[Fulkth]

http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/...2-2298b984c1c0

I am sold on the orange spice drop cookies! Only because the reviews are good and it was the 2006 Prize winning recipe.

For some odd reason, I thought the orange sprinkles was grated orange peel. 8D

[Monorea]

Sigh........why can't the whole world just use the metric system? I hate when cooking use other measurements.

[Tas]

because America likes to be difficult.

[Monorea]

Sigh......crazy americans

[Fulkth]

lol, I know what you mean.

I was looking up a recipe for a beef mince pie...

and the measurements were all wrong!

1) 375g beef mince.
Ugh, how many pounds is that? O.O

2) 250ml beef stock.
I got this! I usually work in cups, but there's ml on the other side of the measuring cup that I never use! 8D

3) Heat oven to 180 C.

I say to my husband:
Me: What does the C stand for? Does it stand for Calvin?
Husband: No Kelvin starts with a "K". They're probably talking about Celcius. XD

[Espy]

See, what's even worse is, I'm studying mechanical engineering, and...mech eng has a tendency to do things in English units.

It is the most horrible thing ever :|

How the hell am I supposed to remember what a slug is, or atm conversions, or horsepower, or calories, or pounds verses pound-force....

[Tohopekaliga]

Because MURIKA.

Or something, I dunno.

I try to use metric, but that's hard in good ol' MURIKA.

I do remember that 180C is around 350F, though.

[Coda]

Pounds versus pounds-force is easy, at least. On Earth, an object of mass x pounds is affected by x pounds-force of gravity (which can also be said "weighs x pounds" which is where the confusion comes in). Fortunately you only need to specify pounds-force when there's an ambiguity (or on tests).

One small advantage of using the Imperial system when cooking: We have a concept of dry volume, which means we can scoop things like flour or sugar into measuring cups and dump it into the bowl. Most recipes using metric use mass, which means you have to use a kitchen scale to measure flour and sugar. Sure, this has the advantage of being more precise because you don't have to worry about whether it's packed or fluffy, but you lose the advantage of being able to compare volumes of dry vs. wet ingredients. ("One cup of milk, one cup of flour, okay, those are equal!" "150g of flour, 150mL of milk... are those equal? I have no idea.")

[Tas]

pounds and pound-force measure different quantities anyway, so it's not really a conversion. One measures weight and the other measures force.

[Espy]

Huh, good point w the dry volume.

Also, lb vs lbf is a distinctive that always needs to be made in assignments and exams. Or, at least, you need to figure out which one the problem's talking about.

The one thing I like about Imperial system is temperature. Fahrenheit's better on the scale of weather and the human body. You can say that the temperature will be in the "50's", and I'll immediately know to grab a sweater or a peacoat, but not a scarf or too many layers under that outerwear. On the other hand, if you said the temperature will be in the teens, in Celsius, that could be anything from sweater weather to "oh god I'm going to fry in this sweater". (For me, 68F is way too warm a temperature to be wearing a sweater.)

I think someone (tumblr? FB? I forgot where) described it as sort of a "percentage of hot". For example...

50F is like...50% hot. Eh, not too bad, could be worse, but you might be chilly going out without proper, erm, insulation.

70F is 70% hot. Not bad at all. Definitely comfortable.

100F is 100% hot. Help. Dying. Someone turned the weather heater all the way up and I'm frying.

30F is 30% hot. Which is very not-hot. Jackets should definitely be a thing. Scarves should also be a thing.

0F is 0% hot. Don't go outside because you won't feel like moving and eventually you'll freeze into part of the landscape.

[Coda]

Weight is force. One measures mass.

EDIT: Espy, that isn't by coincidence. The Fahrenheit scale was originally calibrated using the temperature of the snow on a cold winter's day in northern Europe for the zero point, and Fahrenheit's own body temperature at the time for the 100 point (apparently he was sick, which is no surprise in that weather).

[Tas]

derp, yes, that's what I meant to say. >.<

US customary units always make it confusing when it comes to mass and weight.

[Espy]

Originally Posted by Coda

Fahrenheit's own body temperature at the time for the 100 point (apparently he was sick, which is no surprise in that weather).

....That is gold.

HAH! See, that just proves mass and weight and force get really confusing, really fast.

[Fulkth]

I made hamburger helper and potstickers for dinner!

The potstickers came frozen in a box, but I made the dipping sauce from scratch!

[Tas]

sounds yummy!

[Fulkth]

I was thinking about saving my husband some potstickers, but I am just going to eat them all before he gets home! 8D

He can have all of the hamburger helper.