Yes, it does say something about isolationism. However, recipes represent history, the past. Quite apart from the argument of whether we should continue to use the old terms, we should document them, so we don't lose track of the past. A "stick" of butter is 0.25 lb, therefore about 113.4 g. The pound of butter is divided into 4 sticks, each wrapped in waxed paper. As US cooking is volumetric, not weight based, the wrapper is marked in tablespoons and teaspoons, so a smaller unit can be cut off using the wrapper as a ruler. The stick is slightly longer than the 8 tablespoons marked off, perhaps 8.3 - 8.5 tablespoons. Thus, the density of US butter is approximately 113.6 g/124.2 mL = 0.915 g/cm³, with a bit of conversion. If you Google the term "stick of butter" you will find this definition, although it may be a problem in the dictionary. There are a number of terms in British cooking that I don't understand either, and a number of vegetables have different names. --- On Sat, 4/4/09, Martin Vlietstra <[email protected]> wrote:
From: Martin Vlietstra <[email protected]> Subject: RE: [USMA:44329] Re: Even with "dual," you can't please everybody To: [email protected], "'U.S. Metric Association'" <[email protected]> Date: Saturday, April 4, 2009, 12:40 PM John, My father was Dutch and my mother British. One of their wedding presents was a Dutch cookery book – measurements in metric units of course. The statement “100 g zuiker” can easily be translated to “100 g sugar” and is totally unambiguous. All that is needed is a tourist’s phrase book to look up “zuiker”. The phrase book could have been from either a Dutch publishing house or a British publishing house. A number of American recipes have the term “a stick of butter”. As a Brit, that is a meaningless concept to me. I checked in my copy of the “Oxford Concise Dictionary” what was meant by “a stick”. The dictionary gave 16 different meanings for the word “stick” spread over nearly an entire page, but none of them could enlightened me. Similarly with Chamber’s dictionary. Doesn’t this say something about the isolationism that is cause by the use of customary measures? From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of John M. Steele Sent: 04 April 2009 15:36 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:44329] Re: Even with "dual," you can't please everybody Pat, You understandably write from a Commonwealth or Australian perspective (I don't mean spelling), and as a metric consultant, you may have a vested interest in making old measurements sound more confusing than they are. I am confused by spoons and cups in recipes from Commonwealth nations. However, if you receive a recipe from the US , there is no confusion; the terms are well-defined and have been for some time. I regularly use a recipe from my greatgrandmother which dates to around 1890. Common cups and spoons may be of any size, but measuring cups and spoons are well defined. They are as important to us as your scales (most are marked in metric as well). Each term is followed by a definition in Customary units, an overly exact metric conversion, and a practically rounded metric conversion: cup: 8 US fl oz, 236.5882 mL, 240 mL ounce: 1 US fl oz, 29.573 53 mL, 30 mL Tablespoon: 0.5 US fl oz, 14.786 76 mL, 15 mL teaspoon: 0.1666... US fl oz, 4.928 922 mL, 5 mL Dry and wet measuring cups are of different designs, but the same capacity. Dry cups are brim fill, stricken level with the back edge of a knife. Wet cups are fill-to-mark. American cooking is entirely volumetric, and it is probably easier to convert to metric volume than determine the density of everything. The cup and tablespoon are noticably different than Australian, but no confusion as the terms are well defined and standardized by NIST (handbook 44 Appendix, C, SP811, etc) Now, if only we could get Americans to convert the above volumes to metric. --- On Sat, 4/4/09, Pat Naughtin < [email protected] > wrote: From: Pat Naughtin < [email protected] > Subject: [USMA:44327] Re: Even with "dual," you can't please everybody To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]> Date: Saturday, April 4, 2009, 9:34 AM Dear John, I have posted a response to this that you can find at the same address at http://www.t-g.com/blogs/bettybrown/entry/26458 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 to get the free 'Metrication matters' newsletter go to: http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter to subscribe.
