Thread: God Save the Queen!

I have tried to bake according to Imperial and it's really hard!

I'm a bit surprised by this comment -- I don't think there's anything intrinsically harder about baking in Imperial than baking in metric!

Well, admittedly, it could be difficult if you were trying to follow an old Victorian-era cookbook that called for "a gill of milk" (~0.1 L) or "a half-peck of apples" (~4.5 L). But I can guarantee you that in any modern (post-WWI) American recipe, almost everything will be measured by the "standard cup" (~240 mL) or fractions of a cup -- or for flavorings used in very small quantities, such as black pepper or ground mustard seed or oil of peppermint, by the "standard teaspoon" (~5 mL).

There are exceptions to this: fresh meats, such as beef or chicken, are usually measured by weight. And butter is measured sometimes by weight and sometimes by volume, so that one recipe may call for "a quarter-pound of butter", while another recipe calls for "a half-cup butter" -- yet the amount of butter is the same in both cases.

On the other hand, I agree that trying to convert an Imperial recipe to a metric recipe can be tricky -- for example, if you have a US recipe for chocolate cake that gives the oven temperature in Fahrenheit, but you're in a UK kitchen and the oven has Celsius or "gas marks". Also, granular or powder ingredients (flour, sugar, rice) are invariably measured by volume (cups) in American recipes, but by weight (grams) in many European recipes.

However, if you're using an American cake recipe with standard American measuring cups and an American stove, than "baking with Imperial units" is as simple as can be!

Originally Posted by Throbert McGee

However, if you're using an American cake recipe with standard American measuring cups and an American stove, than "baking with Imperial units" is as simple as can be!

It does not seem so easy when you live in a country with different standard cups. )) The Russian segment of Internet is filled with cries of distraught Russian women: "How many grams are in a cup"? There's also a lot of hatred towards sticks of butter and ambiguous "portions" on the backs of American food boxes.

Originally Posted by gRomoZeka

It does not seem so easy when you live in a country with different standard cups. )) The Russian segment of Internet is filled with cries of distraught Russian women: "How many grams are in a cup"? There's also a lot of hatred towards sticks of butter and ambiguous "portions" on the backs of American food boxes.

To these women, I strongly recommend this site: The Metric Kitchen -- it includes a rather detailed table of cup/gram equivalents for non-liquid ingredients. 1 cup of flour = 120 g, 1 cup of white sugar = 200 g, 1 cup of butter = 240 g.

Also, note that in the US, a "stick" of butter is completely standardized: 1 stick = 1/2 cup = 8 Tablespoons = 1/4 pound = 240 grams.

But I agree that the "portions" on American food containers are ridiculous, and almost always too small for a normal adult. (Obviously, they use small portion sizes to make the food seem lower in fat and calories. But sometimes, foods that are naturally low in fat/calories will use unrealistically large portions to make the amount of fiber, proteins, and vitamins seem higher.)