This is why we always tell you to use grams and not cups!

Francl27

haviegirl wrote: »

I understand that pasta should be weighed dry and calculated that way, but I don't EAT it dry. I eat it cooked. I think it's a pain in the neck to weigh it out before cooking, then weigh the cooked pasta, then do more math. I'm not saying I don't know how to do it, I'm just saying it frustrates me to do it. It slows me down and I want to EAT, damn it!

Re the American/Canadian measures, I agree that weight is the best way to go, but food scales are not common in typical American kitchens. Someone gave me a cookbook once that had all the ingredients by weight, and it was useless to me then. Hmm, I should go look for it...

Yes, logging accurately is a pain in the neck, no question. That's why for pasta if I make some for a few people, I just use 130g cooked for a serving and call it a day (because I use the same brand and the same cooking time, so close enough).

You know the funny thing... I grew up in France and we use grams, yet we still used some measuring cup thingy instead of scale! It just had marks all around for flour, sugar, volume. I actually have one but I admit that I never compared it to my scale to see how accurate it is.

Now though I really hate recipes that use cups - not that much for flour and sugar as I know how many grams that is - but for fruit or veggies. I guess it's never a huge deal if you're off by a little bit, but it just annoys me.

For what it's worth, I had a couple classes in one of the best bakeries in the area and they weigh everything too.

melonaulait

Francl27 wrote: »

Now though I really hate recipes that use cups - not that much for flour and sugar as I know how many grams that is - but for fruit or veggies. I guess it's never a huge deal if you're off by a little bit, but it just annoys me.

I also have absolutely no clue how one would determine how much fruit/veggie fits in a cup, a half cup, a quarter cup... I could imagine small berries or dried fruit fitting those measurements, but otherwise it blows my mind.

Wynterbourne

dimakatsoseabi wrote: »

Honestly I dnt see anything wrong there, what I see is a cup and pasta n both have their own weight, what happens when you put dry pasta alone in the scale and what happens when you put an empty cup on a scale?

I took the pictures so I'll try to clear up your confusion. The left image shows that the label on the pasta claims that one cup of pasta is the SAME as 56 grams of dry pasta. The top photo, I put a one cup measure onto a a scale, tared it (zero'd it out), and weighed 56 grams of dry pasta. The bottom picture, I put a one cup measure onto a a scale, tared it (zero'd it out), and filled the one cup measure level with dry pasta. According to the package label one level cup is supposed to be 56 grams. It is not. Their packaging calculates the calories by weight and not by volume. If someone used the volume measurement instead they would be eating nearly 300 calories when they thought they were eating 200. What if that person decided to have two servings? That would then be 600 calories when they thought they were getting 400. What if they only have a daily deficit set up of 500 calories? That miscalculation blew through nearly a half of their daily deficit. I was not including the weight of the measuring cup. That's what the tare function is for.

Does that make more sense?

zyxst

melonaulait wrote: »

Francl27 wrote: »

Now though I really hate recipes that use cups - not that much for flour and sugar as I know how many grams that is - but for fruit or veggies. I guess it's never a huge deal if you're off by a little bit, but it just annoys me.

I also have absolutely no clue how one would determine how much fruit/veggie fits in a cup, a half cup, a quarter cup... I could imagine small berries or dried fruit fitting those measurements, but otherwise it blows my mind.

You use the ounces:cup to figure it out.

8 oz = 1 cup
6 oz = 3/4 cup
4 oz = 1/2 cup
2 oz = 1/4 cup

Find a "close enough" conversion for ounces:grams. I believe 1 oz = 28 grams.

The confusion for a lot of people, including those who grew up using Imperial measurements, is there are dry ounces for measuring dry ingredients (flour, sugar, oats, pasta, etc) and fluid ounces for measuring fluids. Cup on the left is for liquids, the cups on the right are for dry ingredients.


What really confuses me in Canada is the use of mL for semi-solids like ice cream and even for vegetables.

stealthq

zyxst wrote: »

melonaulait wrote: »

Francl27 wrote: »

Now though I really hate recipes that use cups - not that much for flour and sugar as I know how many grams that is - but for fruit or veggies. I guess it's never a huge deal if you're off by a little bit, but it just annoys me.

I also have absolutely no clue how one would determine how much fruit/veggie fits in a cup, a half cup, a quarter cup... I could imagine small berries or dried fruit fitting those measurements, but otherwise it blows my mind.

You use the ounces:cup to figure it out.

8 oz = 1 cup
6 oz = 3/4 cup
4 oz = 1/2 cup
2 oz = 1/4 cup

Find a "close enough" conversion for ounces:grams. I believe 1 oz = 28 grams.

The confusion for a lot of people, including those who grew up using Imperial measurements, is there are dry ounces for measuring dry ingredients (flour, sugar, oats, pasta, etc) and fluid ounces for measuring fluids. Cup on the left is for liquids, the cups on the right are for dry ingredients.


What really confuses me in Canada is the use of mL for semi-solids like ice cream and even for vegetables.

In the US, a dry cup is not 8 fl oz. It's a bit smaller. Enough to make a difference for some fairly common baked goods.

I'm just thankful that 'pinch' and 'dash' have mostly fallen out of favor as units of measure

cerise_noir

zyxst wrote: »

melonaulait wrote: »

Francl27 wrote: »

Now though I really hate recipes that use cups - not that much for flour and sugar as I know how many grams that is - but for fruit or veggies. I guess it's never a huge deal if you're off by a little bit, but it just annoys me.

I also have absolutely no clue how one would determine how much fruit/veggie fits in a cup, a half cup, a quarter cup... I could imagine small berries or dried fruit fitting those measurements, but otherwise it blows my mind.

You use the ounces:cup to figure it out.

8 oz = 1 cup
6 oz = 3/4 cup
4 oz = 1/2 cup
2 oz = 1/4 cup

Find a "close enough" conversion for ounces:grams. I believe 1 oz = 28 grams.

The confusion for a lot of people, including those who grew up using Imperial measurements, is there are dry ounces for measuring dry ingredients (flour, sugar, oats, pasta, etc) and fluid ounces for measuring fluids. Cup on the left is for liquids, the cups on the right are for dry ingredients.


What really confuses me in Canada is the use of mL for semi-solids like ice cream and even for vegetables.

Yes! This bugged me so much that I emailed an ice cream company to ask for weight measurements instead of mL. I didn't hear anything back, LOL, but... I weigh the entire tub of ice cream when I get it, then weigh the empty container and divide the contents weight by the amount of servings to get the gram servings.

diannethegeek

Bump.