Because the ratio of that ingredient to other ingredients measured accurately won't be right. The set of 240:30:15:5 is not exactly right, but they are in the right proportions. The recipe is just scaled about 1.4% larger. You are free to weigh everything. I am not advocating one style of cooking over another. I am merely challenging the claim that American terms are unclear. They may be unfamiliar, it may be necessary to dig to learn what they mean, but there is no uncertainty in what they mean. I suspect all the odd dessertspoons, etc used in former UK cooking all have precise meanings too, if only we could find them. Precisely determining their meaning and documenting it in metric equivalents is the way to preserve those old recipes.
--- On Sat, 4/4/09, Jeremiah MacGregor <jeremiahmacgre...@rocketmail.com> wrote: From: Jeremiah MacGregor <jeremiahmacgre...@rocketmail.com> Subject: [USMA:44331] Re: Even with "dual," you can't please everybody To: "U.S. Metric Association" <usma@colostate.edu> Date: Saturday, April 4, 2009, 12:23 PM Since the US cups with metric on one side is up to 250 mL, then why not just use 250 mL to define a cup? It would be easier to use then to try to fill to the 240 mL line. Jerry From: John M. Steele <jmsteele9...@sbcglobal.net> To: U.S. Metric Association <usma@colostate.edu> Sent: Saturday, April 4, 2009 10:35:46 AM Subject: [USMA:44329] Re: Even with "dual," you can't please everybody Pat, You understandably write from a Commonwealth or Australian perspective (I don't mean spelling), and as a metric consultant, you may have a vested interest in making old measurements sound more confusing than they are. I am confused by spoons and cups in recipes from Commonwealth nations. However, if you receive a recipe from the US, there is no confusion; the terms are well-defined and have been for some time. I regularly use a recipe from my greatgrandmother which dates to around 1890. Common cups and spoons may be of any size, but measuring cups and spoons are well defined. They are as important to us as your scales (most are marked in metric as well). Each term is followed by a definition in Customary units, an overly exact metric conversion, and a practically rounded metric conversion: cup: 8 US fl oz, 236.5882 mL, 240 mL ounce: 1 US fl oz, 29.573 53 mL, 30 mL Tablespoon: 0.5 US fl oz, 14.786 76 mL, 15 mL teaspoon: 0.1666... US fl oz, 4.928 922 mL, 5 mL Dry and wet measuring cups are of different designs, but the same capacity. Dry cups are brim fill, stricken level with the back edge of a knife. Wet cups are fill-to-mark. American cooking is entirely volumetric, and it is probably easier to convert to metric volume than determine the density of everything. The cup and tablespoon are noticably different than Australian, but no confusion as the terms are well defined and standardized by NIST (handbook 44 Appendix, C, SP811, etc) Now, if only we could get Americans to convert the above volumes to metric. --- On Sat, 4/4/09, Pat Naughtin <pat.naugh...@metricationmatters.com> wrote: From: Pat Naughtin <pat.naugh...@metricationmatters.com> Subject: [USMA:44327] Re: Even with "dual," you can't please everybody To: "U.S. Metric Association" <usma@colostate.edu> Date: Saturday, April 4, 2009, 9:34 AM Dear John, I have posted a response to this that you can find at the same address at http://www.t-g.com/blogs/bettybrown/entry/26458/ Cheers, Pat Naughtin PO Box 305 Belmont 3216, Geelong, Australia Phone: 61 3 5241 2008 Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has helped thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the modern metric system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that they now save thousands each year when buying, processing, or selling for their businesses. Pat provides services and resources for many different trades, crafts, and professions for commercial, industrial and government metrication leaders in Asia, Europe, and in the USA. Pat's clients include the Australian Government, Google, NASA, NIST, and the metric associations of Canada, the UK, and the USA. See http://www.metricationmatters.com/ to subscribe.
