Plus What?

I was watching a cooking show the other day and the host said to add ¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons of a liquid to a mixture. Wait, I thought, why the extra 2 tablespoons?

Then, after lengthy thought, it hit me. The recipe was converted from metric. So I scooted over to a conversion table and discovered that ¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons equals about 210 milliliters (ml). My guess is that the recipe came from Europe and called for 200 ml of the liquid.

In retrospect, I’ve seen this done before … “one cup plus 2 teaspoons” for example. And that is why some measuring cups these days have two scales printed on them – American, and metric. Guess this is a holdover from the days in the 1970s and 1980s, when the United States tried – and failed – to convert.

So now, it all makes sense. The world just snapped back into place. Except for the United States … and Myanmar (Burma) … and Liberia. We’re the only three countries that haven’t converted to metric.

Shame on us?