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thereby letting her people join householders from most of the rest of the world in figuring everyday weights and measures by the universal system of metrics. The notable holdout is still the United States. True, we have moved along a bit in recent decades. Americans get soda pop by the liter now (with auxiliary labeling to tell quarts and fluid ounces); and, though milk may be sold by the half-gallon, volume also is given in liters, with milliliters noted as percentages (which is fair enough). Happily, metric measurements are given alongside the old-style ones in some new cookbooks.

Metric Conversions for Temperature

In 1714 Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit created a thermometer using a scale based on human body temperature and set Zero as the freezing point of a mixture of ice and salt, with 32 F (Fahrenheit) the freezing point for pure water, and 212 F as the boiling point of pure water. Soon—only 28 years later—Anders Celsius created his scale whereby pure water freezes at Zero and boils at sea level at 100 C (Celsius, or also called Centigrade). The two scales intersect only at minus 40 degrees both F and C. And the boiling points of pure water on both scales depend on a reading at sea level. This insistence on sea level has great bearing on variations in boiling temperatures when altitude increases (as we saw earlier in this chapter—and will apply in all canning specifics later on).

Because the usual American householder’s measuring equipment is not precise enough to reflect the mathematical computations in the temperatures that follow, we indicate in italics the rounded-off figure that offers a reasonable equivalent for everyday use.

FAHRENHEIT AND CELSIUS (CENTIGRADE) (AT SEA LEVEL TO 1000 FEET/305 METERS ALTITUDE)

The Arithmetic

The list of equivalents includes the temperatures cited frequently in this book. To convert other temperatures, you can use the following formulas.

If you know Fahrenheit, you can find Celsius by subtracting 32, then multiplying by (i.e., multiply by 5 and divide by 9). For example, 200 F = (200 − 32) × 5 ÷ 9 = 93 C.

If you know Celsius, you can find Fahrenheit by multiplying by then adding 32. For example, 93 C = 93 × 9 ÷ 5 + 32 = 200 F.

Metric Conversions for Volume

For ready reference, PFB uses ovenproof glass volume measures, one side marked for fluid ounces and cups, the other in milliliters (also in deciliters, or -liter steps—which so far haven’t cropped up much. The comparison set of spoons offers double ends, one side going from ½ teaspoon, to ½, to 1 teaspoon, to 1 tablespoon, and the other side giving the workable metric equivalent.

The terms teaspoon, tablespoon, cup, pint, quart, and gallon in the list that follows—and indeed throughout the book—are U.S. measurements. Although their volumes differ in some cases from those of similar British or European designations, their metric equivalents provide the means for translating recipes from around the world. Further (but marginal): Americans are used to seeing the term cubic centimeter for volume in pharmaceutical prescriptions and solutions, etc., so note that 1 cubic centimeter (cc) = 1 milliliter (mL).

The first list below—The (Fairly Pure) Arithmetic—shows how to figure back and forth between units of current standard volume and metrics, because it’s important to know the method, and you can always fall back on it. Because the householders’ means for measuring volume metrically are so much less precise than are the available thermometers, diet scales, and foot/ centimeter rules, we must round off volume measurements quite roughly (“Now Rounded Off”). They’re workable for now, though; and they often come on measuring cups and canning jars.

The (Fairly Pure) Arithmetic

Start with the U.S. fluid ounce, and work back for spoonfuls:

One fluid ounce (fl oz) = 29.574 milliliters (mL).

There are 2 tablespoons in 1 fl oz, so 1 tablespoon = 14.787 mL.

There are 3 teaspoons in 1 tablespoon, so 1 teaspoon = 4.929 mL.

To get ½ teaspoon, divide 4.929 by 2 = 2.465 mL.

To get ½ teaspoon, divide 4.929 by 4 = 1.232