On our trip to the UK, I enjoyed having data at my fingertips as we progressed along the trail. Distance traveled, elevation gained, calories burned.… I wanted to know it all. The great divide between Imperial and Metric units was a constant sticking point when having casual conversations on internationally travelled trails like the Coast to Coast or the West Highland Way. Discussions amongst walkers often focus around how much a pack weighs (lb or kg?), how far to the next town (mi or km?), the elevation gain for the upcoming day (ft or m?). It isn’t necessarily difficult to do the arithmetic, but it slows down the flow of conversation when you have to pause to do a conversion - particularly if you’re already fatigued, (which we frequently were!).
I’ve taken to carrying a little temperature fob on my pack that tells the ambient temperature. When I setup the device initially, I did so in Fahrenheit and promptly discarded the instructions. As much as I enjoyed having temperature data on the trail, our walking companions were typically from Europe and were much more interested in knowing the temperature in Celsius. Giving them the temperature in Fahrenheit was like speaking a different language, and unfortunately the fob doesn’t easy to toggle between F and C.
Although it has nothing to do with our travels, this discussion on unit conversions brings to mind my favorite story of Fahrenheit versus Celsius in our very own kitchen. Many have heard it, but I enjoy it so much, I’m going to tell it again.
Bob and I had a period of several months where we were binge watching the Great British Bake-off. As a result, Bob started getting into baking - particularly when he realized that many of the recipes they baked on the show were available on the GBB website. He took great joy in following the recipes to the letter. In fact, at one point, he decided to change our oven’s settings so that it would read Celsius instead of Fahrenheit, His results were beautiful.
Around the same time, I started making homemade ghee. It is ridiculously simple to make… put a pound of butter in an oven-proof container, cook it at a low temp, strain it through cheese cloth into a jar and voilà, you have golden, delicious ghee. It was a perfect topping for all the bread Bob was making. We enjoyed homemade ghee so much, I was making it every few weeks. During one particular batch of ghee, I went about my normal routine.…
Step 1, Place 1 pound of butter into my trusty dutch oven and cover, Step 2, pop it into the oven at 250F,
Step 3, set the stove timer for 90 minutes,
Step 4, set out the cheese cloth, funnel and clean glass jar,
Step 5, patiently wait for that rich golden treasure to separate from the milk solids.
All was going according to plan until the timer beeped and I opened the oven door. I was greeted with a wall of smoke (Not normal). Cautiously, I pulled out the dutch oven and removed the lid…. my coveted ghee was not golden at all, but was a thick black sludge. What could have happened? I double checked the oven. Still at 250. I hadn’t messed up on the cooking time…it had only been an hour and a half. Could it have been a bad batch of butter? I was completely befuddled as to how my butter transformed to crude oil in a matter of 90 minutes. I cleaned the messy pot and went about my day, planning to make ghee another day.
Later that night, I mentioned the ghee incident to Bob. As I was telling the story, Bob first appeared curious, but then a look of guilt crossed his face. He realized what had happened to my ghee… he had forgotten to change the oven back to Fahrenheit after his last GBB reenactment. Sure enough, I looked back at the oven display and noticed a tiny little “C” next to the set temperature. As a result, I had torched my butter at nearly 500F instead of 250F.
After the ghee incident, Bob does his own temperature conversions when living out his GBB fantasies. Just to be on the safe side, I always check the oven units when making my beloved ghee.
Throughout history, there have been significant disasters related to unit conversions; early explorers failed to use nautical miles and landed on the wrong continent, a Mars orbiter slammed into the planet’s surface, a jet ran out of fuel mid flight. I’m relieved that our temperature conversion incident only resulted in a scorched pot and a pound of wasted butter. It could have been so much worse!