quick question to the americans

[lobelia321]

What is a quart?

I am using an American cooking recipe and it has the quantity of a 'quart'. How much is that in metric?

And what is 'half-and-half'? Is that semi-skimmed milk?

Comments

[phineasjones.livejournal.com]

you got me curious enough to play around on this site. a quart is two pints or 1/4 of a gallon. except that our pints and gallons seem to be different too. why can't we get it together? jeez.

and half and half is actually very creamy milk. i think maybe half cream/half milk or something like that. i'm a vegan, so this is not my area of expertise.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

But how much is a pint? And a gallon? And half cream / half milk: what is that? That is not sold under that name in English shops! The English probably know pints but I don't, I was brought up on metric!

[msilverstar]

1 quart is almost exactly a litre.

half-and-half is cream and whole milk, so it's less rich than pure cream. I think.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Thank you! One litre. Done.

But cream and whole milk: I've not seen that in any English shops. I wonder what I could substitute? Double cream? Single cream? Quark? Just mix up some milk and single cream?

[msilverstar]

yis, just mix milk and single cream and you should be in the right ballpark (to use an Americanism).

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Ballpark, now there's an intriguing Americanism. Slashy, methinks.

[phineasjones.livejournal.com]

ok, this: 1 cup [US] = 0.946353 cup [metric] is just ridiculous.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

*snorts*

There is no such thing as a metric cup!!!

[travelingcarrot.livejournal.com]

Did someone call for the Crack Transatlantic Imperial/Metric Cookery Squad?

*swings across kitchen rafters with grandma's scales in one hand and a measuring cup in the other*

A US pint is 16 fluid ounces (UK pint is 20) and a quart is two pints, so that would be 32 fl oz or, as someone said, about a litre.
For half and half I would substitute single cream in most cases, but you could mix half whole milk and half single cream if you needed it to be less rich.

For future reference, single cream is light cream in the US, double cream is "heavy", and whipping cream is about the same except that the US version has chemicals added to make it keep its shape better. Skimmed milk is "1%" or "fat free", semi-skimmed is "2%", whole milk is self-explanatory. Oh, and a stick of butter is 4oz / 100g, or just under half a UK packet.

What I have never found, and one day when I am bored will create for myself, is a complete chart of what a cup of various ingredients weighs. Obviously a cup of sugar weighs more than a cup of flour, so the only way I have been able to translate UK or European recipes for Americans is to cook it and measure everything as I go.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Eeep, more than I ever needed to know!

Thank you, thank you! So: I'll just remember rule of thumb: quart is litre, half-and-half is single cream. And a stick of butter is interesting.

[travelingcarrot.livejournal.com]

In a slash context, a stick of butter could be very interesting!

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

*chokes on quart of half-and-half*

[phineasjones.livejournal.com]

i just need to tell you how much your icon is cracking me up. it looks like the ass has been claimed for saruman.