Pat, Your post is the best argument I've read in favor of using ONLY metric units in recipes, whether those recipes are for a meal or for a compounded prescription.
Quoting Pat Naughtin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > On 2008/01/30, at 2:06 AM, Pierre Abbat wrote: > > On the other hand, "T" is often used here as a unit of volume. I > > have often > > wondered what happens when you add a tesla of salt to a coulomb of > > boiling > > water. ;) > > > > Pierre > > > Dear Pierre and All, > > In the article, 'Metric cooking with confidence', Wendy and I use the > conventions that ts is an abbreviation for teaspoon and that TS is an > abbreviation for tablespoon. They are defined using the Australian > values as: > > 1 teaspoon = 1 ts = 5 millilitres = 5 mL > 1 tablespoon = 1 TS = 20 millilitres = 20 mL > > We also use a running footer in our cookbooks so that people don't > forget, and so that readers in the UK and in the USA will remember > that the Australian tablespoon = 20 mL not 15 mL. > > As for c for cup, the issue here is even more complex. We wrote: > > Cups > Even something as simple sounding as a cup of flour is fraught with > difficulty. Do you use an English teacup, a breakfast cup, a morning > coffee cup, or an after dinner coffee cup? If you receive a recipe > from the USA does a cup mean that you should use a teacup, a > breakfast cup, or your old coffee mug with the broken handle that has > 'I luv N.Y.' printed on the side? And we haven't even considered > whether an after dinner coffee cup is the same as a demitasse! > > Compare all of these with the simplicity of the Australian metric cup > that always contains 250 millilitres. This means that there are four > cups to one litre. The complete set of information an Australian cook > needs to know about cups is: > 1 cup = 250 millilitres (this is added to the running footer as > mentioned above. > 4 cups = 1000 millilitres = 1 litre > > See: http://www.metricationmatters.com/docs/ > MetricCookingWithConfidence.pdf to put this information into context. > > After studying many cookbooks from the UK and in the USA it seems > that their editors mostly use 15 mL for a tablespoon and 5 mL for a > teaspoon with a wide range of choices, including T and t, as > abbreviations for tablespoon and teaspoon respectively. In making > their choices we think that these editors have simply taken the > tablespoon as an approximation for half an old fluid ounce (UK fl. > oz. in the UK and USA fl. oz. in the USA) and given them some ill- > fitting metric clothing. > > The USDA defines a cup as 8 fluid ounces or 48 teaspoons or 16 > tablespoons. The UK does it differently because they had different > ounces (20 fl. oz. = 1 pint in the UK while 16 fl. oz. = 1 pint in > the USA). > > In Australia, we have to be aware that recipes from the UK and the > USA have all of these these differences. > > 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/ for more metrication information, > contact Pat at [EMAIL PROTECTED] or subscribe to > the free 'Metrication matters' newsletter at http:// > www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter/ > > --
