--- Pierre Abbat <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Wednesday 22 June 2005 00:49, Daniel wrote: > > Maybe you should have told her you are an amateur > chef and that you use > > metric because good food made the right way has to > be done in metric. That > > includes using a balance instead of cups. It is > like chemistry, if you > > don't mix the chemicals correctly you produce an > inferior product. This > > way instead of you feeling like the weirdo, she > would have. > > I went to the Unhindered Living Conference and one > thing we did is make soap. > Soapmaking actually is chemistry. The gal who owns > the place told us to weigh > an ounce of lye and measure a cup of fat. The mass > of fat for a given mass of > lye depends on the sap ratio of the fat, and the > volume depends on the mass > and the temperature, so I refused to do this and > instead weighed both on my > kitchen scale to the nearest gram. She is from > Canada and has forgotten how > to use metric; I hope she'll get back into the > habit.
Why do you say that she has forgotten how to use metric? Because she wanted to measure the fat rather than weigh it? Or did she just not know how to weigh something? When Canada adopted the metric system, a decision was made not to adopt the system of cooking where all dry ingredients were measured by mass. Instead, the system of measuring liquids and certain dry items by volume, and other items by mass, should be retained. People shouldn't confuse the subject of using metric units with the subjec of measuring by volume versus mass. Cooking with mL of flour is just as metric as grams of flour. Some anti-metric people will mistakenly (or intentionally) tell people that if they adopt the metric system they will have to start weighing their dry ingredients when they cook, rather than using volume as they're used to, just to scare them. Stephen
