If I have to add, say, a tablespoon of honey to some flour, I make a depression in the flour with the bowl of my tablespoon, then fill the divot in the flour with honey; works like a charm.
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Why the heck does America still use outdated measurement and date units?
- Thread starter garirry
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Nope. Just pour some in and have a spoonful whilst you are making it! I love honey. But since I don’t get on with bread I don’t eat much.
At most restaurants coffee is served in a glass of ceramic cup, but most coffee stands (the ones that have a drive thru lanes) coffee is served in paper cups. I sometimes have to ask the barista that I want an extra large cup of coffee. They often ask, "16 oz or 20 oz cup?"
I assume that all depends in the occasion. For example, when planning to drink coffee while enjoying the outdoors at a park, or maybe a campsite, I still enjoy drinking the beverages I like in paper cups. The vessel is not as important as the taste of the liquid in my mouth. Sometimes the drinks and foods I prepare at the campsite taste better out there, too. It's a state of mind, I guess.
Surprisingly I’ve found many coffee houses have some ceramic cups hidden behind the counter. And if you plan on drinking your coffee there, you can get it in a ceramic mug (instead of paper cup) by request
Starbucks. Just tell them you want a for here mug. At least that was the case before COVID.
Yes, we use scales too, and they are fine for weight. For volume, however, standard cups, spoons and a measuring jug are convenient, and the norm in kitchens everywhere.... probably including many around where you are.
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Nope, Nada, they aren't. Well, sure I have a measuring jug, in 100ml increments, and spoons in the cutlery drawer, and cups in the cupboard. Don't use the latter two to measure stuff.
Measuring jubs are used for liquids, usually water (which it's easier by weight), milk or perhaps wine but the rest is not measured by volume but by weight.
The rest being sugar, butter, flour and similar products.
Late to the party on this thread. U.S. born and raised, accustomed to Imperial Units but learned metric in elementary, and used it extensively in college (called Systems International there). Personal view:
1.) Metric is great if you want to convert units, such as Kg to grams to milligrams, etc...
2.) Most Americans in daily life don't do that much. One might know how many feet are in a mile, but it's rare in practical daily life we need to know or use that. Teaspoons to tablespoons is the main conversion in many people's lives, I think, and we don't do that often. Pints to gallons very rarely. We could argue acres to hectares, but I think few regular folks use hectares.
3.) Once a system is entrenched, it's very hard to pull out and replace. I have an intuitive grasp of Imperial Units, and to do Metric I do rough conversions. If you tell me any measure in Metric, you can bet I'm internally running it by this mental cheat sheet:
1.) 30 cm = 1 foot (2.54 cm = 1 inch).
2.) 10 m = 33 feet (thank you, scuba diving).
3.) 1 km = 0.6 miles.
4.) 1 kg = 2.2 pounds.
5.) A liter is a little more than a quart.
6.) Celsius degrees are 'bigger' than Fahrenheit degrees; 0 = freezing, 100 = boiling, 28 C = 82 F, somewhere in the 20-25 C range is around room temperature with 20 being chilly.
That said, we do have some metric use, mainly 2-L soda bottles, and syringes with 'CC's' (cubic centimeters or millimeters). Some tools are in metric.
Despite having used the metric system extensively, I wasn't raised in it and didn't make real world associations (e.g.: distance to a nearby grocery store, predicted temp. on a hot day) with it, so I have to mentally convert to Imperial to understand the significance of a metric measure.
All that said, many in other nations don't seem to see any hypocrisy in non-10's-based time measurement. We can't get around 365 1/4 days/year, but we could divide the day into 10 longer hours, make our weeks day days and months 10 weeks, yes? We could have 1 day = 10 hours, 1 hour = 10 minutes, 1 min. = 10 seconds, etc...
But nobody bothers or thinks much about it. They're content with what they know and it works for them.
1.) Metric is great if you want to convert units, such as Kg to grams to milligrams, etc...
2.) Most Americans in daily life don't do that much. One might know how many feet are in a mile, but it's rare in practical daily life we need to know or use that. Teaspoons to tablespoons is the main conversion in many people's lives, I think, and we don't do that often. Pints to gallons very rarely. We could argue acres to hectares, but I think few regular folks use hectares.
3.) Once a system is entrenched, it's very hard to pull out and replace. I have an intuitive grasp of Imperial Units, and to do Metric I do rough conversions. If you tell me any measure in Metric, you can bet I'm internally running it by this mental cheat sheet:
1.) 30 cm = 1 foot (2.54 cm = 1 inch).
2.) 10 m = 33 feet (thank you, scuba diving).
3.) 1 km = 0.6 miles.
4.) 1 kg = 2.2 pounds.
5.) A liter is a little more than a quart.
6.) Celsius degrees are 'bigger' than Fahrenheit degrees; 0 = freezing, 100 = boiling, 28 C = 82 F, somewhere in the 20-25 C range is around room temperature with 20 being chilly.
That said, we do have some metric use, mainly 2-L soda bottles, and syringes with 'CC's' (cubic centimeters or millimeters). Some tools are in metric.
Despite having used the metric system extensively, I wasn't raised in it and didn't make real world associations (e.g.: distance to a nearby grocery store, predicted temp. on a hot day) with it, so I have to mentally convert to Imperial to understand the significance of a metric measure.
All that said, many in other nations don't seem to see any hypocrisy in non-10's-based time measurement. We can't get around 365 1/4 days/year, but we could divide the day into 10 longer hours, make our weeks day days and months 10 weeks, yes? We could have 1 day = 10 hours, 1 hour = 10 minutes, 1 min. = 10 seconds, etc...
But nobody bothers or thinks much about it. They're content with what they know and it works for them.
Of course you don't..... The spoons you have in the cutlery drawer and the cups (and probably mugs) you have in the cupboard are not the standard spoons and cups used by cooks and bakers everywhere (except, it seems, your kitchen).
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We also call it (it's the proper name) international system.
Of course if you don't practice it everyday it never becomes something you are really comfortable with.
It's normal, probably also happened around here 200 years ago or something when the IS was adopted. Changing now would be probably harder as the world has a lot more numbers to juggle in your day to day.
Practice of course gives you simple numbers you keep in your head.
Neither system is inherently better to memorize stuff, you end choosing numbers that work. We memorize 100 kg, US citizens would use 240 pounds.
I would call 30⁰ a hot day. It also depends on the country, here we find 0⁰ really cold, I remember snow in 2004. 1 km is a reasonable walking distance, 100 kg is a heavy person, 2000 kg is an heavy car, 1,8 m is a good threshold for when someone starts to be considered tall and so on.
Ours are usually set with 100 grams markings. Some are sold in individual sticks.
But not all recipes use exactly 100 grams or an easy fraction and if you are already weighting the flour, the sugar, the whatever, it's easy to do things properly.
No they are not. I guess you are from the US, the world is a much bigger place.
Nope it's got gram markings for us...A spoon or cup of butter? That is just silly. I mean look at at that packing, in oz, tbsp, cups and then only 113g. Crazy...
It's general markings. A lot of American recipes will call for X TBSP of butter. For instance, Kraft Macaroni & Cheese (which comes packaged in a box with the macaroni and seasoning packet) asks for 4 TBSPs of butter.
I'm highlighting Mac & Cheese because this is easily one of the most prepared quick meals of any child or adult in America.
I guess we should celebrate cultural difference, but come on no Mac & Cheese should have butter in it, let alone 4 table spoons of butter 🤷♂️ LOL Let's go one further, no pasta should have butter in it period.
And then if there was a dish that requires butter, no natural butter used in cooking is that soft that you measure it by the spoon. If its not that important to have the exact amount or have it 'to taste' its a knob of butter, otherwise the weight in grams.
LOL I still can't get over putting butter in pasta, but I guess don't knock it until you try it ...
Mac & Chesse is one of those things I should try some day.
The other day made a PJ sandwich to see how it became so famous and while it is indeed a nice combination (used strawberry) I couldn't get why it is so famous. Perhaps it needs the magic of having your mother prepare it while you are a kid.
