Fractional cooking

Mom is from Italy. In Italy, they don't use cups and tablespoons and teaspoons. They measure by weight. It doesn't matter whether something is sifted or unsifted, or what shape it is. If you need 50 grams, you pull out the little scale and weigh out 50 grams, be it butter, flour, or seeds. (I had trouble thinking of some third thing there.)

Okay, so I walk in the door. Mom is making cookies, and she asks me, "How much is 2/3 of a cup of butter?"

Now, I'm smart, but numbers are not my forte. I do know that measurements are marked on the side of every stick of wrapped butter. So I look: eight tablespoons in a stick, two cups in a pound, four sticks in a pound.

"Alright," I say, trying to get my bearings, "is 1/3 bigger or smaller than 1/2 cup?"

"Smaller," Six replies, "but we need two thirds."

"Okay, now... 8 tablespoons to half a cup, so that's 8 to 2, I mean 16 to 2, or it's x to 3... eight over two is four, times three is 12, so..."

I'm lost.

I look at the stick of butter and think, what's a third of this? and then it hits me: We ought to do it by eye! Take two sticks, lay them end to end, and cut off what looks like two-thirds!

I look for the other stick of butter, but it's gone.

"It's done, Seven, it's done. We don't need any more help."

Six says, "I just figured it was a stick and a little bit, so I cut that little bit!"

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