Cool ! Food Network is showing a British cooking show, and not dumbing it down for Americans

They're leaving in the metric measurements, such as "200 grams of ___" or "750 ml of _____" and "turn the oven to 160 degrees", and so on.

Good!!

And I hope all the stupid fucks, the ones too goddamned ignorant to deal with metric, or to ven realize that she's talking metric and not english units, fuck up their cooking when they follow her directions.

"I been cooking this turkey at 160 degrees for 16 hours, and it still ain't done!"

It's so much easier to deal with.

Because I'm not an idiot. And I don't think most Americans are, either. I know how to convert. I know that my car holds 50 liters of gas, that 21 degrees is room temperature, and that my house is 375 kilometers from my parent's house.

Anyone who uses that lame excuse that "WAAAAHHH! I won't be able to convert!!!" Is admitting that they're a fucking MORON.

You know who really killed the metric system in the US in the 70's?? The engineers. This nation's engineers killed it.

People who can't do simple math - I hate to say it, but they really don't deserve to be part of the modern world.

Fer fuck's sake, it's not difficult.

Units are units, and I don't see why one set is any better than another set. So why should people have to go to the bother of learning a new set and a set of conversions to go with them? I don't see the benefit.

For the record, Britain isn't properly metric. We have a strange mix of metric and imperial units. We sell foods in kilos and some liquids in litres, but we also measure distance in miles, sell milk and beer in pints, weigh people in stones and measure their height in feet and inches.

Edit: and we sell petrol in gallons, but just to add to the confusion our gallon is slightly larger than yours. This means that British MPG figures sound slightly better.

And I don't think that people who don't want to change are idiots who don't deserve to live, as some would have it. :eyes:

They'd just naturally wonder why introduce an extra complication in their lives for no obvious advantage?

But, hey, I'm an engineer. Apparently we've been engaged in a conspiracy to hold down the metric system for years in America. Fear us.

the English system requires MORE math skills than the Metric one. Any idiot (even a frenchman!) can divide by ten.

English units actually require you to use complex math reather than just multiplying and dividing by ten.

And people are just too goddamn stubborn to change their ways.

The engineers in this country killed it. And I know. I was an architecture student who had many professors with relationships with engineers. Even their engineer friends admit it.

I would imagine maybe it would be easy for them if they don't deal with internation situations, but for chemists, biologists, and physicists-- the idea of working in english units is just...weird.

They would simply not have it. One of my drafting professors from tech college was an example of these people. He was an old engineer, and just stubborn in his ways. He would tell me that it was for the best for this country that we didn't go metric. Bullshit.

Damn, we are? Shit, what have I been doing with my life? I didn't know I had all this power at my fingertips! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

aside from international standardisation. Is there really some reason why metric is actually BETTER? Apart from the fact that most other countries save the UK don't use English measurements, that is? The greater precision of metric makes it better for scientific use, but that's already universal, even in the US; for things like milk, or meat, or cloth by the bolt, quarts and pints, pounds and ounces, and yards and inches work just fine.

It is logical!! Everything is done by tens, rather than 12 (in to ft) or 16 (oz to lb). I work in biomedical research and, let me tell you, EVERYTHING is done in the metric system. My dad, who has actually worked in an engineering field his entire life, taught me the metric system when I was a kid and it helped me IMMENSELY to have that building block in school and such. If nothing else, it made learning to do math with decimels a HELL of a lot easier (tenths, hundredths, thousandths, etc!!). I saw so many people struggle to learn the decimal point system because it just doesn't translate to the US measurement system. Ask the average person to try to figure out conversions for something like pints to the gallon, etc, and you will get very few people who actually know. Since metric is the system used in the sciences, are we not doing a grave disservice to our children (future scientists, doctors, etc) by teaching it as secondary to US standard?

the measurement system of your target audience? :shrug:

(I assume you're talking about a show being broadcast on U.S. cable networks.)

Even in their heads.

situations requiring metric-to-Imperial conversion. That's because the U.S. uses the Imperial system, and there really is no good reason to change (and I say that as a scientist with a thorough familiarity with metric). So I really don't see it as a flaw if people haven't mastered on-the-fly metric translation, and I don't agree that people are stupid or unworthy if they have even zero familiarity with metric.

Really, I don't get this metric snobbery; is it just an excuse to take swipes at Americans, or do people really have intense, passionate, feelings about measurement units? :shrug:

of America.

I would have fully expected a cooking show being done in metric to have been redone, overdubbed, or have subtitles with imperial equivalents, just because so much is usually handed to Americans on a plate (so to speak) so that they don't have to think about it.

Newspapers writing at a fourth grade level, TV shows at junior high levels, our politicians speaking with all the finesse and clarity of a high school freshman, pop music that has no actual music in it - nothing to challenge the mind and make people to think about what they are hearing, and so on.

I don't whether Foodnetwork is taking a stand against the dumbing down of America, but by letting the metric measurements stand as they are (and to say to the viewership, 'Hey, if you don't know how to convert, maybe you ought to expand your mind and find out') is certainly a good step, as is Alton Brown's show and some others on that network.

It's easier to use; by definition that would be "dumbing down."

Not sure where you got that idea.

My argument is that if food network had made the conversions for their audience, that would be the dumbing down.

come on. you can approximate, sure, but really?

and quick, convert 20 ML to tablespoons in your head. remember, we're talking about baking here, being off by 5% will ruin your recipe.

and...go!

She rocks. :)

Great timing for me, as I may be buying a cookbook or two of hers. On sale today at Costco.

FOOD PORN!

I just appreciate a girl who deep fries candy bars. ;)

If deep fried mars bars are your thing why not just move to Scotland?

Why not indeed? ;)

where Leo is talking about his cooking show that he watches religiously.

Margaret says something like "Nobody has to massage meat that long."

I do have a question for you though. Mr. Wonderful and myself are leaving on Friday to spend Christmas with the in-laws in Northern Ireland.

I've been delegated to cook Christmas dinner and the oven in our house, it's rather old at this point, doesn't have degree marks on it. It has markings of gas marks like 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, etc.

Now because I am a dumb American and have been cooking turkeys for over 26 years at 325 degrees Farenheit, what gas mark would one use to make sure a 20 pound turkey is done in a somewhat reasonable time and cooked to a safe temperature? BTW, I'm bringing my American meat thermometer with me, just be on the safe side...

See this chart:

http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/gas-cookers-d_130.html

Believe me, you've just made my day... :hug: :hug:

you might even want to check you oven that "says" 325 to make sure that really IS the temp you think you are used to.

I don't have my conversion table on me.

- either Italian or French in origin. I can convert in my head if I need to, but I've got a set of measures and even a kitchen scale that sorts both Imperial and Metric.

with the expection of fish and chips and I guess roast beef with yorkshire pudding.

;)

My heart hasn't forgiven me, but DAMN that was good...

dining on raw poultry

Blah blah blah boo hoo hoo blah.

:eyes:

Agreed. Metric all the way.

Or shall we trot out the "but the rest of the world uses it" chestnut?

If you like metric that much, use it. Calculators are cheap these days.

It's the most compelling argument the English units people have. In fact, the only arguments I've heard are that "it doesn't feel right," and "metric is a communist plot."

Basically all you have to do is move decimal points. The Imperial system demands more thought and is not nearly as soft as the metric system.

Honestly though, I've never understood the passion over the issue. As long as the number system is standardized and people understand how it works, it really doesn't matter if we use decimal, Imperial, or base/32 and Madonna's cup size as our standard of measurement.

The only real advantage of the metric system is that it's easier to teach. Other than that, there's really no difference one way or the other.