Weights & Measures - USA vs the World

[RoJoHen]

Your way:
Buy a scale
Weigh a bowl
Calculate total weight of flour needed + weight of the bowl
Add flour until that weight is reached
Add flour to the recipe

My way:
Buy a measuring cup
Scoop flour with measuring cup
Add flour to recipe

And if people from other countries don't want to cry, they should just pay the 2 dollars for a set of measuring cups.

 

[Me-Ike]

Your way:
Buy a scale
Weigh a bowl
Calculate total weight of flour needed + weight of the bowl
Add flour until that weight is reached
Add flour to the recipe

My way:
Buy a measuring cup
Scoop flour with measuring cup
Add flour to recipe

And if people from other countries don't want to cry, they should just pay the 2 dollars for a set of measuring cups.

You don't need to wheigh the bowl, you just adjust the scale accordingly. The bowl is also needed anyway since you mix the ingredients in there, so I'd argue that someone using measuring cups needs to buy a bowl, too. And from then on you can always adjust the scale so that you can fill all the ingredients in one and the same bowl.
Not really more steps.

Remember, though, that people from other countries are absolutely naive when it comes to baking and didn't think that their doom would come in the form of a spoon. However, they might now be inclined to pay the two dollars.

 

[RoJoHen]

Your way:
Buy a scale
Weigh a bowl
Calculate total weight of flour needed + weight of the bowl
Add flour until that weight is reached
Add flour to the recipe

My way:
Buy a measuring cup
Scoop flour with measuring cup
Add flour to recipe

And if people from other countries don't want to cry, they should just pay the 2 dollars for a set of measuring cups.

You don't need to wheigh the bowl, you just adjust the scale accordingly. The bowl is also needed anyway since you mix the ingredients in there, so I'd argue that someone using measuring cups needs to buy a bowl, too. And from then on you can always adjust the scale so that you can fill all the ingredients in one and the same bowl.
Not really more steps.

remember, though, that people from other countries are absolutely naive when it comes to baking and didn't think that their doom would come in the form of a spoon.

1) I assumed that in each example both parties already had a bowl.

2) Adjusting the scale seems unnecessarily time-consuming.

3) Naive when it comes to baking? Really? Baking is so easy! Must be because we use spoons and cups...

 

[Me-Ike]

1) Sorry, misread your comment there. Thought you wrote buy a bowl.

2) You just fiddle with a tiny knob. Takes not even a second. Put bowl on scale, fiddle, done. That's the second it might take longer with a scale.

3) Naive when it comes to anything in the kitchen. Don't let the naivety of one individual fool you into misjudging the über-awesomeness of a scale, though.

 

[Emher]

Well we use the volume way here. Very handy and easy in my opinion.

Also forgot this but yes we use Celsius and not Fahrenheit. And our date format is DD/MM/YY.

 

[RoJoHen]

I will not say a scale isn't awesome, but cups and spoons are just so simple!

 

[RoJoHen]

Well we use the volume way here. Very handy and easy in my opinion.

Also forgot this but yes we use Celsius and not Fahrenheit. And our date format is DD/MM/YY.

You are clearly lost.

 

[Me-Ike]

I will not say a scale isn't awesome, but cups and spoons are just so simple!

Then I will rest easy tonight, knowing that in the important debate scale vs. cups we at least reached a semi-understanding.

So, about what Emher just mentioned. His way is obviously superior ...

 

[Emher]

Which one, the temperature or the date?

 

[Me-Ike]

Which one, the temperature or the date?

Both.
But to be honest, I'm only saying that because I'm used to it this way.

 

[Emher]

Well it's always easier then

 

[Me-Ike]

Arguing for arguing's sake is wholly underappreciated.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

Miles and yards are still the way to go on our roads. The metric system has yet to apply to that system. However, metres are often applied to pedestrian zones in some places, and in large institutions many of them have now gone the way of the 100cm stick. Some still use inches as the conversion to centimetres is easy to work out in one's head.

In terms of volumes, we've generally moved away from the complicated and various imperial systems and gone completely metric. However, I prefer using the term "millilitres" (or simply "mills") compared to "CCs".

Regarding masses, however, things are more contentious. The majority of adults in our current population cohort still live by ounces, pounds and stones, while us younger generation, and many modern businesses (such as my workplace) have gone metric. (Very often I've been asked by people to roughly work out the conversion between stones/pounds and kilograms, remembering that 70kg is roughly 11 stone.) However, there are some independent small businesses and shops who refuse to give up the imperial system and adopt the EU-wide metric system, and this has hit the headlines in recent times.

 

[ITL]

Miles and yards are still the way to go on our roads. The metric system has yet to apply to that system. However, metres are often applied to pedestrian zones in some places, and in large institutions many of them have now gone the way of the 100cm stick. Some still use inches as the conversion to centimetres is easy to work out in one's head.

In terms of volumes, we've generally moved away from the complicated and various imperial systems and gone completely metric. However, I prefer using the term "millilitres" (or simply "mills") compared to "CCs".

Regarding masses, however, things are more contentious. The majority of adults in our current population cohort still live by ounces, pounds and stones, while us younger generation, and many modern businesses (such as my workplace) have gone metric. (Very often I've been asked by people to roughly work out the conversion between stones/pounds and kilograms, remembering that 70kg is roughly 11 stone.) However, there are some independent small businesses and shops who refuse to give up the imperial system and adopt the EU-wide metric system, and this has hit the headlines in recent times.

I have to admit that I think in miles, stones, pounds and ounces - not their metric equivalents. But as the decimal monetary system was brought in when I was a small child, I cannot for the life of me figure out "old money".

 

[Zulu Romeo]

I'm glad to have never known the old British monetary system, although some of the very old school textbooks and sheet music I read in childhood used that system, plus my mother used to keep the old coins (some of them even with Good King Bertie himself on the flipside) from before I was born.

 

[ITL]

I'm glad to have never known the old British monetary system, although some of the very old school textbooks and sheet music I read in childhood used that system, plus my mother used to keep the old coins (some of them even with Good King Bertie himself on the flipside) from before I was born.

The infant school I went to allowed the use of an old thruppence in the tuck shop for a couple of years after decimalisation, for some reason. That's the only time I remember using old money...

EDIT:

After thinking about it, it may have been the old sixpence we used, as it was a pre-decimal coin that was still legal tender until 1980. But in any case, I was exposed to a small amount of pre-decimal coinage.

 

[Shaytan]

Seriously. If I saw a recipe that called for, I dunno, half a pound of flour (although I guess it would be in kilos or something equally outrageous), I'd be like, "Okay, so how many cups is that?"

Whereas if I saw a recipe that called for a cup of flour, I'd pick up my cup and scoop up the flour. My way involves fewer steps.

Not with the right tool :

 

[Holdfast]

As usual, people like what they're used to.

Personally, I find American cup/spoon-based measurements a real pain, esp. for baking where precision matters. Kitchen scales are just as quick & easy to use and far more accurate. For other cooking though, it doesn't make much difference, since it doesn't really matter how much you use.

More generally, I think in inches and miles for distance, though can't cope as well with yards and am equally fluent in cm and metres (though not kilometres). Weights - pounds and stones mean the most to me, though I can also work in kilos OK. Temperature - celsius; farenheit is unintelligible and I always need to convert it mentally.

I'm very glad I never had to cope with Lsd - decimalised currency is so much easier.

 

[Miss Chicken]

I grew up using imperial measures but I adapted to metrics quite easily. The use metric measures for nearly everything except for people's heights and baby birth weights.

 

[Aurian]

Your way:
Buy a scale
Weigh a bowl
Calculate total weight of flour needed + weight of the bowl
Add flour until that weight is reached
Add flour to the recipe

My way:
Buy a measuring cup
Scoop flour with measuring cup
Add flour to recipe

And if people from other countries don't want to cry, they should just pay the 2 dollars for a set of measuring cups.

Ha ha.. that is exactly what I did many years ago when I got tired of recalculating everything.
Ofcourse.. it is easy. One can also google for conversion charts. Or just use a scale if you have the weight shown in the recipes. My new kitchen assistant has a scale built in. Love it.