Why you are using Standard or Metric?

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4food

Cook
Joined
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Location
KY
That is a question I have been asking myself. Why would you, the cook :chef:, use one over the other?
 
Depends......some online or even packaged recipes or instructions use ml's and grams, then I'll follow them.

And on my kitchen scale, depending on what I'm weighing or trying to divide, I'll use ounces or grams.

Also, if a foreign tourist (which I get a lot around here) asks for directions, I use meters and kilometers.
 
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I use avoirdupois and standard because that's what I've used my entire life. Metric is much easier in its base10 logic, but for some reason we've never adopted it.
 
I am a fan of metric over pounds and ounces. Metric makes it so simple to cut recipes down or increase them. It just makes more sense all around.

I am also converting my recipes as I go from volume to weight measurements where appropriate.
 
Because I have lived in Canada since 1985, I use metric. However, I only measure when I bake, and then I use baker's percentages, which are all weighed on a scale.
 
I use avoirdupois and standard because that's what I've used my entire life. Metric is much easier in its base10 logic, but for some reason we've never adopted it.
Very very interesting. I never thought standard was also called "avoirdupois". Which is French for "having weight", and the French created metric. All this is so confusing :glare:.
 
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I am a fan of metric over pounds and ounces. Metric makes it so simple to cut recipes down or increase them. It just makes more sense all around.

I am also converting my recipes as I go from volume to weight measurements where appropriate.
What a coincidence, that's exactly what I have been doing :)
 
I've only used weighing for baking too--and it doesn't matter which system I use. The scale I have does both.

As an interesting note...in cheesemaking I use standard measurements. Some of the books and internet media use just one or the other. The Gavin Webber in Australia uses metric but he also includes standard to appeal to a larger audience. Believe me, if you are in the middle of a recipe and it calls for only one or the other, it's just annoying to have to look up all the conversions and many authors and teachers only use one or the other. (I know because I use recipes from all different authors in different countries.) Most American authors and teachers only use standard and it is off putting to those that have to make conversions in countries where they use metric.

So, in conclusion. I write my own recipes in standard but I'm not selling a cook book. If I was, I'd try to be inclusive of both methods.
 
I mostly weigh in grams because that is how I was taught in school and it is just more accurate for baking. If a recipe is in cups sometimes I will convert to weight and sometimes I will use my metric measuring cups. I rarely use imperial.
 
Easy math vs no math

I’ve found that standard measures are fine if you’re following a recipe and not adjusting it for servings. If you’re baking, either is okay, as long as you’re consistent and use a kitchen scale (my new best friend). If you do have to make adjustments, I find that metric math is just easier. There are 1,000 grams to a kilo. What could be easier?

That kind of leads me to a question. Different flours have different weights, and sometimes the SAME flour from different companies can weigh differently! Not a real problem if the dough recipe is in weight and not volume (unless you’re using a different brand flour from the one in the recipe...). Isn’t there any standard conversion chart, at least for whole wheat, white AP, and bread flours? A difference of a few grams between different brands is acceptable.

Maybe I’ll make this a project, but I’ll have to start a GoFundMe account so I can pay for all the flour!
 
I mostly weigh in grams because that is how I was taught in school and it is just more accurate for baking. If a recipe is in cups sometimes I will convert to weight and sometimes I will use my metric measuring cups. I rarely use imperial.
See my reply below, but how do adjust for the different flour weights? Whole wheat flours and AP flours all measure differently. Add bread flour in, and that’s a whole different weight. Then add all the gluten free flours, and you’ve got a real mess! Do most types of flour weigh about the same across brands? Am I making sense?
 
Because I have lived in Canada since 1985, I use metric. However, I only measure when I bake, and then I use baker's percentages, which are all weighed on a scale.
I still haven’t figured out the baker’s ratio or how to use it. Maybe because I flunked math every year since the second grade?
 
See my reply below, but how do adjust for the different flour weights? Whole wheat flours and AP flours all measure differently. Add bread flour in, and that’s a whole different weight. Then add all the gluten free flours, and you’ve got a real mess! Do most types of flour weigh about the same across brands? Am I making sense?

The nutrition label on all flours will tell you how much a specific volume measure equals. e.g. on King Arthur All Purpose Flour, the nutrition label states ¼ cup (30 grams). So you can extrapolate that to 120 grams/cup. Of course that requires a little multiplication.;)

Actually, I think all foods show that weight to volume relationship.
 
See my reply below, but how do adjust for the different flour weights? Whole wheat flours and AP flours all measure differently. Add bread flour in, and that’s a whole different weight. Then add all the gluten free flours, and you’ve got a real mess! Do most types of flour weigh about the same across brands? Am I making sense?

The USDA maintains a database of foods with their weights and nutritional information. You can download it or the app, or search it online.

https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/search/list
 
I use whatever format the recipe is written in. I use weight for bread baking, and I've never found that my results vary all that much for most breads for different flours.

I make a ciabatta from a recipe that doesn't specify flour type, and I've gotten good results from both AP and bread flour by just weighing out the recipe amounts. For the AP flour I sub some vital gluten for a little bit of the flour but I still use the total weight in the recipe.
 
I think the easy answer is that I use what I grew up with. I am ABLE to use metric, if I need too, but I normally use "standard," because it is ingrained in me -- I don't have to think about it.

CD
 
I grew up learning standard and I have a much easier time imagining pounds, cups, miles and so on. I get too confused over metric, as in which is larger, a centimeter or a millimeter (in my mind, they both look the same).

Plus I tend to not be real exact about measurements all the time. If something calls for 1 1/3 cups of something, I'm just as like to fill the cup once and then fill it again to what I think is one third of the cup, so I don't dirty two cups. This works well when doubling or halving recipes.

I like to fly by the seat of my pants when cooking and not rely on say, the weight of the flour if I'm making bread. I like to know my bread is correct by the way it looks and feels. Again, my goal isn't to become a chef, it's simply to make food I enjoy eating.

Sometimes I wonder how many people would know what their spices were by look or smell if they took all the labels off.
 
The nutrition label on all flours will tell you how much a specific volume measure equals. e.g. on King Arthur All Purpose Flour, the nutrition label states ¼ cup (30 grams). So you can extrapolate that to 120 grams/cup. Of course that requires a little multiplication.;)

Actually, I think all foods show that weight to volume relationship.

The USDA maintains a database of foods with their weights and nutritional information. You can download it or the app, or search it online.

https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/search/list

What they said! :)
 
I use volume measure, it's what I grew up with and most of my recipes are written that way. I am able to use metric, I have the wet measures and a scale for dry measures. Conversions don't bother me, but I see no need to convert my TNT recipes.
 
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