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on a package of seasoning from Russia for Rice Pilaf, it suggests using 3см.л per 900 grams of rice. What would those measurements translate to in American measurements? I've seen translations for ct.L but not cm. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Catija
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Voigt
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    I'd guess it's 3 cubic centimeters which is a bit more than half a teaspoon (1 tsp = 5 C.C.s) I know nothing about Russian-specific markings, but I infer 3cm (whatever) probably means 3 cubic centimeters as a standard metric measurement unit. – Ecnerwal Jan 03 '17 at 22:06
  • a cubic centimeter would be abbreviated `см³`, or `куб. см`, not just `см`. Also, what would the `л` be then, after the unit? Russian is right-associative just like English, so the adjective comes before the noun. – rumtscho Jan 04 '17 at 15:24
  • 3см.л OF WHAT per 900 grams. liquid, dry ? – Alaska Man Mar 21 '17 at 02:21

1 Answers1

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I think this is a typo. The original is probably 3 ст. л, which means 3 tablespoons (an abbreviation for столовые ложки).

Note that, in Russian cursive handwriting, a т looks like a Latin small m, and can also, with the wrong amount of slant and writing speed, look like a Cyrillic small m. I don't know where cursive handwriting can have come into play in the design of a modern packaging, but it is one small pointer.

This interpretation also makes sense from a culinary point of view. I don't know the concentration of your seasoning, but 3 tablespoons sounds roughly feasible for 900 g of rice, which is quite a lot of rice, especially if measured dry. 3 cubic centimeters would not only be a weird unit to use in kitchen measurements (ml is the common one) but also it would only be a sufficient amount if you are using something like pure MSG crystals.

Russia does not use the Imperial system, so having a Russian recipe expressed in tablespoons is even less precise than an American recipe doing so. A Russian seeing this recipe would just use any real eating spoon in their cupboard to do the measuring. So, be prepared to treat this as a starting suggestion only, it might need some (or a lot of) tweaking to work well in your context.

Kareen
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rumtscho
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  • That makes sense, Thank you for your helpful answer!. – Voigt Jan 05 '17 at 15:22
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    The recent edit/rollback reveals a way this mistake could've been made - for some fonts/browsers, an italic т (*т*) renders like m (*m*). For example, that happens in Chrome on Linux: https://i.stack.imgur.com/5S1Sg.png. (It was fine in Chrome on Android, though, and apparently was on Catija's browser/OS.) So something could've gotten messed up by fonts, then transcribed from there. If my comment looks dumb (if it says "italic т (*m*)") then your browser/OS is tricking you too. – Cascabel Mar 20 '17 at 17:35
  • @Jefromi I see the *m* in Firefox on Linux, too. Going by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Te_(Cyrillic) that may just be how it's supposed to look, though, as it specifies that the m-look is for italic as well. – JAB Mar 20 '17 at 20:24