of February 2023

Thank you Leonie, have just added this :)

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