"Make from scratch" - British vs. American?

Nutrax - never ever. To a South African that's like saying "several or three".
I'm amused that you're precise about the brochures but automatically give the Post Office linguistic leeway!

PSW - sure, I was just wondering specifically about ingredients. But I have a funny memory from high school regarding my ceramics teacher who was sighted at a slightly dubious (we thought) club called Scratch. All through the next ceramics class there were digs like "Sir, there's a scratch on my bowl," "Sir, can I scratch my name on the bottom," until he got annoyed and threatened to squash all our works of art if he heard one more pun. There was an impressed silence before somebody piped up, "And then we'd all have to start from scratch!"

~funny at the time, anyway~

There's also a non-food usage of "from scratch."

It never occurred to me that the term was considered as applying specifically from cooking. All it means is "from the beginning", and that is a concept of broad application, and widely used in that broad application. His half-constructed shed was knocked down in a storm, so he'll have to start from scratch again.

If you look at my "cooking from scratch" link, you'll see that "from the beginning" is an early use.

The Phrase Finder says
>What all of these [definitions of "from scratch"] have in common is the notion of 'scratch' being the beginning - a point at which there is no advantage or disadvantage. This meaning originated in the sporting world, where 'scratch' has been used since the 18th century to describe a starting line that was scratched on the ground. [snip]

The expression 'start from scratch' came about in 'handicap' races where weaker entrants were given a head start. Other sports, notably golf, have taken up the figurative use of 'scratch' to mean 'with no advantage - starting from nothing'. The first person who is recorded as 'starting from scratch' was participating in 'pedestrianism' - what we would now call running. The British sporting newspaper The Era reported on a handicap running event in Sheffield in December 1853:

The match on the Hyde Park Ground, Sheffield... has already created quite a furore of excitement among the sporting men of the North. The manner in which the men have been handicapped [is]: James Pudney (of Mile-end) and James Sherdon (of Sheffield), start from scratch; John Syddall, six yards; Richard Conway, twelve; John Saville, twenty...

The OED defines "from scratch" as
>from a position of no advantage, knowledge, influence, etc., from nothing.

Speaking of transatlantic culinary terms--
I was looking up a recipe for Get Stuffed, and found a BBC one that started with blanching spinach. The first instruction was "boil the kettle." I could figure out what was meant, but it did conjure up an image of a kettle being boiled in a big pot on the stove.

I looked it up and the OED says that "boil the kettle" as in "boil water in a kettle," is British English. They gave as an example "I'll boil the kettle and make tea."

In the US, that recipe would start with something like "heat a pot of water to a boil" or "boil water in a large pot."

Any other anglophones boil kettles?

it did conjure up an image of a kettle being boiled in a big pot on the stove

But that would destroy the electrics... "Kettle" in Britain is now synomymous with electric kettle, (which I think you call an electric jug in the US), and if you mean the old kind you have to specify "stove-top kettle".

In the US, that recipe would start with something like "heat a pot of water to a boil" or "boil water in a large pot."

Indicating that recipes don't just need translation, they need cultural transposition to reflect the different nature of what equipment and habits people have in the kitchen.

I once bought a food processor with a bilingual handbook in English and French. The recipe section was quite different in the two languages; even when the recipes were ostensibly for the same thing, eg pancakes, the actual details of recipes were quite different.

I think "boil the kettle" pre-dates electricity by a century or so. I found 18th & early 19th C. uses. Some intrepid traveler to the Middle East in 1742 had trouble finding "Cow-dung enough to boil our Kettle." (He--or his printer-- did indeed capitalize nouns).

I have a couple of cookbooks published in the UK. Another cultural terminology thing I've found is that the list of ingredients might end with "to serve, mashed potatoes." A US recipe would have a sentence either at the beginning or the end of the recipe "Serve with mashed potatoes."

In my childhood we boiled kettles and sometimes put them on. British English.

GUS probes his ear with a match.
BEN. (Slapping his hand) Don't waste them! Go on, go and light it.
GUS. Eh?
BEN. Go and light it.
GUS. Light what?
BEN. The kettle.
GUS. You mean the gas.
BEN. Who does?
GUS. You do.
BEN (his eyes narrowing). What do you mean, I mean the gas?
GUS. Well, that's what you mean, don't you? The gas.
BEN (powerfully). If I say go and light the kettle I mean go and light the kettle.
GUS. How can you light the kettle?
BEN. It's a figure of speech! Light the kettle. It's a figure of speech!
GUS. I've never heard it.
BEN. Light the kettle! It's common usage!
GUS. I think you've got it wrong.
BEN (menacing). What do you mean?
GUS.They say put on the kettle.
BEN (taut). Who says?
They stare at each other, breathing hard.

(Deliberately.) I have never in all my life heard anyone say put on the kettle.
GUS. I bet my mother used to say it.
BEN. Your mother? When did you last see your mother?
GUS. I don't know, about--
BEN. Well, what are you talking about your mother for?
They stare.
GUS, I'm not trying to be unreasonable. I'm just trying to point out something to you.
GUS. Yes, but--
BEN. Who's the senior partner here, me or you?
GUS. You.
BEN. I'm only looking after your interests, Gus. You've got to learn, mate.
GUS. Yes, but I've never heard--
BEN (vehemently). Nobody sways light the gas! What does the gas light?.
GUS. What does the gas--?
BEN (grabbing him with two hands by the throat, at arm's length). THE KETTLE, YOU FOOL!
GUS takes the hands from his throat.

GUS. All right, all right.
Pause.

BEN. Well, what are you waiting for?
GUS. I want to see if they light.
BEN. What?
GUS. The matches.
He takes out the flattened box and tries to strike.
No.

He throws the box under the bed.
BEN stares at him.
GUS raises his foot.
Shall I try it on here?

BEN stares. GUS strikes a match on his shoe. It lights.
Here we are.

BEN (wearily). Put on the bloody kettle, for Christ's sake.
BEN goes to his bed, but, realizing what he has said, stops and half turns. They look at each other. GUS slowly exits, left. BEN slams his paper down on the bed and sits on it, head in hands.
GUS (entering). It's going.
BEN. What?
GUS. The stove.
GUS goes to his bed and sits.

Harold Pnter, The Dumbwaiter

I used to work with an Englishwoman who said things like, "The kettle wants boiling." I bet she'd never heard of Pinter though.

And I just remembered a use of the word "scratch". In French, a race that includes all age categories of runners is called "scratch".

I think of "want" for "need" as north of England, maybe specifically Yorkshire. My grandmother used to say "He wants a good spanking," which of course was the last thing I wanted.

I'm no expert on this though.

Edited by: Billy Fisher