Why is the metric system associated with the '70s?

[bulldog1979]

Britain has some classifications of flour and sugar (and probably other things) that we aren't used to in the US.  Just watch The Great British Baking Show sometime.

And "swede" is probably a rutabaga.

Not probably, it is. We Yoopers know how to make a pasty too, and yes, the authentic ones have rutabaga.

[1995hoo]

I actually used the kitchen scale with it set to pounds tonight. We got in a shipment of fresh scallops (harvested Wednesday!) from Maine and I wanted to split it up into five one-pound portions and freeze them.

[kkt]

I have a vintage baker's scale, balance beam with a sliding scale for ounces and a platform for counterweights on the other side.  It used to be my mom's.  When I was a newborn, I was underweight and my pediatrician was concerned and said I should be weighed every week, so she weighed me on the baker's scale.  It could weigh up to 10 pounds with enough counterweights.  I do use it for weighing ingredients too, one of my cookbooks loves giving weights rather than volume measures.

[bwana39]

I remember one time in grade school, we were out on the ballfield and some kid kept kicking dirt. So the gym teacher said, "If you don't stop kicking that dirt, I'm gonna make you eat a gallon of it."

But how??? It was dry dirt, not a liquid. I thought gallons were for liquids.

Gallons are a measure of volume. A gallon of a given liquid should always be the same (at standard temperature and pressure.) Since sand is a solid, it would not be identically the same. That said, IDENTICALLY. A gallon of (the same type of) sand would  be extremely close to the same amount every time. You likely wouldn't know the difference. As far as that goes, when it comes to eating sand, a cup and a gallon probably would be little different. A half a liter would likely choke you out!

Volume measurements are less precise even with liquids than weight or mass. People get into measuring cooking ingredients by weight in this thread.

[webny99]

I'll bet you forgot this was a bandit thread (you being everyone). It might be the most substantive bandit thread of all time.

[Scott5114]

Oh yeah, I remembered a new beef about the customary system. I like to cook Tuna Helper sometimes, since my mom made it a bunch for me growing up so it's comfort food. My wife hates it, though, so whenever I cook it I only make it half a box at a time. The directions call for 1⅔ cup hot water and 3 tbsp butter, among other things.

So I'm halving this "recipe", which means I need half of 1⅔, whatever the hell number that is. The first time I did this, I got a deer-in-the-headlights look in my face, and just decided to measure out ½ cup, then ⅓ cup, taking two trips from the water dispenser to the skillet. This time, remembering this thread, I decided to sit down and figure out what 1⅔ ÷ 2 is. ⅚! Excuse me, I'm supposed to put ⅚ cup of water in this thing? I have never seen a sixth-cup measuring cup in my life. So that means the way I was doing it–two trips to the pan–was the only way I could have done it! What kind of ass-backward measuring system requires that?

1 cup is 236 mL, so ⅚ of a cup would be 197 mL. I could probably get away with rounding that up to 200 mL. At least that I have the tools to measure!

Same goes for my butter measurement: there is no way to measure 1½ tbsp, because I don't have ½ tbsp measuring spoons, only 1 tbsp and various fractions of tsp, and 1 tsp = ⅓ tbsp! At least I buy stick butter so I can measure it by the markings on the wrapper, but still...

[US 89]

Same goes for my butter measurement: there is no way to measure 1½ tbsp, because I don't have ½ tbsp measuring spoons, only 1 tbsp and various fractions of tsp, and 1 tsp = ⅓ tbsp! At least I buy stick butter so I can measure it by the markings on the wrapper, but still...

Could always measure it as 1 tbsp + 1 tsp + 1/2 tsp. Even then though, I find it somewhat surprising you don't have a 1/2 tbsp...I have one and they seem to be fairly common.

[TXtoNJ]

https://www.google.com/maps/@47.3562058,-68.3332332,3a,23.7y,316.98h,92.01t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s3ih0VtBXDzj-6B2-875C1Q!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 where gas is advertised by the liter in US dollars

[kkt]

Do you have one of the glass measuring cups with the ounces marked?  You want 5/6 of one cup.  One cup = 8 oz. liquid.  So you could put in 7 oz. of hot water and call it good.  Or you could put in 6 oz. (3/4 cup) of hot water and then add a little more water at the end if it's too thick.  I try to avoid making extra measurements too

Measuring the butter by the markings on the stick should work fine.  I never bother to weigh that, unless the stick has melted into an uneven shape.  Pay attention that the end of the tbsp markers lines up with the end of the butter.

[Scott5114]

Do you have one of the glass measuring cups with the ounces marked?  You want 5/6 of one cup.  One cup = 8 oz. liquid.  So you could put in 7 oz. of hot water and call it good.  Or you could put in 6 oz. (3/4 cup) of hot water and then add a little more water at the end if it's too thick.  I try to avoid making extra measurements too

Sure...but it's also got mL marked, and now I know that ⅚ cup is about 200 mL

[CtrlAltDel]

and however tf many feet in a mile (5820?) WTF!

It's 5280. I've never understood why they stuck an 11 in there. At least the pound sterling was 240 old pence, which is 2*2*2*2*3*5, and it can be easily subdivided into pretty much anything.

If it was 5820, that would be even weirder; one of its prime factors is 97.

If you want weird, there's 231 cubic inches in a gallon. It's got an 11 and also a 7 in it: 231 = 3 × 7 × 11.

[GaryV]

//snipped// where gas is advertised by the liter in US dollars

I'm surprised they don't give the $Cdn prices too.

[hbelkins]

I like to cook Tuna Helper sometimes, since my mom made it a bunch for me growing up so it's comfort food. My wife hates it, though, so whenever I cook it I only make it half a box at a time.

I'm with your wife. I don't like tuna salad, but I like straight tuna out of the can. I tried fixing Tuna Helper once. It was awful. I took two bites and dumped the rest of it.

[Big John]

^^ This may belong in the strange habits thread, but I can only eat tuna if it is straight out of the can.

[lepidopteran]

^^ This may belong in the strange habits thread, but I can only eat tuna if it is straight out of the can.

Same here, plus I make sure to drain whatever liquid was in the can.  I do, however, also like tuna straight out of those foil packets -- even those flavored like lemon pepper.  But with no other additives beyond that!

[bandit957]

I put all sorts of cool stuff in tuna salad, including taco sauce, cheese, and horseradish sauce. I think I've even used onion powder and vinegar. Deelish!

[bing101]

Metric time explanation

[1995hoo]

The French First Republic attempted to introduce decimal time, and a decimal calendar, in the 1790s. It didn't work well at all for a host of reasons. Do a Google search for "French Republican Calendar" (or look it up on Wikipedia).

[triplemultiplex]

Oh yeah, I remembered a new beef about the customary system. I like to cook Tuna Helper sometimes, since my mom made it a bunch for me growing up so it's comfort food. My wife hates it, though, so whenever I cook it I only make it half a box at a time. The directions call for 1⅔ cup hot water and 3 tbsp butter, among other things.

So I'm halving this "recipe", which means I need half of 1⅔, whatever the hell number that is. The first time I did this, I got a deer-in-the-headlights look in my face, and just decided to measure out ½ cup, then ⅓ cup, taking two trips from the water dispenser to the skillet. This time, remembering this thread, I decided to sit down and figure out what 1⅔ ÷ 2 is. ⅚! Excuse me, I'm supposed to put ⅚ cup of water in this thing? I have never seen a sixth-cup measuring cup in my life. So that means the way I was doing it–two trips to the pan–was the only way I could have done it! What kind of ass-backward measuring system requires that?

1 cup is 236 mL, so ⅚ of a cup would be 197 mL. I could probably get away with rounding that up to 200 mL. At least that I have the tools to measure!

Same goes for my butter measurement: there is no way to measure 1½ tbsp, because I don't have ½ tbsp measuring spoons, only 1 tbsp and various fractions of tsp, and 1 tsp = ⅓ tbsp! At least I buy stick butter so I can measure it by the markings on the wrapper, but still...

Ah much easier to just make the whole batch and then have bomb leftovers.  Helper is great re-heated; all them flavors have time to soak into the noodles. Hells yeah.

[Scott5114]

To me, there is no such thing as a "bomb leftover". Reheated food (other than pizza) is repulsive to me, so if I make more than I can eat it just goes to waste (if I try to package up leftovers, I'll put off eating it long enough that it goes bad, so it's easier to not pretend like I'm going to, and just throw it away).

[kphoger]

The directions call for 1⅔ cup hot water and 3 tbsp butter, among other things.

I only guesstimate how much a tablespoon of butter is anyway.  It's, what, about the thickness of my finger or something?  It's no surprise that my wife does the baking...

Measuring the butter by the markings on the stick should work fine.  I never bother to weigh that, unless the stick has melted into an uneven shape.

There are no markings on the stick of butter.  The markings are on the wrapper, which is somewhere halfway down the trash can by the time I need to actually use the butter.  Whenever we use up a stick of butter, we get the next one out of the package, unwrap it, and put it in a butter dish (one in the fridge door, one left out at room temperature).

Besides which, half the time, we buy butter that doesn't even come in sticks–like the picture below.  We then cut it into sticks ourselves.

[kphoger]

Most people can make the counter space up by putting their spices in a cupboard where they belong, since the darkness helps keep them from going bad as quickly.

People keep their spices on the counter??  All my spices are in a rack, mounted to the wall in the back hall.

The toaster oven is on top of the mini fridge in front of the window.  On the counter are two big jars of cooking utensils (one for metal and one for plastic/wooden ones), the microwave oven, the Keurig, and some clear canisters of specialty baking ingredients for my wife's diet (with the extra bags stored in cupboards).  We only have one counter–half on the right side of the sink and half on the left.  No island, no secondary counter space.

We have an in-sink dish drainer.  By state regulation, kitchen knives are stored away in a locked cupboard (under the sink, along with cutting boards and baking sheets).  The canisters of regular baking ingredients are kept in the dining room on a baker's rack, along with the crock pot.  Less-used big things like the stand mixer and food processor are stored in the basement.  Trust me, we've already moved as much as possible off the countertop.

Considering that we have no need for a kitchen scale, why would we get one?  All our recipes are measured in cups, and we have those.  I know how to pack a cup of brown sugar and how to not pack a cup of flour.

Some kitchens are just very small.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words.

This is our kitchen, where we cook for our family of five.  Not a whole lot of counter space for the taking.

(taken on Saturday, hence the unlocked cupboard under the sink)

[webny99]

Some kitchens are just very small.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words.

[image of kitchen snipped]

Wow. That is a very small kitchen, possibly even the smallest I've ever seen (no, I have not had much exposure to small kitchens).

[kkt]

There are no markings on the stick of butter.  The markings are on the wrapper, which is somewhere halfway down the trash can by the time I need to actually use the butter.  Whenever we use up a stick of butter, we get the next one out of the package, unwrap it, and put it in a butter dish (one in the fridge door, one left out at room temperature).

Besides which, half the time, we buy butter that doesn't even come in sticks–like the picture below.  We then cut it into sticks ourselves.

You could take a new stick of butter out of the fridge and hold it next to the stick of butter in the dish to measure.  Or, what I do, keep the butter you cook with in the fridge so you can slice it off easily using the markings on the wrapper.

Otherwise, either guestimate or look up the weight of a tbsp of butter and weigh it.

If you cook a lot, I'd suggest splurging for the butter that comes in sticks with markings on the wrapper.

[kphoger]

If you cook a lot, I'd suggest splurging for the butter that comes in sticks with markings on the wrapper.

The butter without markings on it IS the splurge.  It's Irish butter, which is has a little higher fat content than regular butter.

... or look up the weight of a tbsp of butter and weigh it.

Are you spamming me?