Sorry, missed USMA in the addressee list. ----- Forwarded Message ----- From: John M. Steele <[email protected]> To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, October 23, 2013 9:26 AM Subject: Re: [USMA:53346] RE: Chef/Cookbook author on metric vs Imperial
Agreed. We are still very committed to measuring cups and spoons. I think it is great he explains himself and promotes it as a "chef tip." Maybe that will lead some people to metricate instead of whining "what is that in cups." It is true that measuring cups and spoons are widely available marked with dual scales, and electronic kitchen scale can all switch between metric and pounds-ounces. Americans CAN follow recipes in metric, they just need a little incentive (and probably oven temperatures converted to Fahrenheit. Only pricier ovens with electronic displays can convert.) Since I also give advice on a conversion site, I can tell you a LOT of American want to convert metric recipes to Customary. It is probably one of the most common questions, and involves the density of the food as sold. While we try to help them convert we also nudge them "if you do this often, it is easier to go metric" and encourage them to buy an inexpensive dual scale and dual cups and spoons. ________________________________ From: Martin Vlietstra <[email protected]> To: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, October 23, 2013 9:00 AM Subject: [USMA:53346] RE: Chef/Cookbook author on metric vs Imperial John, I think that this applies to US cooks more than UK cooks. British cookbooks have long had a habit of gauging ingredients by weight rather than volume, possibly stemming from the writing of Mrs Beeton (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mrs_Beeton). The [British] Guild of Food writers have an excellent page on metrication at http://www.gfw.co.uk/metrication.cfm which is used by all the British newspapers. From:[email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of John M. Steele Sent: 23 October 2013 12:39 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:53345] Chef/Cookbook author on metric vs Imperial Whole article: http://eater.com/archives/2013/10/22/david-kinch-interview.php Snippet on measures (pretty strong message): The things that were important to me when writing the recipes were metric system and weighing everything. For many years, cookbook publishers wanted imperial measurements, and they didn't want to use weight. They wanted to use volume measurements. But people who use professional cookbooks are looking for that insider tip. What do the professionals do that I can use in my home kitchen? And one cannot overemphasize that what we do in the kitchen — because it's more efficient, because it's cleaner, because it's better organized, because it's so much simpler and easier and consistent to do — is to weigh the ingredients. And if there's one single thing that anybody can take from the book, it's that weighing ingredients and the metric system are not that big of a deal. I think that if they take the plunge and actually spend $15 on a digital kitchen scale, they will find it's that much easier. There's a vignette in the book in which I say that a cup of floor measures differently on a day that it's raining than on a day that it's dry, because the flour absorbs moisture. But if you weigh it out, 500 grams of flour is 500 grams of flour is 500 grams of flour. It doesn't matter whether it's wet or rainy or high barometric pressure. None of that matters. That level of consistency could be the single best thing. You make a cake, you measure out the eggs, you measure out the flour, you measure out the sugar, you measure out the butter. But you know, with a digital scale, you put the bowl on, hit tare, it goes to zero, you add the sugar, you hit the tare, goes to zero, you add the butter. Instead of getting four things dirty, you get one thing dirty. Everything is consistently measured out. It is so easy. That is the one big underlying important lesson.
