Milk by... WEIGHT!?!?!

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  • CattOfTheGarage
    CattOfTheGarage Posts: 2,750 Member
    edited February 2018
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    lynn_glenmont wrote: »
    CattOfTheGarage wrote: »
    I weigh most liquids and generally just assume the density is the same as water, because for most drinkable liquids, it is.

    The only things which are going to make a drinkable liquid a different density are fat (makes it lighter), alcohol (lighter) and sugar (heavier). Fibre, eg in smoothies or soup, is more or less neutral buoyancy and has no noticeable effect one way or the other. Even wet foods like stews are very close to water density. It's low-moisture foods, and foods that trap air (eg ice cream, whipped cream), that can be drastically different.

    Fat content in even whole milk is so low that the difference is within margin of error - 4% fat only makes a 0.8% difference in density. Kitchen scales just aren't that accurate! Sugar content likewise, and even alcohol won't make a noticeable difference unless we're talking about hard spirits.

    Granted heavy cream will be noticeably lighter than water, but you're still looking at a bigger inaccuracy in using a volume measure than the density difference would produce.

    I weigh oil, too. It's 80% as dense as water, roughly, so 8g is 10ml. I just estimate that in my head.

    But if you're going to weigh it anyway, why not use an entry with a serving size based on weight, at least for "commodities" like milk, cream, oils that the USDA provides nutrient information for serving sizes in grams and (not fluid) ounces?

    If I can find such an entry, I do, but you know how it is. Sometimes you're drinking some random Korean Mango flavoured milk you got at the international grocery store and you have to create a new entry based on the nutrition information, which is only in ml. I would still weigh it. It's close enough.

    That's when I'm not eyeballing it. I'm one of those who eyeballs most of the time and then strategically weighs things at intervals to keep my eye in.

    People, please don't worry about temperature. Trust me. I deal with density calculations for ship stability. We have to account for density to 0.1% accuracy. We ignore temperature. The effect is miniscule. If it doesn't matter for a ship, it *really* doesn't matter for your smoothie.

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