GB
Chief Eating Officer
Ahhh, but how will your meds be measured out 
I hate metric system.
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Chef Wil
Cook
GB said:Ahhh, but how will your meds be measured out
Hopefully one green gram at a time
Claire
Master Chef
KitchenElf, you and I must be close in age, because I remember that, too, and was looking forward to it (I'm terrible at math, and think that doing things in multiples of 10 is a great idea, plus lived in Europe for a bit as a kid). I know there are 7 pages of this, and I'm probably repeating an idea I haven't read, but Pyrex measuring cups have both measurements on them. Since I collect cookbooks, I often find myself looking at "the other side" of the measuring cup. When I travel, I love to hit grocery stores and usually buy cheese, meat, and bread at local stores. People have asked me if I'm not afraid to buy someplace where I don't know the measurements. How do I convert them in my head? The answer is, quite simply, I don't. I go through a store and look at items that are pre-measured, and see what a gram, litre, etc, look like, then go to the deli counter. Even after a couple of days, I don't think in pounds and quarts any more. AND, I might add, any of you out there who drink alcoholic beverages, take note. They mostly come in metric measurements! Even here in the US, that big bottle is 1.75 litres, the middle is a litre, and the littler one is .75. It sounds stupid, but sometimes just being able to picture it helps. But I don't think finding measuring instruments that have both marks on them is that difficult, is it?
Otter
Sous Chef
When I was younger I thought a switch to metric would be great, but I'm too set in my ways now to want that. I do wish they would get their act together though - the local Ace Hardware store had a sale on wrenches saying that due to the low price there would be no refunds. When I got them home I saw "metric" printed in very small type at the bottom.
RPCookin
Executive Chef
The easiest way around the metric system for those of use who don't speak it as a first language... just remember that no matter what the units, cooking is done by proportions. If you understand the relationships, then translating isn't that much of a chore. I like to find the most commonly used unit in the recipe, then figure everything else in multiples or fractions of that.
A lot of my cooking is by taste and intuition anyway...
A lot of my cooking is by taste and intuition anyway...
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CharlieD
Chef Extraordinaire
RPCookin said:
Hm, one of us is definitely doesn’t understand metric system and cooking. Proportions, what do they have to do with metric system? Different measuring units in metric system? Not sure what you mean by any of that. And all together the topic was on the advantage of metric over standard where in one recipe you may find four different units of measure, where in metric its weight.
RPCookin
Executive Chef
CharlieD said:
If everything in metric is by weight, then you are pretty much stuck with weighing everything, because trying to equate them to volume measurement would not work for things that have differing weight for the same volume, unless you are very familiar with the ingredients. But if all you have is an avoirdupois scale, you can still use it.. i.e. by using an ounce conversion for a 10 gram quantity and then using comparative weights for the remaining ingredients.
But if all specifications are by volume, then you can just go by proportions. 10ml to 20 ml = 1 part to 2 parts, and just take it from there for other volume measurements. Just like 1 tsp to 1 tbl = 1 part to 3 parts. You might end up with a little bit more or a little bit less than the recipe says, but I find that happens a lot anyway.
Except in baking, I look a recipe as a general guide, not as an unbreakable law.
In Australia everything is metric. I have moved to the UK, which is caught in the middle. The European laws mean that everything needs to be measured metrically and the UK choose to put the imperial measurements alongside, which helps me no end. I now know what a pound "feels" like. It is really hard when you are used to a sense of your measurements it something you take for granted. Now I am caught with my recipes, as cups, tablepoons etc are slightly different in Oz and in the UK and for a time I had a set of each. Now I no longer bake, I don't tend to get affected by this any more. My everyday cooking is more by guesstimation than measurement.
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CharlieD
Chef Extraordinaire
Well, let me go back to the beginning and repeat to what I started with. I complain not about converting pounds into grams or vise versa. I was complaining about the fact that in one recipe you find pounds, cups, tablespoon teaspoon, pinch and so on. In metric everything is measured in grams, that is it. So it is not the fact of conversion that bothers me.
Dove
DC Grandma
Now that all of you have boggeled my mind, let me tell you MY problem...
While in Korea I purchased a rice cooker..that sounds ok right??? Wrong! It not only is in metric but the instructions are written in Japanese...it has been gathering dust since 1963.
While in Korea I purchased a rice cooker..that sounds ok right??? Wrong! It not only is in metric but the instructions are written in Japanese...it has been gathering dust since 1963.
GB
Chief Eating Officer
LOL Marge! 42 years is plenty of time to learn Japanese
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CharlieD
Chef Extraordinaire
42 years is plenty to experiment and find out how it works without learning Japanese or instructions. Thou what am I talking about I have a bread machine that was giving to us as a wedding gift, just about a 13 years ago, and I am yet to take it out of the box. 
Chef Wil
Cook
CharlieD said:
A lot of the European recipes I have use metric but I find that they use both volume and weight in most of them. Most professional recipes use weight measurements, esp. in the baking industry.
You can find conversion charts for volume measurements to weight in many cookbooks such as The Pie and Pastry Bible.
Dove
DC Grandma
I like my bread machine but the rice cooker is too big..can't even get my son to take it and he has two sons..if I keep it long enough it will become a Antique...
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CharlieD
Chef Extraordinaire
Dove said:
You know I'm looking to get one right now, how big is it? I want to make sure so I don't buy big one.
Gee Charlie ... it's not that hard to figure out the size you need. How much rice do you normally make and what is the most you would ever want to make? If you normally make 2-4 cups, but would like to be able to double it to 8 cups sometimes, then find a cooker that will handle 2-8 cups. Obviously, if you're never going to make more than 8 cups you don't need as 12-cup cooker.
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CharlieD
Chef Extraordinaire
Well, i usually don't make rice as I do not have rice cooker, I do often go to my neighbors to eat diner there, when they make rice, in their cooker. I just love the way it comes out of the rice cooker, much better than on the stove top.
Ok Charlie - so you don't make rice because you don't have a rice cooker ..... take what I said before and substitute "how much would you make" for "how much do you make". Geez ...
Rice cookers start at 3-cups and go up to 20-cups, or more, capacity. Figure out how much rice you want to make and go from there.
Rice cookers start at 3-cups and go up to 20-cups, or more, capacity. Figure out how much rice you want to make and go from there.
Chef Wil
Cook
Trivia Note; Rice cookers are the most populous electric appliances in the world, 2 billion Chinese can't all be wrong
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CharlieD
Chef Extraordinaire
'Michael in FtW said:
I know you are right, I'm just being lazy. Also I have tendency to over do it. Whenever I cook, I cook too much. Of course I have an excuse, a big family, but it is just an excuse. For some reason I can’t cook a little, even when I want to I end up with a lot. Quite few times I start cooking in one pot and then all of a sadden I have to switch to a bigger one. I guess it’s all because I don’t use recipes.
