Try cooking in metric

Following a recipe in metric is very easy, as all cooks who have grasped the few simple principles involved will testify. There are no fractions or illogical units. Sadly, because the imperial and metric systems do not neatly dovetail, exact conversions look cumbersome, giving rise to the misconception that metric measures are "difficult". So key lessons in learning the metric system are:

Recipes for traditional dishes

Since 1995, nearly all packaged foods in the UK have been sold in easy to use metric sizes. For example, flour, sugar, dried fruits, suet, butter and bread are all sold in easy metric sizes between 250 g and 1 kg. Beers and spirits are typically sold in containers of 300 ml to 1 litre. Unfortunately, many recipes (particularly those printed on the sides of packages) have simply converted old ounce-based sizes to grams. The result is recipes that are awkward to weigh in grams and leave annoying leftovers from packages.

A large number of modern British food writers use user-friendly metric quantities in recipes. Unfortunately many traditional British recipes are still given in awkward imperial quantities (even if converted to metric). The following recipes take advantage of sensible metric quantities such as those used in packaged foods and drinks. They are based on user-friendly quantities and make use of standard package sizes where possible. Smaller amounts can be easily achieved by using half or quarter of the pack. An everyday mug or empty bottle takes care of liquids.

See our recipes section

Got a metric query?

Email us on food@metric.org.uk