Imperial or Metric system?

[ginnyfizz]

I happily use either system, depending on who and what I am dealing with. WHEN I CHOOSE TO. What I do object to is some bossy britches petty tyrant from the EU ordering me to buy my eggs by the gramme or my anything by the gramme/kilogramme. "Do it because we say so". Huh, or, "Aw, nuts!" as that American general magnificently said. That's the thing about Anglo Americans you see. Rebellious. Won't be dictated to. I cannot have my prize winning rich fruit cake recipe, handed down through the generations and darned delicious with a slice of Wensleydale cheese (as taken in the epicentre of English bloody mindedness, Yorkshire) metricated. It would just be WRONG. A slice of tradition packing at least 1000 calories. I have no idea what that would be in joules and I don't care.

[SilverDNA]

I'm thinking this is all about pride, fear and money that let's the Imperial System going on while the rest o the world has taken up the Metric System. In my opinion pride can keep back necessary progress for a longer time than it is good for anybody. The fear I see is to acknowledge that the times for the Imperial system is over, because the Metric System is more easily used. Money and time are needed to change from the Imperial to the Metric System.The people that would have the most trouble from that change would be those who have used only (and for a longtime) the Imperial System in life.

 

I believe in democracy and the world has decided to use the Metric System. In my opinion it would be better to throw the pride over board and invest some money and time to change to the metric system for the better of the people of the countries in which the imperial system is used. I think this could have a little side effect that imports and exports would be rising (not significantly but a little) over time.

 

@ ginnyfizz

 

1000 Kilocalories (kcal) = 4187 Kilojoule (kJ) and I'm eager to help you convert every cooking recipe to the metric system as well as to exchange my metric recipes to the Imperial and give them to you. :)

 

(I like to eat and thous I like to cook)

Edited July 17, 2010 by SilverDNA

[ginnyfizz]

The problem being, we are not forcing the rest of Europe to use the Imperial system and are happy to use metric in any kind of international transactions. We merely object to the EU telling us we can't use Imperial and must use metric at home. (I kid you not, two greengrocers became known as the Metric Martyrs due to them being persecuted for selling their fruit and veg by the pound) That's dictatorship. There are enough nutty EU food rules (like OMG no bent bananas) to fill one of my hazelnut, marmalade and chocolate cakes...(take half a pound of finest Belgian chocolate, one pound of marmalade, half a pound of hazelnuts, ground, etc, etc....)

[SilverDNA]

Yes, the EU food rules are funny and caused me to shake my head constantly about them. :wacko: Debates about Cucumber straight or bend in a special way lead me only to the conclusion that the EU officials have to much time and money to waste. :( I think this is a political decision that must come from the countries that use the imperial system. And I don't think that Britain should submit to those EU food rules. I don't like them either. I only think that common sense should be used to determine, if it is time to change to the metric system. To submit to EU rules stands for me on another paper ( In my personal objection Britain can change to the metric system and oppose the stupid EU food rules all in one.) So if I was misunderstood on my earlier post I ask to forgive me.

 

For me that would mean that I can speed up the sharing of some good recipes I gathered and share them with some friends in the US and Britain for I'm not knowing how much dry yeast the supermarket stacks in Britain or the US is selling to use with how much flour in basic (that's very time consuming to find out)

[Ninlil]

I happily use either system, depending on who and what I am dealing with. WHEN I CHOOSE TO. What I do object to is some bossy britches petty tyrant from the EU ordering me to buy my eggs by the gramme or my anything by the gramme/kilogramme. "Do it because we say so". Huh, or, "Aw, nuts!" as that American general magnificently said.

Where in europe people buy eggs by GRAMS? xD

I'm in Italy and the traditional packages were a dozen or half-dozen of eggs but now you can find chicken eggs in any pair number up to 12.

There, you can check yourself through this online shopping site. Click "visita libera al supermercato" = free supermarket tour. Latte, burro, uova = Milk, butter, eggs.

And as far as I know eggs weight (medium/big/small) only matter if you need more or less white, since the yolk weight do not change significantly.

[ginnyfizz]

I happily use either system, depending on who and what I am dealing with. WHEN I CHOOSE TO. What I do object to is some bossy britches petty tyrant from the EU ordering me to buy my eggs by the gramme or my anything by the gramme/kilogramme. "Do it because we say so". Huh, or, "Aw, nuts!" as that American general magnificently said.

Where in europe people buy eggs by GRAMS? xD

I'm in Italy and the traditional packages were a dozen or half-dozen of eggs but now you can find chicken eggs in any pair number up to 12.

There, you can check yourself through this online shopping site. Click "visita libera al supermercato" = free supermarket tour. Latte, burro, uova = Milk, butter, eggs.

And as far as I know eggs weight (medium/big/small) only matter if you need more or less white, since the yolk weight do not change significantly.

 

Nobody buys eggs by the gramme - yet. There is apparently another loopy rule in the pipeline, not yet law, that proposes we shall all buy our eggs by the gramme. At the moment, we can all buy our eggs in boxes of however many is the norm in our respective countries. But the EU wants to try and standardize everything and make us buy them by the gramme. With a bit of luck, most governments will say "Aw nuts" to this nutty proposal. All my recipes will specify something like "four standard eggs" or "six large eggs".

 

@SilverDNA - as to the question of dried yeast, certainly here it either comes on sachets or small tubs. Usually the former, so you would specify "one packet of..."

[Surenas]

Since 1996 EU eggs are sorted according to the following rules:

 

Grade

Grade A - fresh, for the public market

Grade B - fresh, for the industrial market

 

Keeping

0 - Bio

1 - Open Ground

2 - Free run

3 - Cage system housing

 

Weight class

XL - Extrem Large, 73g and above

L - Large, 63g up to 73g

M - Medium, 53g up to 63g

S - Small, below 53g

 

Number

e.g. 6 or 12 eggs in the pack

 

We rear medium heavy Dutch Barnevelder chickens.

Hope this helps the betties here.

Bon Appétit

[Ninlil]

Nobody buys eggs by the gramme - yet. There is apparently another loopy rule in the pipeline, not yet law, that proposes we shall all buy our eggs by the gramme. At the moment, we can all buy our eggs in boxes of however many is the norm in our respective countries. But the EU wants to try and standardize everything and make us buy them by the gramme. With a bit of luck, most governments will say "Aw nuts" to this nutty proposal. All my recipes will specify something like "four standard eggs" or "six large eggs".

In the past, they said yes to stupid measures regarding oil, chocolat and marmelade - hope they will leave eggs in peace, at least! :wacko: Edited July 17, 2010 by Ninlil

[Surenas]

Nobody buys eggs by the gramme - yet. There is apparently another loopy rule in the pipeline, not yet law, that proposes we shall all buy our eggs by the gramme. At the moment, we can all buy our eggs in boxes of however many is the norm in our respective countries. But the EU wants to try and standardize everything and make us buy them by the gramme. With a bit of luck, most governments will say "Aw nuts" to this nutty proposal. All my recipes will specify something like "four standard eggs" or "six large eggs".

In the past, they said yes to stupid measures regarding oil, chocolat and marmelade - hope they will leave eggs in peace, at least! :wacko:

 

Yeah - blown out eggs should never ever reach the market ! *g*

[ginnyfizz]

Yes I can certainly identify with the current system of EU labeling of eggs, which is clear enough and helps me in my boycott of eggs from caged hens. Ideally I would like to keep my own chickens so that they couldn't be metricated, but then I'd need a gun to keep off the foxes...

 

But anyway, on topic...seriously, there is no reason we can't run both systems. I used to do a fair amount of dressmaking and I still knit and do embroidery. If, for example, I wish to knit from an elegant French or Italian designer collection, the pattern will be expressed in grammes. So I look for balls of yarn accordingly. A robust traditional British pattern will be expressed in ounces if it is old, maybe in grammes if it is newer. For lace knitting (the Shetland wedding ring shawls for example) you need to look at the yards or metres per ball as well. Thus what I am saying is, this is a (literally) homespun example of how the two systems can work together.