Dear Bill, This is a slightly edited reposting of an earlier message.
This appears on the frontispiece of 'Cookery the Australian Way - Revised Metric Edition'. I guessed the pepper; the soup was too hot! I guessed the water; it dried in the pot! I guessed the salt; and - what do you think? We did nothing else the whole day but drink! I guessed the sugar; the sauce was too sweet! And so by my guessing I spoiled our treat; And now I guess nothing, for cooking by guess Is sure to result in a terrible mess. Obviously you could apply these principles in many areas other than cooking with equal success. 'Cookery the Australian Way - Revised Metric Edition' arose out of the Australian Metric Conversion Boards activities and out of the collaboration of five of the most senior Home Economics teachers in Australia in the late sixties and early seventies. They took a totally novel approach to unit conversion (no soft conversions here) which recognised the vast array of units that were then being used in all the recipes available (some of them in books). This was done in conjunction with other groups such as the Dairy and Egg Conversion committees. The defined units we adopted for cooking were: 1 metric cup = 250 millilitres (mL) 1 litre = 1000 mL = 4 metric cups A set of 4 spoons 1 tablespoon = 20 millilitres 1 teaspoon = 5 millilitres 1/2 teaspoon = 2.5 millilitres 1/4 teaspoon = 1.25 millilitres 600 mL replaced pint milk containers 300 mL replaced half pint milk containers 500 gram replaced a pound (nominally) 1 kg replaced two pounds (nominally) The combination of all these changes had the effect of increasing all measures by about 10 % while retaining the proportions between ingredients. For example if you used 500 g instead of a pound; 600 mL instead of a pint; a metric cup instead of an old imperial cup; a metric teaspoon instead of an old (random?) teaspoon, and a metric tablespoon instead of an old (random?) tablespoon, you still were cooking in the same approximate proportions but with a slightly larger (+ 10�%) mixture. Cheers, Pat Naughtin LCAMS Geelong, Australia Pat Naughtin is the editor of the free online newsletter, 'Metrication matters'. You can subscribe by sending an email containing the words subscribe Metrication matters to [EMAIL PROTECTED] --
