Why shouldn't we go metric?

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Posted at 11:45AM, 05 March 2008 by Mary Cadogan - Food writer

Whenever I pluck up the courage to suggest we start writing recipes in metric only, I usually end up running for cover. Why is this, I wonder? After all, once you get used to working in metric it's so much easier than imperial, and schools have been teaching metric measures for at least three generations now.

Working in tens and hundreds is far more practical than figuring out pounds and ounces. For example, if you want to make shortcrust pastry the formula is half fat to flour so that means 500g flour to 250g butter, or 1lb 2oz flour to 9oz butter. Halving it is easy in metric but not so simple in imperial (9oz flour to 41/2oz butter). Halving or doubling up quantities is a total breeze in metric. Also, recipes look much simpler and aren't we all after more simplicity in our lives?

Plans to change to the metric system were proposed by the government in 1965 and we've been faffing about ever since. When we changed to decimalisation in 1971 everyone moaned for a few days, then just got on with it.

If only we could just bite the bullet with metrication it would be so much easier than the wasteful dual system we are battling with at the moment. I challenge anyone to try going metric for a week and see how they get on. I reckon they'll like it a lot. We have been buying fruit and veg in metric weights since 2000 and pretty much everything else is now sold in grams and kilos so metrication also means less weighing and measuring, just tip in a whole bag of this, half a bag of that, and no little annoying bits left in the bottom of the pack.

The most recent deadline for the changeover is 2009, but it wouldn't surprise me if this date was extended yet again. In the 1970s, Australia converted to the metric system quickly and without too much fuss, surely we can do the same?

Comments

21-34 of 34 comments

kindregards

10 March 2008, 4:09PM
kindregards

This might shock a few but being brought up in the very late 80' and 90's... (yes that means I'm in my 20's now) I use imperial for cooking and weighing because when I lived at home the scales were imperial. My mother works by it and when I helped her out that's what I used. I only ever use the metric system to work out height because it's easier to imagine a metre stick than a foot. Let's have both! I can't see it causing anyone any harm!

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carrot

11 March 2008, 12:07PM
carrot

What an interesting debate. As an Australian grown up with imperial measurements and forced to learn metric relatively late in life, I can commiserate with people trying to hang onto the familiar. Yet, what I do not understand is why some people want to keep 2 measuring systems? That sounds rather self-serving considering that most promoters of this idea prefer imperial anyhow? Maybe tolerating metric in brackets makes them appear fair-minded and relieves them of learning something new? What advantages do dual measurements offer, none at all? Using and teaching two systems is expensive and leads to generations of British children being semi literate in both. Itâ��s an unnecessary layer that causes often-costly mistakes especially in hospitals were incorrect dosages lead occasionally to death. So, what is wrong with sacrificing some comfort to make life easier for future generation?

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Stephanie

11 March 2008, 12:30PM
Stephanie

This is going to make you laugh! Listen very carefully next time you happen to walk through a french market, natives do buy by the 'livre' (direct translation of lb), and a 'livre de carottes' is exactly 500g! I use the metric system. I find it easy to work with but i think the imperial system is still necessary. Give it some time and it will probably disappear by which time i will be long gone!!! In the meantime lets have both.

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lindyloo

16 March 2008, 6:33PM
lindyloo

I do lots of baking and i'm happy to use either system however until recently i only had imperial weights for my scales so would have been stuck if recipes had been given in only metric as i am sure is the case for many who like me, till recently, only have the one set of weights and can't afford to buy others.

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thisediblelife

17 March 2008, 10:04PM
thisediblelife

I'm a catering student and this week have my theory exam for which I have to learn conversions by heart. I have never used imperial in my life and none of the recipes we use in class use imperial quantities either. Imperial, like the empire itself should be a thing of the past! I think much of it comes down to age. The majority of under 30s are probably happier to use metric rather than imperial while older generations who were more accustomed to using imperial in their daily lives are clinging on to something they are more familiar with. All I can say is that we should look forwards and not backwards and use whatever will make things easiest for future generations.

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carrot

18 March 2008, 10:45AM
carrot

"thisediblelife I'm a catering student and this week have my theory exam for which I have to learn conversions by heart." Multiply that by x thousand nation wide, what an utter waste of time, money and effort. Had Britain followed its proposed conversion time to metric, everybody would happily speak in grams, litres, metres and km now. Let's face it, initially you only have to learn 6 or 7 daily used units to get by. The rest you can lpick up as you need them. Even older people can manage that. So what is all the fuss about? Stephanie, 500 g are 500 g whether you call them livre, or as the Germans still do, Pfund.

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Francis

18 March 2008, 3:47PM
Francis

I remember that NASA flew a Mars Explorer satellite into Mars due a distance error between converting miles to kilometres on a joint mission between US and European space agencies. Now baking a cake isn't space exploration, but just because the fate of the free world is not dependent on the volumetric success of your recipe doesn't mean that having dual systems doesn't create overhead. In IT it is very difficult to accommodate multiple different systems - whether it is languages, measurements or Starwars and Star Trek nerds. Whilst the cultural importance of language is valid forcing publications to use dual measurement systems for the sake of communicating with grandma is in a different league.

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carrot

18 March 2008, 11:55PM
carrot

That sounds like metric will only take hold when all old people have died :-)

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Charmers

19 March 2008, 9:58PM
Charmers

I use both, why should we let go of everything we have always used & done in England. Why? Love England & everything that came with its past. If we followed the past a little more England may not be in the mess it is now. Keep imperial, use it, love it & teach the kids both.

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carrot

23 March 2008, 2:54AM
carrot

Some past customs and concepts are not worth preserving and cumbersome measurement units fall into that category. Italy and all other metric countries, as history shows, have not lost one iota of their cultural heritage since they abandoned medieval units more than 100 years ago. Your attitude seems to be driven by an exaggerated sense of patriotism that hangs on to anything irrespective of its usefulness, as long as it is English?

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Chez Coco

26 March 2008, 6:44PM
Chez Coco

As a foreigner I should probably stay out of this discussion, but if you do wish to keep the quaint but lovable habit of dual systems, please be more careful about what you put in receipe books. For instance: Jamie Oliver is obviously an imperial boy. This leads to funny receipes where 'take a slug of, a handful of' Oliver suddenly recommends us metricians to use 255 ml (9fl oz, now that sounds more like the Jamie we know and love!) of cream, 310 grammes of that ... I always have to check and interprete whether I should measure exactly or can use 250 ml cream, as sold here. The worst example: a writer spending half a page to explain that the perfect shortbread receipe was 2 : 4 : 6 - 2 ounces of sugar, 4 of butter and 6 of flour. This was then 'translated' intro metric as 60 g - 125 g - 175 g. Not very smart! If only cookbook editors would think a bit more ... (By the way, 2:4:6 is delicious, for metricians, I use 60 g, 120 g and 180 g. Scoffed up by 3 or 4 in one sitting)

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Hanna

27 March 2008, 9:33AM
Hanna

I'm totally with Chez Coco in this one!

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Annie

28 March 2008, 11:16AM
Annie

I can cope with metric and imperial - it's when there are recipes with half a cup of this and two cups of that which throw me!

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Bookboy

20 February 2009, 9:24PM
Bookboy

Francis wrote: "I remember that NASA flew a Mars Explorer satellite into Mars due a distance error between converting miles to kilometres on a joint mission between US and European space agencies. " The Mars Climate Orbiter was not a joint mission. It was a mix-up between NASA, which used metric, and a subcontractor (Lockheed Martin), which used inch-pound units. The confusion was over units of force, not distance. Lockheed Martin's software was reporting pounds-force when it should have been reporting newtons. Within NASA the scientists have long used metric, while the engineers used inch-pound units up till this point. The mission, costing $125 million, is a good example of why using two different systems of units at the same is bad idea!

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