lol brits

[Tsakali]

The rebirth of imperial measures: Why pounds are on their weigh back

It is with pleasure and astonishment that shoppers have found 1lb punnets of strawberries back on the shelves of Asda for the first time in 16 years - and not just because soft fruit is unusually early this year.
Pleasure because, despite four decades of attempts to make us go fully metric, most people in this country still feel more comfortable buying food in pounds and ounces.
The astonishment is that most of us thought we had no choice. Isn't everything now sold in kilogrammes, by law?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... -back.html

the devolution has began

[mrd]

Pretty weird. Over here in Canada everything is metric but it's spliced up to match neatly with the imperial system. Things are sold in 454g packages (what a nice fucking round number) simply because it equates 1lb for the muricans. Very few things are sold in nice numbers of 250g, 500g or 1000gs.

PS - What the fuck is a pound, how do they even figure that shit out before metric arrived? As far as I can see, some dude just grabbed random shit and decided it felt like a pound

EDIT: I will admit though, I feel fucking odd talking about lengths or heights in mm, cm or metres. I was raised on imperial in that regard and I'll probably always use it. When going up to distances for driving, etc., I tend to use km and miles interchangeably...

[Tsakali]

PS - What the fuck is a pound, how do they even figure that shit out before metric arrived? As far as I can see, some dude just grabbed random shit and decided it felt like a pound

that's actually exactly how it went down, "about a hand full of stuff". I just don't know what that handful consisted of.

whatever it was, it's probably connected to the british currency. so maybe we could investigate what you could purchase with 1 pound (and weighted a pound) around the time the currency was conceived and we'd have a winner

probably a pound of grain or something widely significant in the day to day living.

[seremtan]

PS - What the fuck is a pound, how do they even figure that shit out before metric arrived? As far as I can see, some dude just grabbed random shit and decided it felt like a pound

you could say that about any unit of measure

honestly, i don't know why people get so clouded by upsetism over this shit. if the daily mail (an unspeakable turd of a newspaper) were to be believed, the metric system represents nothing less than the yoke of foreign oppression. they're probably still butthurt about decimalisation

[Tsakali]

it's an ancient and barbaric system and it should be put to rest. besides who the fuck has a 12" foot?

[brisk]

I can confirm that the average brit doesn't give a shit about stuff like this. It's just a unit of measurement. The only thing we really look at when buying our strawberries is the price, not how much the fuckers weigh.

[Scourge]

it's an ancient and barbaric system and it should be put to rest. besides who the fuck has a 12" foot?

Shoe. And my shoes are 11 1/2 inches, but my feet are slightly smaller than average.

[duffman91]

it's an ancient and barbaric system and it should be put to rest. besides who the fuck has a 12" foot?

You won't make any friends drinking 473 milliliters of beer....

On a serious note, both systems are terrible. It's impractical to cook using metric units. It is impractical to perform arithmetic with imperial units. I've spent equal parts of my life using both. It's all about using the right tool for the job. One shouldn't be a pompous dickhead arguing which is better.

(EDIT: I'm not directing this at you Tsakali)

[Scourge]

I agree with that, they both have their uses.

[seremtan]

It's impractical to cook using metric units.

it is? how exactly?

[Yeahso]

Most British people don't give a shit about weights. I like fruits and vegetables to be in pounds and ounces, and my meats and sweets to be in grams and kilos.

Brisk is right though, we only look at the price.

[mrd]

PS - What the fuck is a pound, how do they even figure that shit out before metric arrived? As far as I can see, some dude just grabbed random shit and decided it felt like a pound

you could say that about any unit of measure

honestly, i don't know why people get so clouded by upsetism over this shit. if the daily mail (an unspeakable turd of a newspaper) were to be believed, the metric system represents nothing less than the yoke of foreign oppression. they're probably still butthurt about decimalisation

I don't really care about it either way and like I mentioned I use both depending on the task at hand. Imperial mostly just sucks for anything to do with math... 12in = 1ft, ~3ft = 1 yard?... etc... not very linear. At least with metric you can bounce around between units with zero effort.

[duffman91]

It's impractical to cook using metric units.

it is? how exactly?

Do you measure out the grams of sugar when you make coffee? Or do you go by the number of teaspoons used? Culinary arts are taught and practiced in the Imperial System. Even if the measuring device includes both units, cooking is performed via every day names:

3 teaspoons = 1 tablespoon
2 tablespoons = 1 ounce
4 ounces = 1 gill
2 gills= 1 cup (8 ounces)
2 cups = 1 pint (16 ounces)
2 pints = 1 quart (32 ounces)
4 quarts = 1 gallon (128 ounces)

Le Cordon Bleu is one of the top culinary schools in the world. While they teach both systems, the chefs will gravitate towards imperial due to the nature of every day speech. Also, 30 cups of juice is a tangible measure indicative of how much can be distributed, not 7 liters.

Edit: The most common measures -Teaspoon, tablespoon, and cups- are used in recipes in Chile, Colombia, Brazil, Paraguay, Jamaica, and Argentina. I've traveled to all of these (Metric countries) and have joined in the preparation of meals by locals. Even if they bought a kilo of rice, we're still measuring our portions in cups.

[seremtan]

Do you measure out the grams of sugar when you make coffee? Or do you go by the number of teaspoons used?

i don't put sugar in my coffee, but if i did, i'd use teaspoons not because of the alleged merits of the imperial system but because they are the most effective tool for a) transferring the sugar to the cup and b) stirring it. if the teaspoons in question happened to be metric teaspoons i wouldn't give a shit, since my coffee making isn't that scientific

i do however use an espresso maker, and teaspoons to put the coffee grounds into the filter, for the reason given above, and i measure it by eye, not by the imperial or metric system

however, it just so happens that in countries with a history of using imperial weights and measures, people use these for cooking. it's not as if there was a grand convention of chefs who, by way of rigorous empirical observation, were able to determine that imperial measures are superior to metric in the kitchen

this whole issue with the EU is a massive joke, really. some people in the UK spazzed out when the currency was decimalised back in 1970 or thereabouts. i wouldn't be shocked to learn that there were conservatives who thought measuring change in tuppences and shillings made infinite sense, while dividing your currency by 100 was the work of crazy people

also: 7 litres is as tangible as 30 cups, if you know what 7 litres looks like (which i do)

[duffman91]

it just so happens that in countries with a history of using imperial weights and measures, people use these for cooking. it's not as if there was a grand convention of chefs who, by way of rigorous empirical observation, were able to determine that imperial measures are superior to metric in the kitchen

...

also: 7 litres is as tangible as 30 cups, if you know what 7 litres looks like (which i do)

Did you even read what I posted? Other than Jamaica, none of the countries I listed as examples have any Imperial history. What about the part where I reference a top Culinary school from France? You know, France, the first country to adopt the metric system of all things? Or the part where you support my very argument by going on about how you don't give a fuck about measurements.

[Captain]

Do you measure out the grams of sugar when you make coffee? Or do you go by the number of teaspoons used?

i don't put sugar in my coffee, but if i did...

LOL

[Peenyuh]

Do you measure out the grams of sugar when you make coffee? Or do you go by the number of teaspoons used?

i don't put sugar in my coffee, but if i did...

[Tsakali]

THIS THREAD IS NOW ABOUT SEREMTAN'S SUGAR CONSUMPTION

[U4EA]

Honestly, now I'm thinking I should also feel bad for not putting sugar in my coffee :\

Also, another purported benefit of the imperial system comes courtesy of carpentry and suchlike: 1 foot [12 inches] can be trivially divided into halves, thirds and fourths consisting of whole inches whereas you run into the 3.33333333recurring issue in the metric system.

[Eraser]

Do you measure out the grams of sugar when you make coffee? Or do you go by the number of teaspoons used? Culinary arts are taught and practiced in the Imperial System. Even if the measuring device includes both units, cooking is performed via every day names:

But a cup isn't a tangible measurement either because how big, exactly, is your cup? What volume can it contain? Not every cup is the same.
Also, while cooking, experienced chefs don't go off measuring cups and spoons. They do it all by the eye. Besides, I have this perfectly well measuring cup that tells me exactly how many centiliters are in there.

[Don Carlos]

Do you measure out the grams of sugar when you make coffee? Or do you go by the number of teaspoons used? Culinary arts are taught and practiced in the Imperial System. Even if the measuring device includes both units, cooking is performed via every day names:

But a cup isn't a tangible measurement either because how big, exactly, is your cup? What volume can it contain? Not every cup is the same.
Also, while cooking, experienced chefs don't go off measuring cups and spoons. They do it all by the eye. Besides, I have this perfectly well measuring cup that tells me exactly how many centiliters are in there.

Ha! A cup is a meassure - you can get things that give you "1 Cup" or "1/2 a Cup"
I am laughing, but I thought the same as you for years

[Eraser]

Ha! A cup is a meassure - you can get things that give you "1 Cup" or "1/2 a Cup"
I am laughing, but I thought the same as you for years

Yeah I realize this, but the thing is, if you need a specific measuring tool to measure off a "cup", then the whole advantage of a cup being... well... a cup is lost, isn't it? I could make a cup that has a volume of 236 milliliters and write "236" at the measuring line instead of "1" and have exactly the same thing.

[werldhed]

Many countries (and chefs) do in fact cook using metric.

[Don Carlos]

I do most of mine by eye, unless it is pastry. Then you have to be accurate or you are fucked

[HM-PuFFNSTuFF]

i don't put sugar in my coffee, but if i did...

LOL

No thanks Turkish, he's sweet enough.