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 <[email protected]> To: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]> 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.
