The definitive British food word list

How well do you know your British food vocabulary words? We’ve got over 100 British food words to help you on your way to understanding both British English and British food!

At Life Across the Pond, we’re HUGE fans of British food which is why we were able to put together this DEFINITIVE list of British food words!

Are you hungry for British food but you’re in America? We’ve got the hook-up to satisfy your British food cravings here!

Fruit, Vegetables and Herbs

Aubergine: eggplant
Beetroot: beet
Broad bean: lima bean
Chicory: endive
Courgette: zucchini
Coriander: cilantro
Cos lettuce: Romaine lettuce
Easy peelers: tangerines or other easy to peel fruit in the orange family
French beans: string beans
Mangetout: peas in a pod or snow peas
Marrow: squash
Pepper: bell pepper (yes, we know this is roughly the same, but they never say “bell” for bell pepper in the UK!)
Petit pois: small peas
Rocket: arugula
Runner beans: string beans
Spring onions: green onions or scallions
Sultanas: golden raisins
Swede: rutabaga / turnip
Sweetcorn: corn kernels, but it’s always of a sweeter variety and served either cold in salads or as a topping on jacket potato or pizza.

Drinks

Bitter beer: Pale ale
Fizzy drink: soda
Soda water: seltzer water / club soda
Semi-skimmed milk: low-fat milk or 2% milk
Squash: juice concentrate to be mixed with water

Meats

Banger: sausage
Gammon: ham (as in ham steak or what you might have for Sunday roast)
Kipper: smoked herring
Mince: ground beef (short for mincemeat)
Pilchards: sardines
Prawns: shrimp
Rasher: bacon (this looks a little different from American bacon and is a bit thicker but definitely worth a try!)
Streaky bacon: American style bacon

Breads and Sweets

Afters: dessert
Bap: bun or roll
Bicarbonate of Soda: Baking soda
Biscuit: cookie
Boiled sweet: hard candy
Brown bread: wholemeal bread
Candyfloss: cotton candy
Chocolate bar: candy bar (note: chocolate is always called chocolate in the UK, sweets are non-chocolate sweeties!)
Clotted cream / Cornish cream: There really isn’t any equivalent in other countries that I’m aware of. It’s a thick cream that is used to top scones or crumpets or frozen to make an ice cream.
Crumpet: similar but not exactly the same as an English muffin
Crystallised fruit: candied fruit
Digestive: there is really no exact equivalent but it’s a wheat-based cookie (kind of like a thick, plain graham cracker)
Fairy cake: cup cake
Ice lolly: popsicle
Jelly: Jell-o (gelatin dessert)
Madeira cake: pound cake
Pudding: dessert
Scone: biscuit is the most equivalent American food but a scone has a slightly different texture
Sherbet: powdered candy
Sweets: candy
Swiss roll: jelly roll

Condiments and Baking

Bicarbonate of soda: Baking soda
Brown sauce / HP sauce: while there’s no direct equivalent, it’s a bit like a milder A1 sauce
Branston pickle: picked vegetables in a chutney-like consistency
Black treacle: molasses
Caster sugar: superfine sugar
Chili sauce: hot sauce
Cornflour: corn starch
Demerara sugar: brown sugar
Desiccated coconut: shredded coconut
Double cream: heavy cream
Essence (example: vanilla essence): extract (example: vanilla extract)
Gherkin: pickle
Golden syrup: light Karo syrup
Hundreds and thousands: sprinkles
Icing sugar: confectioner’s sugar / powdered sugar
Mixed spice: a mix of allspice, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger and cloves, a bit like apple pie spice
Rapeseed oil: canola oil
Soured cream: sour cream
Strong flour: bread flour
Treacle: molasses

Snacks and Prepared Dishes

Black sausage: a type of blood sausage made with pork or beef blood
Bubble and squeak: potatoes and cabbage fried together
Cheese toastie: grilled cheese (which may have additional ingredients added such as tomato)
Chips: french fries (unless you’re at an American style restaurant like McDonalds where these are still called Fries)
Crisps: potato chips
Eton mess: a dessert made with meringue, berries and cream
Eggy bread: French Toast
Fish fingers: fish sticks
Full English breakfast: a massive breakfast consisting Heinz baked beans, toast, sausage, roasted tomatoes, bacon (rashers) mushrooms often served with tea or coffee (vegetarian options are also popular and include veggie sausages)
Jacket potato: baked potato
Kedgeree: an Indian/English fried rice dish with a kind of oatmeal consistency which is often eaten for breakfast alongside eggs, herring or breakfast meats
Macaroni cheese: mac and cheese
Mash: mashed potatoes
Pasty / Cornish pasty: Savoury dough with fillings made with meat and vegetables. This has been described as an English empanada.
Pie: often refers to a savoury pie (like a chicken pot pie)
Prawn Cocktail: Shrimp served with Marie Rose sauce (not red cocktail sauce), also one of the UK’s favourite potato chip flavours
Sandwich / sarnie: sandwich
Semolina: similar to Cream of Wheat
Soldiers or eggy solders: Fingers of toast dipped in soft boiled eggs
Sunday Roast: Sunday roast is a main meat (roast beef or a whole roast chicken are the most common) with potatoes, Yorkshire pudding and several other vegetables
Ready salted crisps: salted or original flavour chips
Scotch egg: a hard-boiled egg in a sausage shell which is then breaded and deep fried
Spaghetti bolognese: spaghetti
Toad in the hole: sausages cooked in Yorkshire pudding batter served with gravy
Welsh rarebit: an open faced cheese toasted sandwich

Food-related Words

Baking paper: parchment paper
Bill (at restaurant): check
Cling film: plastic wrap / saran wrap
Cooker: range, stove
Cutlery: silverware
Elevenses: a snack around 11 AM usually taken with tea
Grill (in an oven): broil
Serviette: napkin
Starter: appetizer
Take-away: take out
Tea: supper or evening meal
Tinned food: canned food