Monday, November 7, 2011

Butter Math

Being whacked upside the head with the metric system is all part of living outside the US. Much like learning a new language, you get tired of converting everything, so you just learn to think in metric. If you keep a couple of simple conversion factors in mind it’s not that tricky. A kilo is 2.2 pounds, so you can half the kilo amount to know approximately how many pounds you’re dealing with. A mile is 1.6 kilometers so 1.5 is close and makes for easier math as does the 2.5 centimeters that translate into an inch. Volume are a bit trickier at 3.7 liters per gallon, but milk comes in one and two liter jugs, so you don't need to think about that one and gas in ridiculously expensive in any measure so doing the math on gas purchases only causes pain and anguish and should generally be avoided.

I will admit to a couple of translation glitches early in my life here in Australia. Fortunately beef mince (hamburger) freezes. I needed 2 pounds and asked the butcher for 2 kilos. I knew as soon as he set the mammoth bag of meat on the counter that I had messed up but was too embarrassed to say anything, so I lugged my 4 and half pounds of meat to the car and went home and stocked up the freezer.

The only time I now get stumped is in cooking. The old imperial system of measure has a few quirks that present some challenges. Butter is the best example. Butter is measured in tablespoons in the US which is actually a measure of volume. Measuring a solid glob by volume is a bit wonky when you really think about it and measuring by weight makes much more sense. In the US it doesn’t really matter because butter comes in handy little paper wrapped sticks with the tablespoon lines clearly marked.

Where it gets interesting for us foreigners is when we buy a package of butter, and when it comes time to use it, we discover that it’s a solid 400 gram block of butter and not four individually wrapped quarters. That means it’s time to do a bit of math. You’ll will need to convert from the measure of volume (tablespoon) required by the recipe to the number of grams you’ll need to carve off the big honking chunk o’ butter laying on your counter (Cooking in metric necessitates a set of kitchen scales.
The metric conversion tool on my computer quickly tells me that 6 tablespoons equates to 5.41 cubic inches. Being me, I grab a ruler and start measuring the chunk O’ butter think this won’t be exact but I can make it work. As I start scratching numbers on a piece of paper and adding decimals, it occurs to me that I can’t possibly be the first person with this conundrum. I cruise back to the computer and type in “metric conversion, butter” and Shazam – a butter converter magically appears on my computer screen. It’s amazing and will connvert portions of butter I’ve never even heard of – double sticks, half sticks and even dekagrams for gosh sakes. It gives you the answer but also the conversion factor if you are a true nerd or just an inquiring mind. Did you know that 1 tablespoon of butter equals 14.18 grams?

It a great tool and way easier than carving up 5.4 one inch cubes of butter!

2 comments:

lovesuperkarma said...

it been awhile i read the word Shazam........ that like old school

Not that i am saying you are old or anything grease lightning

Rado said...

Thank you very much for writing nice words about my butter measuring-amounts converter. Often I have to use it myself, as you've mentioned, it's much faster measure it by grams on a kitchen scales.