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What does the phrase "B/E- inch slices" refer to in a recipe? I'm working on a recipe that calls for chicken breasts and that statement is used when telling how to slice the meat.

David Richerby
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Walt
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1 Answers1

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It seems that B/E is a corruption of ¼ (as MaxW has suggested in a comment).

A Google search for "B/E- inch slices" finds https://www.drperlmutter.com/recipe/zucchini-yogurt-gazpacho-saffron-marinated-chicken-breast/ (which I guess is what you are trying to follow), but it also finds the PDF file http://www.fasttracktohealth.net/members-only/grainfreerecipes.pdf (which contains exactly the same recipe). If you download that PDF file, you’ll find that the text actually says "¼-inch slices" - but copying and pasting that piece of text gives "B/ E" instead of "¼" (due to some peculiarity of the font encoding).

Stephen
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    So it is basically a reason to use UTF-8 and decimal notation instead of fractions? :) – zovits Feb 01 '19 at 14:18
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    But Unicode has a ¼ ([U+00BC](https://unicode-table.com/en/00BC/) Vulgar Fraction One Quarter) – Nick T Feb 01 '19 at 17:02
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    They should really be 6.35mm slices, but it's hard to measure chickens to the nearest 0.01mm. – alephzero Feb 01 '19 at 17:29
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    @alephzero Er, why? Looks like it's a recipe written by an American, and Americans typically use inches for this sort of thing. – user91988 Feb 01 '19 at 21:36
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    @only_pro Americans do all sorts of weird things, including using crazy measurement units that nobody else in the world understands. And assuming you are one of them, they often don't understand the British sense of humo(u)r, either. – alephzero Feb 02 '19 at 00:14
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    @only_pro If "why" in your comment meant "why is it hard to measure chickens to 0.01mm" the answer is simply that they keep crossing the road. – alephzero Feb 02 '19 at 00:17
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    It’s not really a peculiarity of the font encoding as much as it is a matter of the PDF file having been set using a very old font. Back in the day, when the number of glyphs in a font was limited, you’d have to use alternate fonts for things like small caps, math symbols – and fractions. The main text here is set in Gotham, but the fractions are set in a font called Neutra Text Book Fractions, in which ¹ is located at the code point that actually belongs to B and ₄ at the one belonging to E. So the text literally does say “B/E”, just in a font where B looks like ¹ and E like ₄. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Feb 02 '19 at 16:24
  • @alephzero: Canadians understand inches, too, unfortunately, because of cross-border influence from the US. At least we *also* usually understand metric for most things, but we use Fahrenheit for oven temperatures vs. Celsius for indoor/outdoor temps... And feet + inches for people's heights. It's really annoying. – Peter Cordes Feb 02 '19 at 18:10