Chapter 6 Project

Metric Cooking

An activity to demonstrate the use of metric to US conversions in real life.

Your grandma lives outside of the United States and has emailed you her famous apple pie recipe to use at an upcoming party. As you start to bake the pie on the day of the party, you realize grandma's recipe is written using only metric units. Looking through the supplies in your kitchen, you find a scale that measures weight in ounces and some measuring spoons that measure volume in ${\displaystyle \frac{1}{8}}$, ${\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}$, ${\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}$ of a teaspoon and $1$ whole tablespoon. In order to successfully bake the pie in time for the party, you must quickly convert the metric measurements to US measurements. You start with the pie crust ingredients.

1. Fill in the third column of the pie crust table by converting the measurements of each ingredient using the correct conversion factors. Use $1\mathrm{mL}=0.068\mathrm{tbsp}$ and $1\mathrm{mL}=0.203\mathrm{tsp}$. (Note: tbsp stands for tablespoon and tsp stands for teaspoon.)

2. The recipe requires the oven to be preheated to $230\mathrm{℃}$, but your oven measures degrees in Fahrenheit. What temperature should you preheat your oven to?

While the oven is preheating, you begin to prepare the ingredients for the apple filling.

3. Fill in the third column of the apple filling table by converting the measurements of each ingredient using the correct conversion factors. Use $1\mathrm{mL}=0.068\mathrm{tbsp}$ and $1\mathrm{mL}=0.203\mathrm{tsp}$.

4. Since the measuring spoons can only measure ${\displaystyle \frac{1}{8}}$, ${\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}$, ${\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}$ of a teaspoon and $1$ whole tablespoon, what is the most reasonable way to round each US volume measurement in each of the tables?

In addition to the usual recipe, your grandma has listed several variations on the recipe that depend on the taste of the apples. For bland apples, you should add $20\mathrm{mL}$ of lemon juice to the filling. For sour apples, you should increase the sugar to $140\mathrm{g}$.

5. You taste the apples and decide you need to increase the sugar to $140\mathrm{g}$. You have already added $100\mathrm{g}$. How many more ounces of sugar do you need to add to reach $140\mathrm{g}$?

6. You notice that the recipe requires a pie pan with a diameter of $23\mathrm{cm}$. After measuring the pie pan you discover it is $9$ inches in diameter. Is the pie pan the right size for the apple pie? What is its diameter in inches? Round to the nearest whole number.