Are Our American Culinary Measuring Spoons Really Not Metric?

Hah! When I purchased a 600W HPS, a 400W HPS and a 250W MH I made my purchases using cash. I parked 8 blocks away from the Hydroponic store and made three trips with my purchases to my vehicle, walking different routes each trip. I then drove 90 minutes back to my home, one eye on the rear-view mirror the whole trip.

Yeah, I get ya.

My favorite instruction will always be “smite it to gobbets”.

Dozens, 10s and half dozens here.

They are the flavour ingredient in tartar sauce.

Interesting, but not the way I make it: sweet pickle relish, mayo, a little ketchup and mustard for color and zing. To bring back to the thread’s topic, I don’t measure any of those ingredients, but just go by taste and look.

Not really in the US. I first discovered capers in tartar sauce as a 20-yr-old working at a restaurant in western Scotland. Not super common to see it here. I don’t think any commercial tartar sauces I know use it. I have very occasionally seen it in house made sauces in restaurants.

Coleman’s do:

Colman’s Tartare Sauce is the pairing of choice to the classic British fish and chips as we believe local tastes better and provides a full-on British flavour experience

A creamy style sauce with gherkins and capers crafted in Britain and made with Norwich grown parsley

This sauce from the UK’s no.1 condiment brand is ready to use

I should have specified domestic. I’ll keep an eye out for it.

That’s a great idea!

In which case, it’s still so small as to be virtually impossible to measure.

In Japan, they usually use teaspoon and tablespoon and fractions thereof.
1tsp=小さじ1杯
1tbsp=大さじ1杯
but I have seen it given in grams as well in parentheses

Huh. I buy the quart jars at Costco. Never had 'em go bad, nor do I refrigerate them.

Perhaps you eat more capers than some of the other posters in this thread. :wink:

There was no choice in the matter. For the first 10-15 years here, that was the only way to buy baking powder and baking soda. The local English language forum is full of people asking where to buy a box of baking powder or baking soda.

I still buy yeast by the envelope (similar to Red Star) or cube (fresh), but I buy baking powder and baking soda in larger quantities. I still come across recipes which call for a packet of baking powder, so I do have some packets as well, for convenience.

We can buy fresh eggs in quantities of 4, 6, 10 or 12 at the grocery store. At the farm (10 minutes walk) we can just buy 1 egg, if we so desired, or 3, or how ever many we want, as long as the hens are laying enough. And if the eggs are hard-boiled, it’s possible to just buy two.

Our flour is also sold in 1 kg bags. As we are ramping up for Christmas, there is a deal to buy 10 1-kg bags for 40% off. In a few weeks, there will be a deal for 4 1-kg bags for 20% off, or something like that.

My tartar sauce only has pickles, not capers, and my jar of capers is 150 g, of which 90 g is actually capers. It’ll last me about 6-8 months, depending on how often I make chicken piccata.

Well, clearly. My point was that I don’t think they need refrigeration. They’re, like, very pickled. A jar lasts me most of a year.

I keep all kinds of things that don’t need refrigeration in the fridge. Most of the “rarely used condiments” are together there. :woman_shrugging:

Yeah, most things that Americans keep in the fridge don’t actually need to be there. It’s just a convenient place to store them. At least, if you have a big American-style fridge.

Justin Wilson, the venerated Cajun chef, taught me that!

No, I’m in the habit of using spoons. But if i didn’t have measuring spoons, i suspect I’d be pretty accurate.

I just cooked a pot of pasta & bean soup, which calls for chicken broth. The powdered bouillon that I use calls for a heaped spoonful (approximately 11 g) of powder for 5dl of water. I’m not sure if the company expects someone to be able to measure 11 g, or that is what they measured for the purpose of the nutrition label.

Bouillon also comes in cubes, so that’s another way to avoid measuring spoons here. I just find the powder more convenient, instead of having to break up bouillon cubes.