This thread interested me however I'm not into recipes. But my wife is! ;-)I
had a look at her recipe books - some of which are very recent - and all of
them were imperial and metric. Some were imperial (metric), others metric
(imperial) and some were system/system. None were metric only or imperial only
and some mentioned, in the preface, to use imperial OR metric but not to mix
the two "part
way".
Basically it's how I thought it was (which mirrors what I've seen in newspapers
and on the BBC recipe site, which the wife uses a lot)
> Date: Fri, 28 Aug 2009 13:24:06 -0500
> From: j...@metricmethods.com
> To: usma@colostate.edu
> Subject: [USMA:45709] [Fwd: Re: the metric system and cooking recipes] --
> second attempt
>
>
> Apparently the server did not send this out.
>
> Jim
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Re: [USMA:45705] the metric system and cooking recipes
> Date: Fri, 28 Aug 2009 11:53:32 -0500
> From: James R. Frysinger <j...@metricmethods.com>
> To: U.S. Metric Association <usma@colostate.edu>
> CC: Sally Mitchell <sbmitch...@aol.com>
> References: <7df328f6da8a43bd96d5fd630d87a...@ownerpc>
>
> People do not like to change the way that they do things unless:
> -- it's fairly easy to do so and
> -- they see a huge payoff in making the change.
> Otherwise, folks will continue to do things the way they have habitually
> done them. Even the marketing of microwave ovens took more than 20 years
> before they became "necessities" in the minds of the public. Some people
> still think personal computers are either "too hard" or "not useful in
> their lives" and so they still don't have one in their homes.
>
> Let's look at seat belts in cars. They are easy to use but many people
> don't see a payoff for using them. (Yes, that's partly because they are
> uneducated in physics.) Therefore, many states have moved lack of seat
> belt usage from secondary offense status (ticketed if stopped for
> another reason) to primary status (stopped and ticketed if non-usage was
> observed) in an effort to bring the "payoff" home. Got $250 in your wallet?
>
> In my mind, that's the reason that full metrication of the American
> public will not be possible until the U.S. government declares
> non-metric weights and measures to have no legal validity, allowing them
> to become anything an advertiser wishes them to be -- like "two scoops
> of raisins". Then, if you buy "a pound" of something and it turns out to
> be closer to 100 g, you are done in by your own recalcitrance and
> stubborn ignorance. After a while, you would learn that your pocketbook
> would benefit from noting and deciding on the basis of the metric
> package indications. This will go faster if non-metric indications are
> banned from packaging, ads, etc., but the industry will object to that
> and such a provision will not be politically feasible -- until some time
> after folks have lived with a permissible metric-only FPLA.
>
> In industry companies go metric because it pays off, not because they
> feel some moral or aesthetic obligation to do so. In fact, the Metric
> Conversion Act of 1975 has no real effect on industrial decisions except
> to allow them the option to let economics make that decision.
>
> Cooks in the U.S. will not normally go metric in the kitchen since
> packaging still includes metric indications (the metric indications,
> when present, are ignored by the consumer), the bulk of kitchen gadgets
> include or are labeled solely in non-metric markings, oven dials are in
> degrees Fahrenheit only, and 99.99 % of the recipes published in books,
> magazines, and newspapers are in non-metric units.
>
> Recall that in the early '70s, our economy was sliding, our trade
> balance was declining, and newly industrialized (and metric) countries
> were entering the global economy, which in turn was starting to greatly
> overshadow national economy issues. Americans had a sense that they were
> entering a game of "catch-up ball". That's what sold the public on the
> American Conversion Act, but some sectors of industry balked, namely the
> ones NOT affected so much by global issues, such as the food marketing
> and building trades.
>
> I can see a benefit to a few years of permissible metric-only labeling
> in the marketplace, but essentially it's going to take a federal mandate
> (a fiat!) to metricate the U.S., rather like what Australia did. (But NO
> MORE millimeter v. centimeter postings on this thread -- please! -- go
> get your own thread.)
>
> Jim
>
> Paul Trusten wrote:
> > When I posted an item on my pharmacy blog about the metric system, one
> > person commented, "That's fine, but keep it out of my kitchen!"
> >
> > That was an interesting response. We usually have to deal with
> > nationalism, or just plain stubbornness, when someone opposes metric
> > so pointedly, but the dislike of metric units in cooking is a different
> > prejudice. As a pharmacist, I found myself /wanting /to use metric units
> > on this very point. The symbol for pharmacy or a prescription, "Rx," is
> > actually shorthand for rhe word "recipe," and a prescription can be
> > considered just that: a list of ingredients along with directions for
> > preparation. Compounding medications requires objectivity and accuracy,
> > but why do you think people who enjoy preparing food from recipes have a
> > nerve struck on metrication?
> >
> > This whole subject is particularly engaging because USMA member Sally
> > Mitchell is particularly emphatic about using the metric system in cooking.
> >
> >
> > Paul Trusten, R.Ph.
> > Public Relations Director
> > U.S. Metric Association.Inc.
> > www.metric.org <http://www.metric.org>
> > trus...@grandecom.net <mailto:trus...@grandecom.net>
>
> --
> James R. Frysinger
> 632 Stony Point Mountain Road
> Doyle, TN 38559-3030
>
> (C) 931.212.0267
> (H) 931.657.3107
> (F) 931.657.3108
>
>
> --
> James R. Frysinger
> 632 Stony Point Mountain Road
> Doyle, TN 38559-3030
>
> (C) 931.212.0267
> (H) 931.657.3107
> (F) 931.657.3108
>
View your other email accounts from your Hotmail inbox. Add them now.
_________________________________________________________________
Use Hotmail to send and receive mail from your different email accounts.
http://clk.atdmt.com/UKM/go/167688463/direct/01/
