Stupid French measurements

Yes! We use cl in recipes a lot more than ml, it’s just a question of what you’re used to. Remember these measures aren’t a foreign novelty for us :slightly_smiling_face:

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If you read the small print (thinking the bricodepot catalogues) they tell you to add so much to the width and height of the windows to get the actual size.

Hmmm. ‘Should’ being the operative word. Our local timber yard has big labels stapled to the stacks declaring the size. One only has to look at the stuff labelled 100 x 50 to know immediately that it is considerably smaller than stated. Taking a tape measure is essential, especially as one stack can differ from another by a noticeable and constructionally inconvenient amount.
By the way, I’ve always found the actual overall size of windows and doors to be larger than the size stated.

Presumably because someone somewhere can’t do the math so that they can publish the real actual size in the catalogue.
(Yes Sir. These shoes should fit you nicely. They are size 10.25 + 0.75. ) Just plain crazy.

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^ This. I always take mine to DIY / Brico sheds.

Sheet materials seem to be the right size usually but lumber not so much. With sheet stuff I take a cutting diagram and ask for it to be cut to size in-store, as not many cars can accommodate 8ft x 4ft (2440mm x 1220mm) sheets of plywood etc.!

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You’ll be talking to 360 million Americans, for starters. I’m a big fan of the NYT cooking section. It’s very tedious having to translate degs F to degs C and various kitchen utensils used as measurements - cups, a variety of spoons - into real measurements and then divide by 4 or 6 to get the quantity for 1.

They could add the ‘real’ units to all those cups nonsenses - their readership is worldwide - but they don’t. The USA is so parochial.

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The USA voted to go Metric in 1975. They only made it voluntary which meant no one could be bothered to change.

From my casual observations on YouTube, American recipes require chucking everything into a pan (sorry skillet} and plastering it in cheese. it’s not even proper cheese.

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I hate kilometres. My cars and motorcycles I use the miles and mpg settings. I’ve memorised the km to miles important numbers for speed limits.

KMs there are too many of them, in KMs everything changes too quickly.. there are almost twice as many to a mile.

And the pointless changes in speedlimit of 10kmh.. that’s just 6 mph. Ridiculous and pointless. 80kmh to 70kmh limits!

I call KMs clicks anyway..

Thought you might be amused by the variety of measurements in this sauce gribiche recette that I used this morning (for green asparagus):-

huile de tournesol

30 cl d’ huile de tournesol


moutarde

2 cuillères à café de moutarde

vinaigre

2 cuillères à soupe de vinaigre

persil

1 cuillère à soupe de persil haché

poivre

poivre

sel

sel

oeuf

2oeufs

cornichons

2 cornichons

câpres

1 cuillère à soupe de câpres

estragon

1 cuillère à soupe d’estragon haché

cerfeuil

1 cuillère à soupe de cerfeuil haché

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Admittedly my post title was deliberately provocative and tongue-in-cheek (and a bit smug because I immediately worked out Madame’s error), and admitting also that any fule (even me: Madame is still learning to cook, whereas I’ve been doing it forever) would know that two and a half teaspoonsful of milk would be a bizarre amount … mixing cls and mls seems like asking for trouble. But I’m sure (of course) you’re right, and it’s a question of getting used to it.

My Jeep Cherokee served well as a van with the back seats flat but sheets wouldn’t fit, as you say. I asked Chrysler Jeep the cost of roof bars - they span side to side, not fore 'n aft. The answer was the usual absurd CJ price "About £360/pr [+/- 2003]. and anyway, they’re only good for a couple of pairs of skis… " :astonished_face:

I got 3 from the 4x4 scrappie in Glastonbury for about £100. Those roof bars had so much on them over the 3 years it took me to fettle the house that they’d gone from bowed upwards to bowed downward.

This it true but I rather like that. It’s illogical, I admit but a distance of X seems to go by faster in time in kms than miles. I guess it’s a psycho thing of seeing the numbers reduce faster than they would in miles.

My Vauxhall Vivaro is an Opel Vivaro/Renault Trafic/Nissan ?star. It has a badge on the back door ‘Made in Britain’ - except all the oily bits, which are Renault. The speedo can be changed to kms/hr which I have done but the odometer sticks to miles, which is irritating.

Errr.. no. Liquids come in a variety of densities. The litre is 1kg of [distilled?] water at sea level. Or the other way round, which is convenient. For small quantities it would do but a truck’s tank of 200l of diesel? That’ll be significantly more than 200kgs.

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I’ve always suspected that Napoleon or his cronies invented the metric measurements we’re landed with simply to be different to, and to spite, the English. Pints, feet, inches, pounds etc are all sensible practical quantities, How many would think of quaffing a litre of water or beer? I think in feet and inches … however I do use millimetres for fine measuring as they are so much easier to work with than fractions. Just to confuse matters, I have a number of times seen French establishments offering a “pinte” of prawns!

Yes but you are old so not a surprise response :joy:

The specific gravity (density) of diesel is about 85% that of water, so 200 litres would be about 30 kg lighter.

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Nonsense. 16 pounds to a stone, is it? And 14 ounces to a pound? And 12 inches to a foot? Very weird. I suppose if you grew up with it, it seems normal but oh what a nuisance if you haven’t grown up with it. Do you use bushels rods poles and perches too?
It’s so much easier to do calculations using the metric system, so simple and logical (if you’re accustomed to base 10).

Edited because I’ve just noticed I wrote pounces not ounces. Although I suppose ounces do pounce, if we’re talking felines.

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14 pounds to a stone, 16 oz in 1lb. Near enough. :slightly_smiling_face:

Measurements are always arbitrary, but we just like to think decimal is more rational than imperial because we have 10 fingers and our numbers are based around that.

Those wishing to measure by mass need to be aware of density too (specific gravity uses water as a reference point, but other systems could be created).

We grew up with it, so it’s ingrained but it was still a pain doing maths.

Changing the subject slightly, I read that in Roman Times, parts of France had the equivalent of pounds, shillings and pence.

I think you are missing the point. All my recipes are in grammes - full stop. There is no confusion. A mass of 1 gramme remains a mass of one gramme regardless of temperature , pressure , compaction etc etc . It is universal throughout the universe (as far as we know). Even a Martian would understand grammes. Its definition is related to Plank’s Constant. This is more than can be said for American Legal Cups or Grandmother’s soup spoon.

If I talk about 200 kgs of diesel, I mean exactly that. I do NOT mean 200 litres (even though there might be a slight approximation).

Yes denarii sestertii aurei etc and even a tiny coin called an as, poss the widow’s mite - but HOORAY FOR THE REVOLUTION so lovely and rational. We’ve had the metric system since 1799 :heart_eyes::heart_eyes::heart_eyes:

Planck’s constant 6,626 070 15 × 10−34 kg m2 s−1 (ou J s )
Makes cooking a breeze :wink:

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I don’t have a Kibble balance but I do have some very cheap digital scales that are accurate to 0.1 grammes over its entire range (yes I have checked it). In fact I ONLY have digital scales to measure anything - and NO graduated jugs, cups, spoons etc.

Not quite as funny as his Counting in French video, but still worth catching:-

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