Converting recipes

When I moved to Japan, I did not bring my vast collection of cookbooks.  I enjoy cooking and do it quite often.  Even though I knew I would do a fair amount of cooking here, there are a lot of hurdles to overcome in the kitchen.  After 18 months, I am still adjusting and changing how I cook to accomidate a Japanese kitchen.

One of the major reasons I did not bring a lot of my cookbooks is because the ingredients are different in Japan.  There are so many things that I cannot run out to the store and buy like whole wheat flour or white vinegar.  I either have to find them at an import store, order them online, or wait for someone to visit me from the US.  Sometimes my husband swears that the ingredient I am looking for is available in Japan, but it is so different that I don’t consider them the same thing.  For example, peanut butter is typically called peanut cream in Japan because it is a product featuring more sugar than peanuts.  In my opinion, there should only be one ingredient in peanut butter - nothing but nuts.

There is also the methodology of cooking.  I do not have access to all the accessories I am accustomed to using and my American cookbooks require.  I am super lucky to have one at all, but my oven is the size of a microwave.   However, I don’t have my mixer, blender, or many other appliances.  Changing how I go about cooking has taken some getting used to, but it is manageable.   I rarely roast vegetables anymore, but we eat a lot more one pot meals.

One of the biggest adjustments for me has been with baking.  I have no problem with converting recipes from Fahrenheit to Celsius and looking up the weight in grams of various ingredients.  However, my big pain point is adjusting recipes for the difference in ingredient packaged amounts.  Two sticks of butter in the US is 226.8 grams, but you buy it in 200 gram packages in Japan.  So, I either have to adjust the entire recipe or buy two packages of butter instead of one.

The cups, tablespoons, and teaspoons are also different sizes.  The difference in a tablespoon may seem small - 1 US tablespoon equals .99 metric tablespoon - but the differences add up.  So, I need to make sure to be consistent with using either American measuring cups or Japanese ones.  I have also made a huge list of the weight of various ingredients, which overall is much easier for me to follow now that I have it written out and posted inside my cupboard door.

While I am not a professional cook by any stretch of the imagination, it is a small hurdle I live with daily.  Luckily it doesn’t stop me from making dinner or yummy treats like banana bread with chocolate chips.

Some things will always be made in my kitchen, no matter the extra work needed.  Nothing beats homemade goodness!