What international cooking terms sound similar but have different meanings?
Noodles, pasta and dumplings
Polish pierogi and Russian pirozhki (пирожки)
Despite having the same Slavic root meaning &quot;pie&quot;, the Polish pierogi are unleavened dough dumplings stuffed with various fillings, most commonly boiled or fried. On the other hand, Russian pirozhki are usually fried (but sometimes baked) buns stuffed with similar fillings. The primary difference is that pirozhki are based on a yeast dough and are egg-washed, whereas pierogi are unleavened. Complicating matters, Russian/Soviet cuisine has a separate name for what the Polish call pierogi, namely varenyky (вареники). This word is derived from a root meaning &quot;to cook&quot; or &quot;boil&quot;, emphasizing the fact that varenyky are usually boiled while pirozhki are fried.
Turkish Yufka and Bulgarian (also Bosnian) юфка (yufka)
Originally, the word yufka comes from Turkey. It is an unleavened flatbread, rather dry and crispy. In Bulgaria, юфка is a type of pasta prepared by sun-drying paper-thin phyllo dough until it cracks and falls apart, and boiling the resulting pieces. The name can also (rarely) refer to the non-dried phyllo sheets used for baking.
Italian maccheroni, Enghish and other languages macaroni and French (also English and other languages) macaron
Macaroni, the English spelling of the Italian word maccheroni, is an umbrella term for hardwheat noodles produced through extruding through a machine, rather than rolling and cutting the dough. In some countries (e.g. The Netherlands, cf. this episode of an investigative TV show about food), though, the term 'macaroni' is used to indicate a specific type of noodles, shaped as narrow curved tubes. A macaron is a small baked good based on a meringue mixed with a nut flour.
Baking
Most English dialects barm and Irish and Northwest England's barm
In Ireland and Northwestern England, barm is a word for a bread roll, a very small loaf of bread. In standard culinary lingo, barm indicates a specific type of preferment, usually a stage in making sourdough.
English hard wheat and German Hartweizen
In English, there is a difference between durum wheat (glassy endosperm, used for noodles), hard wheat (used for bread flour) and soft wheat (low protein content, used for cake flour). In German, durum wheat is called Hartweizen (literally: hard wheat) and soft wheat is called Weichweizen (literally: soft wheat). Specialists know the American hard wheat as Manitobaweizen (literally: wheat from Manitoba), but it isn't imported, so it is very hard to meet somebody who has heard of it.
English bread flour and German Brotmehl
In English, bread flour is a flour with a low mineral and high protein content used for white yeast bread. It is made from hard wheat. In German, the term Brotmehl (literally: bread flour) isn't widely used, but if mentioned, is assumed to mean a flour mix suited for the average German bread, made from ca. 80% wheat flour with high mineral and moderate protein content, and 20% rye flour. It is made from soft wheat, with a high proportion of the bran milled in (but not enough to consider it whole wheat flour).
English biscuit, German Biskuit, Dutch Beschuit and Italian biscotti
In English, biscuit refers to any sweet, dry baked confection, which would be referred to as a cookie in the US (UK usage) or a product similar to scones (US usage). In German, Biskuitboden (literally: biscuit layer) is a sponge cake layer, and Biskuitteig (literally: biscuit dough) is sponge cake batter. The word isn't used alone as a countable noun. The English biscuits are likely to be called &quot;Kekse&quot; in German (especially the digestive crackers). There isn't a special word for scones in German, so the catchall term &quot;Kleingebäck&quot; can also be used. Biskuit is not to be confused with German &quot;Zwieback&quot; - it has the same word root, but today, nobody would recognize a piece of German Zwieback or Dutch beschuit as related to any of the products named &quot;biscuit&quot; or similar in the languages mentioned above. The Italian word biscotti has yet a different usage, covering roughly the same things as &quot;Kekse&quot; in German - this includes cookies, petite beurres, sweet crackers and other small hard backed goods.
English brown sugar and German brauner Zucker, also Belgian Dutch Cassonade
In English-speaking countries, recipes which specify brown sugar assume wet light brown sugar. In continental Europe, this kind of sugar is generally not available. The local terms for brown sugar are used to denote crystal sugar with some molasses content, known in the US as raw sugar. The difference is that this type of sugar is dry, and does not give the same texture to baked goods, e.g. chewy cookies. An acceptable substitute is to wet white crystal sugar with molasses or another syrup and mix well, preferably in a food processor.
Cassonade aka candi sugar is caramelized sugar crystals and has a deeper flavor than the american 'raw' sugar.
Belgian Dutch speculoos and Netherlands Dutch speculaas
Both cookies are traditionally eaten for St. Nicholas day. In English, they seem to be both translated as spekulatius. The Belgian version is a simple shortbread cookie. The Dutch version includes a special speculaas spice mix, which contains cinnamon, ginger, black pepper, cloves, coriander seeds and cardamom, giving it a very different flavor.  Speculaas is traditionally decorated by pressing it into a carved wooden block or using a carved wooden rolling pin.
Belgian speculoos cookies are similarly flavored to what's sold as bastogne in the Netherlands, and maybe called biscoff in other places
German Tarte vs. French tarte vs. American tart vs Dutch taart
In French, a tarte is a pie in general. In German usage, Tarte implies a savory pie.  In the US, tart is a shallow pie crust that may be filled with jelly, custard, fruit, or a combination of those three.  In the Netherlands, a taart may be a pie or a cake.
Dutch cake vs English cake
In Dutch, cake means one type of cake only: Pound Cake. Both round, glazed cakes, and sweet pies are called taart in Dutch.
German Kuchen vs US kuchen
&quot;Kuchen&quot; means all kinds of cake and pie in German, however using it for a round layer cake would be colloquial, that is properly called a &quot;Torte&quot;. In English, several specific desserts are labelled &quot;kuchen&quot;, but it is not a broad term applicable to all cakes.
Polish czerstwy and Czech čerstvý
Practically the same word used to describe a bread freshness. In Polish 'czerstwy chleb' means 'stale bread', in Czech 'čerstvý chléb' means 'fresh bread' – the quite opposite.
Confectionery
English (also French, Spanish, Turkish and other languages) Nougat and German Nougat
In most countries, nougat is a word for a confectionery made with dried whipped egg whites and nuts and/or dried fruit. It is also sometimes called turron. When a German says &quot;Nougat&quot;, he or she is probably thinking of gianduja, which is a mix of chocolate and hazelnut paste (Nutella is considered a kind of nougat in Germany). Turron is referred to as &quot;white nougat&quot; in Germany, but isn't very widespread. The other name for it is türkischer Honig (literally: Turkish honey), not to be confused with Lokum, which is called Turkish delight in English.
Drinks
UK English black beer and German Schwarzbier
In the UK, black beer is a fortified wine flavored with dark malt. In Germany, Schwarzbier (literally: black beer) is a very dark lager beer brewed in some regions of Germany. It seems that US usage is consistent with German usage, using &quot;black beer&quot; for the dark lager. There is no definite German term for the fortified wine, but a best deskriptive term would probably be &quot;Malzlikör&quot;.
Hindi (also Urdu, Russian, Turkish, Arabic, and other languages) chai and US English chai
In many languages the word chai (or the basic root cha) is a generic word for tea.  In the United States, however, the word chai specifically refers to masala chai (spiced tea).  In Hebrew, chai is the romanization for the word &quot;חי&quot;, which is a symbolic word meaning &quot;living&quot;.
English latte, German Latte and Italian latte
In Italian, the word latte simply means milk. In the US, it is used as a contraction of caffelatte, which is a drink made with steamed milk poured into espresso, often including latte art. In Germany, it is a contraction of Latte macchiato, which is (in its Germanized form) a beverage made from a layer of milk, a layer of espresso, and a layer of milk foam in a tall, transparent glass, often garnished on top with cocoa powder or other spices.
Dairy
Greek (also English, German, probably other languages) Feta and Danish (also Bulgarian, Russian, probably other languages) Feta
The original Greek feta cheese is a semihard brined cheese from sheep's milk. Today, it has a protected designation of origin status, and only cheese produced in Greece may be called feta. However, many similar cheeses exist on the Balkans, and they are marketed as feta-style or balkan cheese. In their country of origin, they are usually called just the local word for &quot;cheese&quot; (Bulgarian: сирене Serbian: сир), with every other type of cheese needing a qualifier (Bulgarian: сирене чедър for cheddar), and the official designation is &quot;white brine cheese&quot; (Bulgarian: бяло саламурено сирене).
Before the designation was legally established, Denmark produced a different type of cheese called Feta. It was a type of bryndza - a spreadable white cheese from cow milk, not closely related to Greek feta. The name is also widely known in countries which imported this version and use the term &quot;white brine cheese&quot; for Greek-type feta. I couldn't find information on the new name of the Danish &quot;Feta&quot;.
English Quark and German Quark, Dutch Kwark
In English, a quark is a subatomic particle. In German and Dutch, it is a kind of cheese not widely known in English speaking countries. It is a type of cream cheese made from the curds of fermented milk (buttermilk). It has a lower fat content than cream cheese, and a ricotta-like texture. The term Topfen is the Austrian word for exactly the same cheese. Other countries have very similar cheeses which can be substituted with excellent results, for example Russian творог (tvorog), Hungarian turo and Bulgarian извара (izvara). Ricotta is acceptable if no better substitute is available, but will change the taste. The subatomic particle is also called a Quark in German, as a homonym to the cheese.
Meat
US English wiener, Germany German Wiener Wurst and Austrian German Wiener Wurst
The English words for these are (1) wiener for a small smooth canned sausage in gut casing made from a blend of meats including poultry, (2) hot dog for a longer sausage with similar consistency to 1, made from a beef-pork blend, and (3) an Austrian sausage which doesn't have a special name in English. The American wiener (1) is called Mini Würstchen in Germany. (3) doesn't have a special name, but is considered a type of Schnittwurst. In Austria, (2) is called Frankfurter Wurst. Also, the English word hot dog is used in Germany for the complete sandwich made with (2), a short baguette, and mustard.
German Frikadelle, Dutch frikandel
In Germany, a Frikadelle is a squished meatball made from seasoned ground meat, often with addition of egg and soaked bread. It is shallow fried in a pan. In Dutch, a frikandel is also made from ground meat, but it is rod-shaped, and it is deep-fried instead of pan-fried.
French Filet mignon, US English Filet mignon
Filet mignon in French is usually pork tenderloin and so a relatively casual piece whereas in the US, filet mignon is one of the most tender beef cut, and represent just one steak slice of the beef tenderloin. The French filet mignon usually means the whole pork tenderloin.
Fruit and vegetables
'raw' in Indian english usage, vs British or American english 'raw'
In Br/AmE, a 'raw' fruit or vegetable is one which has not been processed with heat.
If an Indian recipe is for a dish made of raw mango or raw papaya or other raw fruit, then confusingly tells you to cook it, it means to use an unripe fruit, not to refrain from cooking it.
English (and German, also other languages) endive and Belgian Dutch (also other languages) chicory
There is some confusion if these terms are the same or if they refer to related plants of the same family, or to different parts of the same plant. For details, see this answer.
English marmalade and German Marmelade
In English-speaking countries, marmalade is a fruit preserve made with citrus fruit, such as bitter orange marmalade. Similar preserves made with fruit other than citrus are called jam. In modern EU-conform German legislation, Marmelade is consistent with this use, so officially only citrus-containing preserves use the word. However, historically Marmelade is a German word used for all types of fruit preserves, such as &quot;Erdbeermarmelade&quot; for strawberry jam. This usage is still popular among hobby cooks, so it is common to find recipes which use the word Marmelade for any type of jam.
Italian peperoni and pepperoncini, English pepperoni, and German pfefferoni
In Italian, peperoni means pepper, the fruit of the plant capsicum. In English, it is used for a type of salami, which contains paprika (dried pepper powder). The salami has Italian origin, but is produced mainly in the USA by immigrants. In German, pfefferoni is normally used for a type of pepper (thin, long and green), especially pickled, which are often known as pepperoncini in the US, but are more correctly called frigatelli. In Italy, pepperoncini is a relatively generic term for hot chili peppers.
French and English compote and Slavic languages kompot
These are similar, but not equivalent. The compote is a preserve of fruit pieces covered in a thick sugar syrup. The kompot is a drink (frequently also preserved) made from boiling fresh fruit and sugar in water, with a very different water and sugar ratio than the compote. The main part of it is the watery liquid (although the fruit is also eaten), and the sweetness is low enough to quench thirst.
Salads
French (also English and other languages) vinaigrette and Russian винегрет (винегрет)
In many languages, vinaigrette (of French origins) refers to an emulsion of oil and vinegar, often used to dress salads. In Russian cuisine, however, the term (винегрет) refers to a specific style of salad that is made with the dressing. The salad usually contains beet root, pickled cucumber, boiled potatoes, carrot, and cucumber.
German -salat as a noun ending and Polish sałata vs English salad
In English, a salad is a dish made usually from uncooked vegetables, although versions with preserved or cooked vegetables exist, as well as ones which include food other than vegetables. In Germany, &quot;ein Salat&quot; as a noun on its own means the dish. However, a word ending in -salat is typically used to mean some kinds of green leafy vegetables as an ingredient, not just a salad made from them. Eisbergsalat,Kopfsalat,Romanasalat are types of lettuce, not salads made from these. There are exceptions, a Fleischsalat will be a certain type of meat salad, not a lettuce.
In Polish, &quot;sałata&quot; is for the green leafy veggies, while &quot;sałatka&quot; is for the salads.
Herbs and spices
English cumin, Swedish kummin, Finnish kumina, Polish kminek, German &quot;Kümmel&quot;
In English, cumin is the name of the seeds of the plant Cuminum cyminum, used as a spice. Many other languages have a similar word for this. However, the Swedish word kummin and Finnish word kumina, as well as German &quot;Kümmel&quot;, are used for the seeds of the plant Carum carvi, which is called caraway in English. The appearance is similar, but the aroma of both spices is different. The Finnish and Swedish names for cumin are juustokumina and spiskummin, respectively. In Polish, kminek is the word for caraway, while cumin is called kmin rzymski.
German &quot;Kreuzkümmel&quot; or &quot;Kumin&quot; is Cumin indeed. &quot;Schwarzkümmel&quot; shares the ambiguity of &quot;black cumin&quot;, in that it can mean either Nigella or Shah Jeera. Königskümmel is Carom. Most times, confusing any of these has disastrous results.
Bengali kalo jeere, Hindi/Urdu kala jeera, English black cumin
In English, &quot;black cumin&quot; is used for both bunium bulbocastanum and nigella sativa, two unrelated spices. Only the former is actually related to cumin. In Hindi, the literal translation of black cumin is &quot;kala jeera&quot;: kala is black and &quot;jeera&quot; cumin. This term refers exclusively to bunium bulbocastanum, never to nigella; nigella is &quot;kalonji&quot;.  Bunium bulbocastanum is also called &quot;shahi jeera&quot; (imperial cumin) or &quot;syahi jeera&quot; (dark cumin) in Hindi. The literal translation of black cumin into Bengali is &quot;kalo jeere&quot;. However, the spice thus referred to is always nigella, never bunium. Nigella is very common in Bengali cuisine. Any online Bengali recipe that lists &quot;black cumin&quot; among the ingredients invariably means nigella. Bunium bulbocastanum is not used in Bengali food. On the rare occasion that a Bengali cook needs to refer to it (for example, when discussing a recipe from elsewhere in India), it is called &quot;shyahi jeere&quot;. Using bunium in place of nigella or vice-versa will yield suboptimal results, disastrously so for Bengali food.
American chili powder, Indian chilli powder
In the USA, &quot;chili powder&quot; refers to a blend of ground chili peppers with other spices such as cumin, oregano, garlic, and salt. In India, &quot;chilli powder&quot; refers exclusively to ground red  chili peppers.
German Pfeffer, EnglishPepper
In English, the term is ambiguous and can be either the spice (the seeds of Piper nigrum), or the vegetable (the fruits of Capsicum annum). The word is seldom used alone, and an adjective usually makes it clear which it is, such as &quot;bell pepper&quot;, which is a variety of the vegetable.
In German, &quot;Pfeffer&quot; without any qualification unambigously means black/white/green/red ground or whole peppercorn, never any kind of capsicum (unless used in a very informal context), unless the terms &quot;spanischer Pfeffer&quot;, &quot;Pfefferschote&quot; are used. Other members of the piper family and sometimes entirely different plants can have &quot;Pfeffer&quot; in their name, but do not refer either to the spice or to the vegetable: Szechuanpfeffer (Zanthoxylum piperitum), Langer Pfeffer (Piper longum), Kubebenpfeffer (Piper cubeba). In very traditional contexts, &quot;Pfeffer&quot; might mean strong spices in general, which may or may not include peppercorn, as in &quot;Pfefferkuchen&quot; (gingerbread).
German Paprika, English paprika
The spice is named the same, BUT a Paprika is also the proper german name for a bell pepper, which is NEVER called any kind of Pfeffer.
English piment, German Piment, Spanish pimento, Portuguese 'pimento', Finnish pimento
In English, German and some other languages, the word piment refers to allspice, the seed of the plant Pimenta officinalis (this is quite rare in English). In Spanish, it means pepper, the seed of the plant Piper nigrum. They are similar in appearance, but differ in taste and aroma. The Spanish use pimienta de Jamaica for the P. officinalis version. In Portuguese, pimento is the name of the bell pepper, the fruit of the plant Capsicum annum, while pimenta-da-jamaica is the name of allspice.  In AmE a “pimento” is a small, thin strip of canned sweet red bell pepper; they are stuffed into olives and used in other dishes.  In Finnish, the word pimento has no culinary meaning, it is a homonym meaning dark. The Finnish word for allspice is maustepippuri.
Diet
English diet, German Diät
In German a Diät is Dieting (the deliberate selection of food to control body weight or nutrient intake). In English a diet can also mean the sum of the food consumed by an organism or group. The German  translation of this sense of the word would be Ernährung or Ernährungsweise.
Taste/Texture
English bland, Spanish Blando
In English bland food is one that doesn't have much taste, and bland diet is a &quot;soft, not very spicy, and low in fiber&quot; one.
In Spanish blando means soft or tender. However the existing term dieta blanda means something close to a bland diet, so it might be a poorly traslated term; probably dieta suave would fit better with the English bland diet term.
Weight/measurement
English pound/ounce, Dutch pond/ons
Dutch speakers use grams and kilograms, but often also &quot;pond&quot;, 500 grams, which sounds like &quot;pound&quot; and is fairly close (1 pound is 454 gram), and also &quot;ons&quot; 100 grams, which sounds like &quot;ounce&quot; but is way off (1 ounce is 28 gram). Be careful using English recipes if you're Dutch (and vice versa)!
Cookware, Tableware and Tools
German Esslöffel, Teelöffel, Tasse vs. English tablespoon, teaspoon and cup, as well as the literal translations into many other European languages
In the imperial measuring system, these terms refer to a volumetric measurement. The exact value differs somewhat between countries (e.g. a tablespoon in the US is 15 ml but in Australia it is 20 ml), but they are defined within their system, and many cooks in formerly British territories routinely buy and use volumetric &quot;measuring cups&quot; labelled in whole or partial teaspoons, tablespoons and cups.
Cup and spoon measurements in baking are uncommon enough in continental Europe that many home cooks will not be aware that these words refer to a defined unit of measurement in a recipe. The words are only used for the serving utensils (e.g. a &quot;Tasse&quot; in Germany is the cup you drink tea out of, never a measurement cup). Dedicated dry measuring cups are not found in the average supermarket. An European cook encountering a recipe saying &quot;two cups of flour&quot; is likely to pick the nearest drinking cup from the cupboard and use it for measurement, assuming that it is just an imprecise way of stating the recipe.
German Kasserole, English casserole
In German, Kasserole is sometimes used to mean a saucepan, sometimes a casserole dish. Any food baked in a similar pan in the oven is called an Auflauf, so the American casserole translates to Auflauf, but note that an Auflauf can also mean a flan.
German Mixer, Indian English usage mixie, British and American English 'mixer'
German &quot;Mixer&quot; can be either a BE/AmE mixer (a machine with one or two rotating hooks which quirls batter, whips cream or kneads dough) or quite commonly a BE/AmE blender, a machine with a rotating blade which purees semi-solid food to turn it into a mash. Indian Mixie seems to always mean a BE/AmE blender.
In (American?) English, 'mixer' may also refer to something that's intended to be mixed with alcohol.
Methods
fry in British English vs fry in Indian English
&quot;Fry&quot; seems to NEVER &quot;accidentally&quot; means sauté, always means deep fry or shallow fry in Indian recipes that are written in English.
Dutch bak vs. English bake.
In English, &quot;bake&quot; is a type of dry cooking in a heated oven.  In Dutch, it could be any type of cooking.  (ref
Meal Courses
entrée in French vs entrée in US English
In the USA and English parts of Canada, &quot;entrée&quot; refers to the main course of the meal, while generally in French and for most other English-speaking locations, it refers to the appetizer, hors d'oeuvre or starter, although historically it has been used for various different courses and may still be used as such in certain regions.