chefz.net

I grew up with the metric system. A world of logic meters centimeters, grams, kilograms, liters, and centigrade. Water freezes at 0 degree Celsius and boils at hundred degrees. 1 liter water equals (at least for cooking purposes) 1 kg. 10 cubic centimeters, or 1 cubic decimeter equals 1 liter water equals 1 kg water. Easy

Recipes were easy to replicate and just made sense, until I learned there are places where we have ounces and cups and Fahrenheits. Well the to the temperature I adapted rather easily. On the other hand those ounces and cups are still a challenge for me after 9 years. It is mind blowing to me how weights are measured in volume. Considering that sifted flour weights 30% less than tightly packed flour. Oh and here I got a recipe asking for 1 cup of dry spaghetti. So should I break them apart and and fill up the cup. Again how small should I break the spaghetti? or should I take a hand full of them and stack them into the cup? What if my measure cup is tall and narrow, or shallow and wide? Both are a cup in volume but certainly the amount of spaghetti i need to fill the cup will vary vastly. Then you see a recipe asking for a can of…. Now what is that any good for me. Most our cans are #10 cans. Now I have to find out if this is a industrial/commercial/professional recipe or was it adapted to home use. Is it the can from Vons, Albertsons or Costco or 99c market. Maybe it is from a store we don’t even have here out in the west coast.

Well I am a chef and could figure these things out by myself, wasting valuable time. I slowly see new cookbooks emerging with both cups and imperial and/or metric measures. Even it is the step in the right direction I still find it hard to comprehend why solids are measure in volume. Like the other day I had a recipe asking for 1 cup/ 125ml of grated bitter chocolate. If a writer goes through the trouble of giving us both measure would it be to much to ask for to put the chocolate on a scale and tell us what the exact weight is? Please.

Whenever I develop recipes or a cook asks me for one I give it to them in metric. I know that there is a little margin of error.

Liquids are given in weight or g if less then 1liter, or in volume when over 1 liter (too hard to measure dl or ml), solids in (kg or g). No questions, no guessing, and everybody can replicate them with ease.

Well on only margin of error is if someone does not know his measures or what metric is. That on the other hand can be thought rather easily