Here comes the metric system... or does it?

[_19disnA]

It's not that metric that is more accurate for baking, it's the measuring by weight instead of volume.

I agree. You can still decide to weigh some ingredients where that matters by either ounces or grams, which system you use makes no difference. Some items like flour can weigh more or less depending on the humidity in your house and how much moisture it might have absorbed. Often times even that doesn't matter since most yeast recipes also call for a bit more/less flour to get a 'smooth' dough. Other ingredients like sugar, molasses or chocolate don't need to be weighed since humidity doesn't change their weight or volume. Honestly, for home baking, it isn't a scientific lab so whether you choose to use a proven recipe where ingredients are listed by weight or volume is unlikely to impact the final result.

It is a different issue if you find some random recipe on the internet from a person in a different country where their measuring system isn't obvious. For the vast majority of recipes you find on major cooking websites, that isn't an issue.

 

[RedAngie]

I also learned metric in the 70s in school. We were told it would be vital to know it.

(We were also encouraged to enroll in Japanese or Russian for foreign language classes.)

I still remember most of what I learned concerning temperature, weight, distance, speed, etc. and can convert to a fairly accurate degree in my head.

But we never did learn culinary conversions. I have no idea how many ml a teaspoon of vanilla is or how much volume a cup of flour is. As for weights in baking, a cup of sugar weighs more than a cup of oatmeal when baking cookies. (Just like a pound of lead weighs more than a pound of feathers. )

A leftover of good intentions is Delaware Highway 1. It was planned in the 70s but wasn’t finished until the late 90s. The exit numbers are still based on kilometers from the state’s southern border, but markers and signs along the road are listed in miles.

I think Interstate 19 in Arizona does the same.

 

[Chili327]

I remember briefly trying to learn metric in elementary school, only for it to be abandoned the next year.


I don't watch much SNL anymore, but this was sent to me and I died laughing! So funny, and absolutely true.

Hilarious... I'm crying. lol

I also learned metric in the 70s in school. We were told it would be vital to know it.

(We were also encouraged to enroll in Japanese or Russian for foreign language classes.)

I still remember most of what I learned concerning temperature, weight, distance, speed, etc. and can convert to a fairly accurate degree in my head.

But we never did learn culinary conversions. I have no idea how many ml a teaspoon of vanilla is or how much volume a cup of flour is. As for weights in baking, a cup of sugar weighs more than a cup of oatmeal when baking cookies. (Just like a pound of lead weighs more than a pound of feathers. )

A leftover of good intentions is Delaware Highway 1. It was planned in the 70s but wasn’t finished until the late 90s. The exit numbers are still based on kilometers from the state’s southern border, but markers and signs along the road are listed in miles.

I think Interstate 19 in Arizona does the same.

Same with Algebra, Trig, etc.

 

[tvguy]

(We were also encouraged to enroll in Japanese or Russian for foreign language classes.)

Some of the High Schools (early 1970's) here were encouraging students to take Esperanto. There was a push to make this the international language. I'm still waiting for that to happen. I studied Spanish, started learning it in first grade, and took it as a dedicate class in grades 7 through 12. 50 years later, I think I have lost almost all that. I took a class in college that traveled to Germany and we met a Austrian businessman who wondered why Americans bother learning any foreign language because, as he put it, we already speak the international language. He traveled all over what was then the Eastern Block including the Soviet Union and said all his business was done in English.

​

 

[Neapolitan Ice Cream]

I remember briefly trying to learn metric in elementary school, only for it to be abandoned the next year.


I don't watch much SNL anymore, but this was sent to me and I died laughing! So funny, and absolutely true.

That is hilarious!

 

[goofyernmost]

Why is it that the United States of, I can't stand change, America cannot even advance enough to adopt a system that is already world wide and stop being so damn stubborn about it? Yes, I know that we are all used to our own system but it is antiquated and something we should at least try to change. Instead of thinking we are ahead of the world all the time I think that we should at least try to advance to where everyone else is. It is happening anyway bit by bit. Why not just cut bait and make the change? Pretty soon only scientists and auto mechanics will understand metrics but the rest of us will be lost.