I have been pondering the Beef Burgundy which is lauded in the film, and decided that tonight I will cook it for Mr BB along with lashings of buttery mashed potato.
Here begin-eth the Drama.
Googled the recipe - easy. Start the conversions. It is now that I remember that Australian metric conversions are not the same as around the world. Will this impact on the result? Does this mean that all table- and tea-spoon amounts need converting too? A quick clickety trip to Wikipedia informs me that yes, this is the case. In fact Mr Wiki tells me there is "no internationally-agreed standard definition of the cup, whose modern volume ranges between 200-284ml). The cup sizes generally used in the many Commonwealth countries and the U.S differ by up to 44ml."Am I just making things hard for myself? (Clearly yes), however what if the recipe fails spectacularly due to too much (or too little) liquid?!
Surely this can be easy I think. I am over-thinking this.
A 6 ounce piece of chunk bacon is 170g. 3 pounds of stewing beef is 1.36kg (call it 1.4kg). So 3 cups of red wine (Julia Childs specifies a young and full-bodied red) is.... conversion chart at the ready...
1 US cup = 237ml
1 US 'legal' cup = 240ml
1 imperial cup = 284ml.
240 x 3 = 720ml
284 x 3 =852ml.
132ml difference...
OK I think. Start over. Australian tablespoon 20ml, American 15ml. Hmm.
It is at this point that I think I will visit a bookshop and see if the modern incantation of the cookbook is metric or imperial. For the sake of $40 and my sanity (and YOUR sanity), and of course Mr BB's belly, I'll buy the frigging book!
NB: the only measurement that is the same in Australia/NZ/US/Canada/UK is a teaspoon, which we all agree is 5ml! Trivia for the day!.
x
2 comments:
oh i think you're totally over thinking the burgundy. Seriously, bottle of wine, beef, onions etc let it do its thing. Baking needs to be precise but not a casserole!
I agree Bells, but this is possibly the most detailed 'method' I have ever read. If I'm going to all this trouble to do it her way, I don't want it to flop! Having said that, I am going to modify it and Just Do It. The book is the same recipe, so I'll just dive right in! Have you seen the movie? It's great!
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