A (Chocolate) Chip in the Metric System

I've really never met a chocolate chip cookie I didn't like, except for those dry chalking tasting kind from old lady bakeries. These come from our 1982 Betty Crocker Cookbook (for the story on this one, see the post "Rock, Cinnamon Roll and Remember"). I noticed that this recipe was referenced on two different pages, so I decided to investigate. The first, page 266, was the basic teaspoon of this, cup of that cookie recipe. But, when I turned to the second page, 362, I was gobsmacked. It was obstensively the same recipe, only converted to metrics! Betty was a teller of the future (it wasn't enough that this edition included microwave recipes) with a section of the book entitled "Metrics in the Kitchen". She advises that the metric system is coming, gradually, but there is no reason to panic (her words, not mine). It turns out that all metric measurements are divisible by 10. Whatever the heck that means. And I quote from the book of Crocker: 'All you need are metric measures and a sense of adventure'. Betty, Betty, Betty, oh, naive Betty, it's never going to happen.

As a child I feared two things: nuclear annihilation and the metric system. Having been absent the day fractions were taught, I feared all math, and the notion that inches and feet would be no longer sacred the hell out me. In a way, nuclear war seemed more attractive, at least there would be no math involved - everybody is just dead. But with metrics, we would still have to worry about nuclear war. And, it was never couched that it would be like language in Canada - French or English, your choice. We were converting and that was that. Apparently the demise came when the US government realized Americans weren't interested or just just too lazy to divide by 10. Many businesses adapted the system to further global trade (because it enhanced our ability to be competitive internationally), but the rest of us were left to our own devices, in this case inches, feet, pounds and tablespoons. Any way you slice it, kids today are just plain lucky. Their biggest fear is a hotel room that doesn't have Nickelodeon on the TV or being unable to find their USB cable. Little do they know the fate we narrowly avoided to make their future brighter. And let's not even talk about that zip code extension thing....

The Recipe:

Special Equipment: A sense of adventure

250 mL granulated sugar
250 mL packed brown sugar
150 mL shortening
150 mL Margarine or butter, softened
2 eggs (thankfully an egg is an egg no matter what)
10 mL vanilla
5 mL baking soda
5 mL salt
2 packages (170g each) of semisweet chocolate chips

Heat oven to 190 degrees Celsius. Mix sugars, shortening, margarine, eggs and vanilla thoroughly. Stir in remaining ingredients.

Drop dough by rounded 10mL about 5 cm apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake until light brown, about 8 to 10 minutes (luckily times weren't changing). Cool slightly before transferring from cookie sheet to cooling rack. About 42 cookies.