You better get it exactly right! UGH! (Longish)

[Seshat]

Or he was an ignorant cook, had been reading a recipe which called for meat 1/10 inch thick, and thought that that part of the recipe had to be exact.

Cookbooks aren't usually as helpful as they could be: they rarely state which measurements need to be exact (some baking or confectionary measurements) and which are approximations (most stovetop or 'kitchen bench only' recipes).

[JustShootMe]

Sorry for the computer screen spews.

Think I'll imagine SC's with micro peni when they mess with me on Express.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

Sorry for the computer screen spews.

Think I'll imagine SC's with micro peni when they mess with me on Express.

In that case, you may want to have some tweezers and magnifying glasses handy to hand out.

I mean, really, some things are just too small to be left to their own devices.

[JustShootMe]

In that case, you may want to have some tweezers and magnifying glasses handy to hand out.

I mean, really, some things are just too small to be left to their own devices.

[sms001]

Welcome aboard free!

I've done some deli work as well, and people get serious about meat thickness.
(My favorite ever: "Right in between paper thin and shaved!")

I'm surprised no one's brought this up (No I'm not - they all headed to the gutter as soon as 'measuring' came up.) but I've never heard anyone divide an inch by tenths. Usually it's the powers of 2: 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32, etc. Where the heck did SC even GET such a notion?

[Chromatix]

Most older rulers in Britain are marked in sixteenths on one edge and tenths on the other. That was before they started putting inches on only one edge, and centimetres (divided into ten millimetres) on the other.

[AccountingDrone]

I prefer the sliced meat and cheese to be thicker, not paper thin because I want to use 1 slice of each on a sandwich. It also makes it easier to handle, and easier for the poor dude in the deli to do as well.

Of course half an inch for mortadella is great, it fits nicely into a Foreman grill to grill up for Rob and myself to split. Gets the fat chunks all crispied and makes nice grill marks on the rest of the mortadella

[wolfie]

I've never heard anyone divide an inch by tenths. Usually it's the powers of 2: 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32, etc. Where the heck did SC even GET such a notion?

Decimal inches are standard in machine shops (unless you're doing metric), and printed circuits are laid out on a 1/10 inch grid. Bit of trivia: a DIP integrated circuit of 20 pins or fewer has its 2 rows of pins 3/10 of an inch apart, with pins in each row 1/10 of an inch apart. For over 20 pins, the rows are 6/10 of an inch apart, with spacing in each row still 1/10 of an inch.

[sms001]

...older rulers... marked in sixteenths on one edge and tenths on the other.

So after writing my reply I found myself wandering through the day thinking "Have I seen 10ths of inches before?" and it finally hit me. Pulled out my carpenter's rule and sure enough - the little brass insert at the very end has exactly this - 16ths on one side, 10ths on the other.
And to further drive the lesson home, by sheer synchronicity, I was looking at a house plan that, you guessed it, had 18' 6.4" type measurements.

Thanks for your kind reminders CSers. (Now get off my lawn! )

[Dentarthurdent]

That's a healthy slab of meat.

How did you guys NOT take this quote out of context and integrate it into the size measuring conversation?

[Chromatix]

Yes indeed. And thicknesses of thin objects were measured in thou, short for "thousandth of an inch" and pronounced accordingly.

In the metric system they are measured in microns which are a millionth of a metre - a thousandth of a millimetre. So one thou is 25.4 microns.

[mathnerd]

How did you guys NOT take this quote out of context and integrate it into the size measuring conversation?

Because for once we decided to behave?

[DGoddessChardonnay]

How did you guys NOT take this quote out of context and integrate it into the size measuring conversation?

Because for once we decided to behave?

And that is no fun to behave . . .

Besides, a perverted mind is a tragic thing to waste.

As for meat thickness, I always thought the thicker the better. When I eat, I want to be satisfied, not still hungry ten minutes later.

[mathnerd]

And that is no fun to behave . . .

Besides, a perverted mind is a tragic thing to waste.

As for meat thickness, I always thought the thicker the better. When I eat, I want to be satisfied, not still hungry ten minutes later.

Must...not...

Oh, hell, yeah, I like my meat thick too. I want to give my jaw a workout when I eat.

[dalesys]

... For over 20 pins, the rows are 6/10 of an inch ...

The famous 7.62mm caliber...
Except for the narrow DIPs... Yep, have seen and used them.