Not universal, unique
About five years ago I bought a bowl at Safeway. It wasn't a normal part of their stock, just one of those special things they offer at various times. At the time I was starting to make omelets, and my existing soup bowls weren't large enough to do quality control and mixing for three eggs. The new bowl served the purpose beautifully, and immediately became my only bowl. It held ramen in the morning, egg quality control at lunch, and chili at supper, along with helping to sort and thaw vegetables for the chili. It was perfect.

Two weeks ago I got careless and broke it. Fortunately it was empty at the time.

Well, no problem. If Safeway carries something, it can't be a rare custom-made item. Must be super-common and easy to replace.

Wrong. The dimensions are apparently NOT standard, and I'm having a hard time finding something that matches.

Fortunately I took a picture of it when I was pointlessly writing about the chili recipe.



Measuring against the spoon, the bowl has to be at least 8 inches in diameter, probably 8.5 inches. I've returned to the small bowls which are 7 inches, and I know for sure they're smaller than the good bowl, because that's why I bought and kept the good bowl in the first place. The eggs are crowded and hard to mix, and the soup is too close to the top.

There are standard "salad bowls" with the right diameter, but they're all too shallow (2 inches deep). I ordered a couple of "salad bowls" and tried the Archimedes trick. Filled the small bowl with water up to the usual quantity of ramen, which is too close to the top in the small bowl, but was safely under the edge in the good bowl. Poured the water into the alleged "salad bowls". It's WAY too close to the top, almost sloshing out.

So the correct bowl needs to be 8 or 8.5 in diameter, and 3 inches deep. This is NOT common.

I'm tempted to commission one of the potters on Etsy to make several of them so I'll have a backup the next time I get stupid and break one.

A bit later: As usual, writing about a problem helps to loosen the assumptions. SE-LU. It turns out that bowls of the correct dimensions do exist, but they're known as "serving bowls" instead of "salad bowls" or "soup bowls." Perhaps because they "serve" a purpose, while the others don't. Found one on Ebay, after making sure the picture showed the actual height of 3" on an actual measuring tape. Ordered it. We'll see if it SERVES my purpose.

Later: Got it. Nice bowl but too large. Well, now we've got brackets around the correct size. Time to apply the method of adjustment.

Next day: Decided to try the "salad bowl" again with real food. The depth doesn't match the original, but it does work. It holds my usual portion. Diameter is the crucial dimension, not just for egg-mixing. 7 inches doesn't leave any room for error when pouring from pan to bowl. There's always a little spillage where the liquid 'backtracks' along the side of the pan. 8.5 inches is enough to keep all the liquid inside the bowl. So I'll use this one while looking (with less urgency) for the Mama Bear Just Right item.

Labels: Metrology, Nonzero problems

  ¶ 2:58 AM