Using this website

Today, all food in the UK is sold in metric quantities and modern recipes use metric. However many people still do not feel confident in using metric for cooking. This website aims to go through the basics of using metric when out shopping and in the kitchen. The material should be equally suitable for inexperienced cooks or experienced cooks who have not worked much in metric.

Why bother?

There are many good reasons for you to cook in metric:

• Packaged food comes mainly in round metric quantities. Using metric recipes means that you can use your packs efficiently without awkward leftovers.
• Modern British recipes use metric.
• Kitchen appliances are based on metric.
• Metric is a very easy system based on 10s meaning that you do not need to work with awkward fractions.
• Last but not least, metric is international. Many of the world’s greatest (and oldest) cuisines - French, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Indian - originated from countries which now use the metric system.

• Most top British chefs use metric.
• If all recipes were in metric the world over there would be no need to translate quantities – less risk of getting a dish wrong. Cooking would become an international ‘language.’