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I'd just like to pass on some tips to all the cookbook lovers out there, which people may or may not know already :).

Most of us have cookbooks from other countries and sometimes it's easy to forget that we don't all have the same measurements, same ingredients, etc. With our big wide world getting smaller & smaller every year, I hope the following is some help to people.

I have a few favourite sites that I keep bookmarked in my browsers for cooking references (I won't list them here but Google is your friend). We all know with temperatures that some use Celsius and others Fahrenheit, and even Gas Marks get a mention in quite a few books! What comes as a surprise to many is that measurements like Tablespoon, Cup, etc. are different too (very important when it comes to the alchemy of baking lol). The one that surprised me most though was beef when I got into US style BBQ - who knew you guys used the same names as us Aussies but for different parts of the beast!!! If you do a Google search you can find comparison charts in images to print up for the fridge or Butler's Pantry for quick reference.

For other ingredients there are great books out there to add to your collection such as The Flavour Thesaurus by Niki Segnit  which can give you some hints on substitutions for ingredients you might find hard to get in your own country. There's plenty of websites out there too which can help with things like fish & other seafood - personally I can't wait until more cookbook authors realise if their books are good they'll sell worldwide, so they should throw us a bone and include a note on whether the fish is white flesh, firm, fresh or saltwater etc.

Don't forget also that an ingredient name you see in a recipe may look like you've never heard of it, but it could be something you've been eating/cooking with all your life lol - Eggplant/Aubergine for instance. Have a quick online search first before you turn the page looking for another recipe and if it's something you know by another name go for it - if it's not then you'll have a description of the item which will give you some hints on experimenting with a substitute ingredient (you might just invent a new favourite dish!).

Long post but I hope it helps some of you get even more enjoyment out of your cookbooks :).

I appreciate that EYB uses cross-references so that my search for "arugula" also brings up Australian recipes with "rocket" (for example).

Also, when I have cooked a recipe which uses the unfamiliar term, I always write a note in the book with the term I use. And I make a note in the book's index that [arugula] = [rocket]. I also make notes for sizes (converting centimeters to inches for baking pans) and temperatures (gas marks/Celsius to Fahrenheit) in the recipe instructions.

I greatly appreciate cookbook authors and publishers who use both metric & English measurements in their recipes. And several of my Australian cookbooks use both the Australian English and American English vocabulary in their ingredients lists. In today's international publishing environment, these practices should be standard!