Having sufficient cooking tools to "prepare as written" is certainly a good
idea, and I have a scale (switchable). However, I am NOT about to have two
ovens one in Celsius, one in Fahrenheit to avoid conversion.
Another way to proceed is to convert intelligently and realize for each unit in
one system, there are perhaps one or two, not thousands, of relevant units in
the other system. No sane person needs to know the number of metric
tablespoons in a US petroleum barrel (although easily estimated as 159 L/ 15 mL
= 10600). US volumetric cooking can be entirely encoded in the simple
statement:
1 cup = 8 fl oz = 16 Tablespoons = 48 teaspoons ~ 240 mL
(236.6 mL exceeds any commercial accuracy requirement but 236.588 2365 mL is
exact)
I know you prefer 250 mL, but it is slightly more inaccurate and not divisible
by any of the above, or the common cup fractions, 1/3, 1/4.
Perhaps you also need to know a stick of butter is 0.25 lb ~113.4 g, and the
wrapper is marked with a ruler to cut teaspoons and tablespoons.
Certainly there is a large storehouse of US recipes that would need to be
converted if the US ever fully metricated (or a metric cook cooked them). I
don't know whether we would convert to mass-based cooking or stay volumetric.
Certainly a large table of foood densities is necessary to convert from
volumetic to mass-based cooking. Hopefully you do it once and write it down.
The "millions of conversions" syndrome comes from two things:
*The US educational system seems to like them to frighten children about the
metric system and make good Customary citizens of them. It also teaches
absurdly large and small numbers and the use of scientific notation (the last
being a good thing).
*Conversion sites can up their "conversion counts" and mindless conversion of
anything to anything is easier than applying judgement, which is difficult to
do "mechanically."
When one eliminates the absurdities and applies common sense, conversion is not
so bad, and beats throwing away "old knowledge." It is certainly best to know
which way you are moving and only convert from old to new, not randomly back
and forth.
Is anyone else concerned that a person educated in the metric system needs a
table to convert liters to deciliters?
________________________________
From: Pat Naughtin <pat.naugh...@metricationmatters.com>
To: U.S. Metric Association <usma@colostate.edu>
Sent: Thu, January 28, 2010 9:04:42 PM
Subject: [USMA:46509] Oh how our minds …
Dear All,
I was reminded of this line:
Oh how our minds we do pervert,
When first we practice to convert.
When I found this web page where they write:
##
Conversion tables for cooking and baking liquid - metric to non-metric liter 1
liter 10 dl: 1/2 liter 5 dl conversion table for cooking for quick
conversions(zivycutelire.xhost.ro/ conversion-ml-to- cups)
Convert cooking, metric tablespoon to teaspoon (uk) - volume and capacity units
conversion deciliter (dl) 0.15. dekaliter. 0.0015. hectare meter. 1.5 x
10(www.convertcenter.com/unit.aspx/ volume/ cooking-metric-tablespoon)
* Deciliter (dl) 0.10 liters. centiliter (cl) 0.01 liters. milliliter
(ml) 0.001 liters area, volume, length/distance, cooking, time, and
more.(www.factmonster.com/ipka/ a0769580.html)
* Bitsys kitchen, conversion tables for cooking and baking 2 cups 1
pint (pt) 2 our liquid chart will convert metric ml. conversion
chart.(vuxomokukafo.xhost.ro/ conversion-ml-to- cups)
* Milk shakes, recipes, cooking tips, health advice, nutrition, submit
recipe, dining, cooking, aticles, wines, drinks, coffeeins, metric converter,
free cooking(www.eclecticcooking.com/ milk-shakes.htm)
* This is the personal web site of a swedish person, who metric-metric.
1 l = 10 dl = 1000 ml. 0,1 l = 1 dl. 0,5 l = 5 dl. 1 tsp* = 5 ml. 1 tbsp* = 15
ml(www.fia-lia.net/ index.php? file=miscellaneous/cooking/ convtables3.txt)1 uk
pint is about 6 dl. 1 uk liquid oz is 0.96 us liquid oz. 1 pint = 570 ml = 20
fl oz metric conversion chart. to convert: quarts into liters,
multiply(bitsyskitchen.com/conversion.html)
Are the two most useful tools of good cooking. dl = deciliter. l = liter. dal =
decaliter. cu in = cubic inch. oz metric and english liquid(www.fantes.com/
conversion-charts.html)
Cooking conversion chart: oven temperatures approximate conversion chart:
metric ml. us oz. 1 quart. 40. 1140. 38.5. 1 pint. 20. 570. 1 cup. 10. 1 gill.
5(en.wikipedia.org/wiki/litre)
##
The alternative to this kind of metric conversion is to buy a set of metric
spoons, and a set of metric cups for a few dollars (and a set of electronic
metric-only scales when you can afford them) and ignore all the old stuff – and
its conversions – forever after.
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin
Author of the ebook, Metrication Leaders Guide, that you can obtain
from http://metricationmatters.com/MetricationLeadersGuideInfo.html
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.
