Weighing food.

BarbaraHelen2013

NovusDies wrote: »

BarbaraHelen2013 wrote: »

NovusDies wrote: »

BarbaraHelen2013 wrote: »

My scales weigh in millilitres as well as grams, plus in pounds and ounces.

It weighs water and anything with the density of water in milliliters. Everything else it gets wrong.

I’m actually struggling to think of anything I would measure in ml that isn’t either water or maybe milk/almond milk. Anything more viscous I’d be measuring in grams anyway, I think? 🧐

Oils, sauces, condiments, cream, certain vinegar, certain juices, dressings, anything with a thickening agent, to name a few. Many of these will have grams on the label but I have run into all of these with only volume portion sizes.

Oil - if I use it, I’ll use a tsp/tbsp measure which I would verify on the scale anyway...depends what I’m doing. But if I’m using a tsp (5ml) to sauté veg, I’ll put the pan on the scale.
Sauces - on the rare occasion, I’d be making my own so I’m fully in control and can weigh ingredients.
Condiments - again rare. Mostly if I use they are ones I’ve made myself using the 1g=1portion model in the recipe builder.
Cream - not part of my diet.
Vinegar - it’s an ingredient, sure...but none of the ones I use have impact calorie wise, as far as I know. (Cider vinegar, red wine vinegar, white wine vinegar)
Juice - don’t drink it. I do use lemon/lime juice in recipes, but log it as millilitres or grams because it’s pretty liquid.
Dressings - I’m assuming you mean salad dressing? Never use it. I don’t even know what you refer to if it’s not salad dressing?

I’ve also checked many multiples of times, flicking between the gram and ml settings on my scales and there has never, ever been a discrepancy between the two for ingredients that logic would dictate you might use a liquid measurement for. So whilst I understand the theory behind what you’re saying, I would still maintain that I’ll measure water(as part of a recipe, not as a drink, (to address someone who said they don’t measure water because water...) milk (almond milk) in ml, but pretty much everything else I’d be measuring in grams anyway.

AnnPT77

BarbaraHelen2013 wrote: »

just_Tomek wrote: »

NovusDies wrote: »

BarbaraHelen2013 wrote: »

cuteangelkitten wrote: »

Get a food scale and measuring cups, so then you can weigh your portions accurately

Then throw the measuring cups in the bin, you’re only buying them so you can symbolically do this, right?

They can be used for liquids.

Not can or may.... they have to be used to measure liquids.

My scales weigh in millilitres as well as grams, plus in pounds and ounces.

estherdragonbat wrote: »

BarbaraHelen2013 wrote: »

cuteangelkitten wrote: »

Get a food scale and measuring cups, so then you can weigh your portions accurately

Then throw the measuring cups in the bin, you’re only buying them so you can symbolically do this, right?

I have too many cookbooks that call for "1/2 cup of peas" and "1 cup of chopped fruit". (Usually not in the same recipe ) It's easier to measure the amounts into the cup, then throw them on the scale to get a gram weight. I really stink at eyeballing.

And there we have yet another difference between the UK and the US. If I’m using an American recipe from the net, I’ll convert the measurements to grams, because although I do own measuring cups I don’t use them unless it’s something where accuracy isn’t vital. Such as pasta dough, because if I get a little too much or too little flour I can adjust the dough to the correct texture as I knead.

Other than that, all my cookbooks use grams and millilitres, or the older ones (plus a lot of the recipes stored in my brain) are in pounds and ounces.

As a curiousity though...how do you accurately measure a cup of chopped fruit? Surely how much that is depends on exactly how small or big you’ve chopped it?

Where it actually matters, a decent-quality** US recipe will usually specify mince, dice or some similar term (i.e., one with a more specific culinary definition), vs. "chop", or be written as "X cups of (something), chopped" (for something small enough to be measured before chopping) as opposed to "X cups of chopped (something)" (which is obviously not the same).

Also, it matters if the ingredient is structural (like a juicy fruit going into something like a cake batter), but otherwise it really doesn't matter for recipes (if not a structural ingredient - i.e., if I'm chopping fruit to go into cooked curry or a sauce, it might be a little more liquid-y one way or the other, but not enough to matter).

This is not an argument that cups is a better way to handle recipes (it isn't), but in most cases there isn't an unmanageable ambiguity, from a practical standpoint.

** I'm also not denying there are cr*p-quality recipes all over the internet.

BarbaraHelen2013

Thank you Ann, that makes sense, if the recipe also gives a guide to the size of the chop all those little air spaces will have been taken into account! I’m still going to stick to grams and whatnot because it’s what I feel comfortable with but good to understand how it’s at least feasible to be accurate enough, using a volume measure. 😊