I’m a child of the Sixties. Like many of my fellow Sixties babies, I had to learn not one but three currencies. After getting to terms with the fact that there were 220 pennies in a pound, I was told this was wrong and that there were in fact only 100. I’m fine with this but then am told there are no more pennies, only cents. Phew! I’m up to speed now and no longer feel the mad urge to ask ‘What’s that in old money?’

Measuring ingredients changed too but making that all-important transition from Imperial to Metric did not come easy. Ireland seemed to keep both which was a help and a hindrance. Enter in cookery books to muddle this further. I have my mother’s as well as my own so ounces and pounds are still the way most ingredients are measured in this house.

The Teen is a Metric person and delights in being able to calculate them for me as I hang my head and think ‘The shame, the shame…’ She tries to teach me but I revert to ounces every time. For me, a pound is manageable but 456 grams is daunting! Seems like the only way I am going to learn is to set it all out in a table and so, for the Metric-ly challenged like myself, I give you…

Imperial Metric
1 oz                 28g
2 oz                56g
3 oz                85g
4 oz               113g
5 oz               141g
6 oz               170g
7 oz               198g
8 oz               226g
16 oz (lb)    456g
2.2 lbs          1kg

So that’s the measurements. They also changed the heat!

Oven
Gas            Mark           Fahrenheit            Celsius Description
¼               225                  110                       Very cool/very slow
½               250                 130                        —
1                 275                  140                      Cool
2                 300                 150                       —
3                 325                  170                      Very moderate
4                 350                 180                       Moderate
5                 375                  190                       —
6                 400                 200                      Moderately hot
7                 425                 220                       Hot
8                 450                 230                       —
9                 475                 240                       Very hot

With all this detail, I will be able to cook anything from any era and with any appliance. I will be MasterChef in my own culinary universe! Mwahahahahaha!