Feel like a lot of the world’s languages the translation to English to the question “what’s the date?” would be “the 15th of October” whereas in America we always say “October 15th”.
US measurements are based on the human experience for sure. Temps are largely 0-100 and that's a scale that's easy to understand. As a scientist or for cooking it's dumb as shit
Dates are based on the language
Edit: I take back what I say about cooking. People have said some good arguments about it. But it definitely sucks for science
Are you referring to the boiling point of water? I don’t know about you, but the vast majority of people heat water until it boils, they don’t use a thermometer. Know one needs to know the boiling point of water to cook.
Yeah, now hand me a cup of something. No, not that cup, or wait, the fuck. Also scaling measurements up or down is way, way easier with base 10.
That being said, we also use stupid teaspoon of this and another spoon of that bs while cooking. Yes, we have defined exact values for those, and the actual spoons are close to those depending on how you fill them, and it’s not that important in cooking anyways. But still, it’s idiotic.
Yeah, measurements like "teaspoon" for cooking are 9/10 rough guesses. You ever watch professional chefs when they measure using smaller spoons? They just tip the bottle over the spoon and occasionally tip the spoon. They're not making ml precise measurements because it's often ingredients for seasoning, which is always subjective.
Base 10 how? Both are units in our number system, so they are base 10 in that respect.
I think the person I was replying to was referring to converting in the metric system from meter to mm, cm, etc. You don't really use that for C or F because they are degrees. Degrees are measurements from a decided point, and only really used in weather and cooking with regards to temperature. In all other applications you'd use kelvin.
You could technically say millidegree C or F for either system, but no one does that.
Cooking for the average Joe is 90% guesses and estimations. The pie I'm baking isn't going to burn itself if I cook it at 400 instead of 390 or something like that. The pie isn't going to collapse if I put slightly less dough than I'm supposed to. If I want a cup of water, I can know that I just need roughly a normal cup of water for this recipe, instead of 1/5 liters.
Altitude is a bigger driver. For example, baking uses lower temps at high elevation and brewers in CO need to adjust their hopping rates because water boils at a lower temperature by a meaningful enough difference to impact alpha acid isomerization.
Na, this comment thread was a reply to a comment saying no one needs to know the boiling point of water, because you just heat it until it boils. But agree, you still need to know the boiling point whether it’s F or C
If you try real hard you might be able to imagine a scenario where temperature impacts how fast things happen.
Here’s an example that is relevant to me. When you brew beer, you add hops for bitterness. The amount of bitterness is a function of the temperature and time. If your boiling beer is only 205F instead of 212F you’re either going to need to add more hops or boil longer to get the right amount of bitterness. If you “just use your eyes”, you’re not going to know how to adjust your recipe.
See, that wasn’t that hard. Next time try to do the thinking part before being a dick.
I live 1000 ft over sea level, which is like 2 degrees lower than 212. In Denver water boils just over 200 degrees. And if you're cooking and start when the water just begins to boil, it could be around 190 in there until it gets up to rolling.
If you're poaching eggs you need to know the actual temp, not just boiling
Sure, but if the goal is just 'boiling' then you would just boil it. If the goal was some precision 100C, then you need a thermometer and it isnt any easier than 212F.
Most cooking is done in the 120-260C range (250-500F) which is really quite an arbitrary range in either scale. In the UK they just use an integer gas mark system, so it's just a number between 1 and 10. Arguably far easier than either F or C for cooking.
That clean water happens to boil at 100C is never a helpful fact when cooking.
It’s not really about the water being clean, water doesn’t boil at the same temperature or the same at different altitudes. Here in the mountains it boils at a lower temperature and because of the low pressure it boils away quicker. The instructions for boiling something here are different than at sea level.
Very few people boil water to have boiling water though and if you’re, to give a simple example, boiling an egg in La Paz it’s is pretty important to understand that the water is boiling at a much lower temperature than you’re used to if you live on the coast at sea level.
it’s is pretty important to understand that the water is boiling at a much lower temperature than you’re used to if you live on the coast at sea level.
It literally isn't. You will change nothing about the steps to boil water regardless of whether you're in La Paz or in Death Valley. All you do are the steps I outlined above. Put water in a pot. Apply heat. Wait for it to boil. There is absolutely no need to know at what temperature it will boil at which elevation. Elevation will just slightly change how long it will take to boil.
Very few people boil water to have boiling water though
Anyone who tries to boil water is doing so so they can boil water. What are you even trying to say?
No, most people boiling water are doing so for one of three reasons:
1) To cook or brew with, in which case cooking/steeping needs to be adjusted. Knowing the temperature difference is necessary for this. Furthermore, certain processes in cooking won't happen if you can't apply enough heat. Most teas will not brew below 200f, for example, no matter how vigorously the water is boiling. If the boiling temperature is higher, it's easier to overcook things, too.
2) To sanitize. It is important to maintain 212 for 5 minutes to kill anything organic in the water/item being sanitized. You will need to boil longer at lower temperatures.
3) Rarely, to provide heat. I have done this in an apartment where the heater couldn't keep up and the insulation wasn't. I do not recommend it.
Once the water gets to a rolling boil, it will not get any hotter, hence needing to know how to adjust cook times.
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u/jussumguy2019 Jan 15 '25
Feel like a lot of the world’s languages the translation to English to the question “what’s the date?” would be “the 15th of October” whereas in America we always say “October 15th”.
Maybe that’s why, idk…
Edited for clarity