A Cheat Sheet For Kitchen Measurement Conversions

Converting measurements from standard to metric

On a trip to France to try some of the most amazing pastries in the world, you just might find a cookbook that you can’t wait to try out during your online baking program. It can be pretty confusing to have to manually calculate a metric measurement when you’ve been using the standard method throughout your life. We’ve created a quick table to help you sort out temperature, dry-volume and liquid measurements so you can spend less time doing math and more time cooking and baking.

Will the U.S. ever switch to metric?

According to the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the U.S. is the only industrialized country in the world whose predominant system of measurement is not the metric system. Instead of this much simpler method that is measured in increments of tens and hundreds, the U.S. has stuck to the standard method of measurement. Will we ever change?

You may find it surprising that our country has been on the track to change to metric since 1875, when it signed the Treaty of Meter, which was formed to make the metric system the standard across the globe. In 1968, Congress supported a study that lasted three years and involved labor groups, manufacturers, government officials, businesses and consumers in order to establish if switching to the metric system would be in the best interest for the country. The final report stated that the U.S. should, in fact, make the moves to join the rest of the world with the metric method.

The NIST states, “Failure to complete the change will increasingly handicap the Nation’s industry and economy.”

According to a Time article, U.S. school kids were told the country would be moving to the metric system during their class time. More than 40 years later, the switch has still not occurred. The thing to note is that some of the US actually has gone metric. Some cars and alcoholic beverages are now using the worldwide system, and other items that are manufactured within the country also have shunned the standard method in favor of a more globally-understood system.

It seems that America is likely to fully switch at some point in the near future. Then again, this has been the case for over 100 years and our cookbooks, milk, football fields and gasoline tanks are still measured with the standard system. Perhaps we’ll move to the metric system during your time taking pastry courses online.