Brownies around the world
1,221 brownie recipes in 7 languages: English 746, French 110, Dutch 104, German 86, Portuguese 77, Spanish 50 and Italian 48. Each is reduced to grams per 100 g of flour, the same as everywhere in the lab, so a French page and an American one line up. English, the largest group, is the one the others are compared with.
The language is the page's, not the cook's country: a French page may be from Quebec, a Portuguese one from Brazil, a Dutch one from Belgium. Each language's lines are read in its own words and units, and a recipe that gives “a pinch” of salt counts a pinch.
Where they part from English
The clearest differences for each language, medians per 100 g of flour. Only differences large enough to matter and unlikely to be chance are listed (how below).
- French 110 recipesFrench recipes use 63% more chocolate than English ones (222% against 136% of the flour weight) and 33% more egg (160% against 120%); most use no cocoa (80%, against 25% of English recipes).
- Portuguese 77 recipesPortuguese recipes use 26% less fat than English ones (100% against 136% of the flour weight) and 19% less sugar (200% against 250%); most use no cocoa (72%, against 25% of English recipes).
- Spanish 50 recipesSpanish recipes use 24% less sugar than English ones (188% against 250% of the flour weight) and 33% more egg (160% against 120%); most use no cocoa (70%, against 25% of English recipes).
- German 86 recipesGerman recipes use about half as much cocoa as English ones (12% against 30% of the flour weight), 40% less sugar (148% against 250%) and more leavening (1.5% against 0%).
- Italian 48 recipesItalian recipes use about half as much cocoa as English ones (11% against 30% of the flour weight), 33% less sugar (167% against 250%) and under a third as much salt (0.3% against 1.9%).
- Dutch 104 recipesDutch recipes use more leavening than English ones (1.3% against 0% of the flour weight); most use no salt (63%, against 15% of English recipes).
Every ingredient, language by language
Grams per 100 g of flour. One row a language, largest first.
middle half, and the median (the number at right; when most use none, the share that uses any)middle half of every recipesmall number after a name: recipes
The typical pan in each language
The median of each language's recipes for every ingredient, scaled to 100 g of flour. No single recipe is exactly this. Under each, the recipe nearest its language's medians.
English746
- Flour
- 100 g
- Chocolate
- 135 g
- Cocoa
- 30 g
- Fat
- 135 g
- Sugar
- 250 g
- Egg
- 120 g
- Leavening
- none
- Salt
- 2 g
French110
- Flour
- 100 g
- Chocolate
- 220 g
- Cocoa
- none
- Fat
- 160 g
- Sugar
- 180 g
- Egg
- 160 g
- Leavening
- none
- Salt
- none
Dutch104
- Flour
- 100 g
- Chocolate
- 175 g
- Cocoa
- 20 g
- Fat
- 145 g
- Sugar
- 225 g
- Egg
- 125 g
- Leavening
- 1.5 g
- Salt
- none
German86
- Flour
- 100 g
- Chocolate
- 125 g
- Cocoa
- 12 g
- Fat
- 100 g
- Sugar
- 150 g
- Egg
- 115 g
- Leavening
- 1.5 g
- Salt
- none
Portuguese77
- Flour
- 100 g
- Chocolate
- 160 g
- Cocoa
- none
- Fat
- 100 g
- Sugar
- 200 g
- Egg
- 145 g
- Leavening
- none
- Salt
- none
Spanish50
- Flour
- 100 g
- Chocolate
- 180 g
- Cocoa
- none
- Fat
- 125 g
- Sugar
- 190 g
- Egg
- 160 g
- Leavening
- none
- Salt
- none
Italian48
- Flour
- 100 g
- Chocolate
- 165 g
- Cocoa
- 11 g
- Fat
- 135 g
- Sugar
- 165 g
- Egg
- 140 g
- Leavening
- none
- Salt
- 0.5 g
The medians and middle halves as a table
| Language | Chocolate | Cocoa | Fat | Sugar | Egg | Leavening | Salt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| English 746 | 136%63% to 220% | 30%0% to 52% | 136%91% to 182% | 250%181% to 320% | 120%81% to 160% | 0%0% to 1.9% | 1.9%1.2% to 3.2% |
| French 110 | 222%133% to 400% | 0%0% to 0% | 160%100% to 250% | 181%125% to 250% | 160%115% to 250% | 0%0% to 0.3% | 0%0% to 0.5% |
| Dutch 104 | 176%95% to 229% | 20%0% to 30% | 147%79% to 180% | 225%165% to 267% | 125%94% to 168% | 1.3%0% to 4.6% | 0%0% to 0.4% |
| German 86 | 125%86% to 200% | 12%0% to 44% | 101%80% to 165% | 148%102% to 199% | 115%85% to 167% | 1.5%0% to 3.1% | 0.05%0% to 0.5% |
| Portuguese 77 | 158%68% to 240% | 0%0% to 17% | 100%64% to 150% | 200%151% to 286% | 143%107% to 160% | 0%0% to 2.5% | 0%0% to 0.3% |
| Spanish 50 | 182%103% to 250% | 0%0% to 9.8% | 123%84% to 198% | 188%127% to 266% | 160%102% to 188% | 0%0% to 3.1% | 0%0% to 0.6% |
| Italian 48 | 167%108% to 206% | 11%0% to 25% | 136%82% to 168% | 167%125% to 200% | 140%100% to 169% | 0%0% to 4.1% | 0.3%0% to 0.4% |
How the comparison works
A language gets a row with at least 8 recipes. Each is compared with the English recipes on every ingredient, and a difference is listed only when it clears two bars: the medians sit at least a third of the middle half of all recipes apart (about half a standard deviation, a medium effect), and a rank test puts the gap at 3 standard errors or more, so a language with few recipes needs a large difference. For an ingredient many recipes skip, the share using none counts too: at least 25 points apart, at the same 3 standard errors.
Every ingredient is tested for every language, a few dozen tests per lab, which is why the bar is higher than the usual two standard errors. Salt is listed last when it differs: many recipes give it as a pinch or leave it to taste. Shares and “more than” percentages are rounded down, so none is an overstatement.
These are what recipe writers in each language do, not rules of each country's cooking. A language with 8 to 20 recipes may come mostly from a few sites; each recipe page names its source.