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The NIST Office of Weights and Measures (OWM) Metric Program invites you to see what’s cooking in the NIST Metric Kitchen, a new educational website that includes a recipe gallery and culinary measurement guidance. Special Publication (SP) 1290, NIST Metric Recipes, was developed for both new and experienced chefs interested in building experience using a kitchen scale to measure ingredients in grams and K-12 educators that teach cooking techniques and related life skills topics in the classroom.
Preparing a metric system-based recipe is an opportunity to apply culinary math, expand measurement skills, interpret instructions, complete steps in a necessary sequence, troubleshoot, build self-confidence, and enjoy the delicious results! Cooking and baking are ideal for teaching Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) as well as measurement sense making. For young chefs, these hands-on activities offer an opportunity to refine fine motor skills and coordination, practice selecting appropriate cooking tools, opening containers, mixing, pouring without spilling, counting, weighing, as well as reading and interpreting a digital scale readout or oven thermometer. For advanced chefs, customizing recipes and purposeful tinkering are chances to further explore the science that underpin culinary arts.
Recent NIST OWM Montgomery College Professional Research Experience Program (PREP) interns have contributed to all NIST Metric Kitchen developmental stages, including recipe creation, publication design, companion video production, and website deployment.
Tanna Nguyen, 2022 intern crafted the initial five recipes within NIST SP 1290, wrote website copy, and collaborated with Richard Montgomery, AV Production Coordinator to publish the Baking Banana Bread Using the Metric System video. Dinelka Jagoda, 2022 intern applied her artistic vision to create bespoke graphics and website copy. Lloyd Bekele and Arghavan (Angie) Tehrani, 2023 interns designed banners, graphics, and collaborated extensively with Yvonne Branden, OWM Website Coordinator to deploy the new website.
The NIST Metric Kitchen team is currently working to further expand the metric menu to include healthy side-dishes and delectable desserts. Lloyd Bekele and Richard Montgomery are currently collaborating to translate the classic NIST Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe into a short companion video that can be viewed before undertaking the baking project. Arghavan (Angie) Tehrani is adding her inventive spin to formulate and test a new chocolate Brownie recipe that will be interpreted, in collaboration with Richard Montgomery, in a step-by-step companion video.
You’re going to enjoy metric cooking s’more each day, but especially during Metric Week (10 October), Weights and Measures Week (1 to 7 March), and World Metrology Day (20 May; 2023 theme is Measurements Supporting the Global Food System). Have fun preparing treats for your next gathering of family and friends. Become our biggest flan! What’s your all-thyme favorite NIST Metric Recipe? Share your preferred NIST Metric Kitchen resource on social media. Take the path of yeast resistance. Contact the Metric Program to share your feedback or ideas for a new metric recipe (TheSI [at] nist.gov (TheSI[at]nist[dot]gov)).