Measure units! Please guys, when will we ALL be finally usig the metric system? It's really disappointing to read recipes in ounces.

All major and most important cookbook nowadays have their recipes in metric system. Please, I thik it's time already.

German
  • Posted by: German
  • October 15, 2014
  • 3138 views
  • 29 Comments

29 Comments

cookbookchick
cookbookchick October 21, 2014
I am a proud member of the "We Love Sam1148" club!
 
Sam1148
Sam1148 October 20, 2014
Digital scales and other scales (with any accuracy) used be rather expensive.
So for 'grandma' recipes they have been and will be in in cups.

And there are other issues with weight when it comes to flour. What Flour? Bread flour?

Southern AP flour (Such as Gold Medal, White Lilly) is softer. 130g/cup. While USDA standard AP is 125g/cup...And for some reason the offical word from King Authur is ALL their flour is 115g/cup.
http://www.recipesource.com/misc/hints/flour-weights01.html

Ounces are a perfectly valid unit of measurement. And if you're using a scale...just a quick google and 3 push buttons. You have the recipe converted to your unit of choice.

Now, If you'll excuse me I'll have another dram or two of whiskey.
 
German
German October 20, 2014
wow, so this subject is actually of some concern! I feel I wish to add something: when I wrote "please guys", I was actually thinking of the FOOD52 staff.
So, GUYS, do you think it is possible to write the recipes posted here at FOOD52 in both systems? Because right now, this website is just as accessible to me in Argentina, as it is to someone in New York.

I mean that we should consider the global quality of these impersonal virtual relations. Don't you?

Thank you for sharing knowledge and experience!
 
Greenstuff
Greenstuff October 20, 2014
What a great question, German! And broader than your question about measurements. Those of us in California are often bemused by columns that say things like "It's finally asparagus season!" when our local crops are just about done. I can imagine them maintaining the New York bias, with some extra features, sort of one the "Letter from California" model of the the New Yorker magazine. Kind of parochial, but charming. But truly embracing the community's round-the-globe participation? Sounds like fun to me.
 
cookbookchick
cookbookchick October 16, 2014
(Aack! Clicked twice, sorry..)
 
cookbookchick
cookbookchick October 16, 2014
And lest we forget the old riddle, a pound of feathers and a pound of lead each weighs one pound.
 
cookbookchick
cookbookchick October 16, 2014
And lest we forget the old riddle, a pound of feathers and a pound of lead each weighs one pound.
 
QueenSashy
QueenSashy October 16, 2014
I grew up on the other side of the ocean, using metrics for three decades, until I came to the US. And I now write my recipes in cups and ounces. How funny is that? Quite frankly, it was not a big change at all, and having a digital scale certainly helped. I never thought that I will say this, but sometimes for recipes that do not require precise measurements -- the kind of foods where you throw in a bit of this and a bit of that -- I found cups to be more "natural". On the other hand, for pastries and when precision is required I use the metric system. As always, truth is somewhere in the middle :)
 
Julia D.
Julia D. October 16, 2014
I can do find loads of conversions from ounces to grams - but accurate cups to grams ?? anyone got any advice???
 
Susan W.
Susan W. October 16, 2014
Seriously? One cup=8 0unces so depending what you are weighing, there you go.
 
Julia D.
Julia D. October 16, 2014
problem is - it does depend on what you're weighing doesn't it ????
 
Susan W.
Susan W. October 16, 2014
True, but like I said earlier, the differences are very small and that is where the conversion tables come in. To be honest, unless you are baking, the difference simply is moot. Even then, the difference is a matter of a tsp or two.
 
HalfPint
HalfPint October 16, 2014
Beware of the difference between liquid measure and dry measure.

1 cup of any liquid (similar to water) is 8oz. But a 1cup of all purpose flour is 4.5oz. Sugar is considered a wet ingredient and 1 cup of granulated sugar is 7.5oz. So if you are converting an American recipe, be mindful of the ingredients and how much the volume should weigh. 1oz = ~28grams (can actually just search "1oz to gram" on Google search and get this info). Thank goodness the online converters have metric and imperial weights.
 
Pegeen
Pegeen October 15, 2014
On a light-hearted note, as I'm not a baker and normally don't measure anything, metric scares the bejesus out of me. It feels like the exchange rate for Italian lire. ("How could it POSSIBLY take a couple hundred of anything to make a quarter cup of something?") But we can all learn anything new, given a moment. Learning only hurts while you're doing it. :-)
 
Susan W.
Susan W. October 15, 2014
You know what changed my life? A digital scale. I can do kg/lbs and ml/oz. I kind of love it. Sometimes I bounce back and forth just to see what it looks like. Clearly, I have too much time on my hands. ;)
 
lem M.
lem M. October 16, 2014
And here I am, on the other side of the ocean and having grown up using scales, with my brain going into panic mode, when I read “1 cup of butter”: is it the liquid volume of melted butter? or pieces (of which size?) crammed (how tightly?) into a measuring cup? and if I want to substitute whole wheat for white flour, does that have the same density? :)
So for me it actually is much less about the metric (or not) system—we do have different languages, too, and noone would think of complaining about that!—than it is about volume vs. weight… oh well, I am very thankful for conversion tables, too!
 
Susan W.
Susan W. October 16, 2014
Don't panic Lem. I have my Salter scale at the ready. I actually have investigated the differences in things like butter as measured metric vs us units...the difference is miniscule.
 
lem M.
lem M. October 16, 2014
That is very comforting, Susan, thank you!
 
Pegeen
Pegeen October 15, 2014
On quite a few (North American) web sites, I've seen a button to read/print recipe measurements in metric. That seems like a useful and easy-to-implement web tool.
 
Greenstuff
Greenstuff October 15, 2014
Major and important cookbooks in the US have, in fact, not adopted the metric system. Even when books are written by people from other countries, our versions tend to use cups and ounces. There was a push for the metric system in the 1960s and 70s, but it fizzled. I don't see the change coming soon.

 
jstew52
jstew52 October 15, 2014
As usual, America seems to think it rules the world. That will change soon enough, I think.
 

Voted the Best Reply!

Susan W.
Susan W. October 15, 2014
Not at all, but it's a huge undertaking for a country of our size to flip the switch. I don't believe I have ever seen anyone suggest the rest of the world should switch to our system.
 
creamtea
creamtea October 15, 2014
I don't think that's an accurate assumption. My kitchen is supplied with measuring cups. When I make a new recipe it's usually a handful of this and a sprinkle of that. When I want to write it up I pause to put the ingredients into the measuring vehicles I already I have. Has nothing to do with my wanting to rule the world, and everything to do with what I have in the kitchen and what I'm accustomed to since childhood. It's just practicality.
 
HalfPint
HalfPint October 15, 2014
@jstew52, please don't generalize and stereotype about any culture. It makes you sound ignorant and paranoid. If "America" really thinks it rules the world, it wouldn't be the ONLY country not using metric.
 
jstew52
jstew52 October 15, 2014
@HalfPint - Lighten up, it's a cooking forum post and the comment was meant to be lighthearted. But I'm probably just ignorant and paranoid....
 
HalfPint
HalfPint October 15, 2014
@jstew52, I think that if you read the responses to your comment, it did not come across as 'lighthearted'.
 
Susan W.
Susan W. October 15, 2014
Conversion apps and tables are everywhere. I have them on my phone, laptop and a table on my refrigerator. Very simple to either direction.
 
bigpan
bigpan October 15, 2014
In 2015/16, the USA will be the only country not using the metric system. I suggest it will take a couple generations before any change "might" happen - so, get a good conversion app !
 
HalfPint
HalfPint October 15, 2014
Actually, @bigpan, it's all metric in the sciences in the US.
 
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