Food measurements/weights

ckbarron

When non-liquid food items are listed in ounces, is this weight or liquid measurement? How do I tell if I should be putting it on my scale or in a measuring cup?

wilson10102018

That would be weight, not volume unless you are measuring things like flour and rice which, when dry refer to cups, tablespoons, etc.

kshama2001

I weigh EVERYTHING.

There is a glitch in the database that makes some solid foods come up in fluid ounces - is that what you are referring too? These usually have grams as well so you can just use those.

springlering62

I usually don’t have more than a cup of liquid in a recipe, and have found that 240ml (which equals a cup) is almost always pretty darn close to the “cup” line using a measuring cup.

So I weigh my liquids for convenience.

westrich20940

Ideally you should use weight measurement for everything if possible. measuring things by volume is less accurate (even when baking and measuring liquids and flour etc....).

So I'd say for convenience, if it's a liquid (or liquid-like, like dip/yogurt, etc...) use a volume measurement but anything else weigh it.

rosebarnalice

To avoid the confusion between liquid ounces ( volume) and dry ounces (weight), I always try to use an entry that lists the measurement in metric: 1 ml (volume) = 1 gram (weight)

goal06082021

rosebarnalice wrote: »

To avoid the confusion between liquid ounces ( volume) and dry ounces (weight), I always try to use an entry that lists the measurement in metric: 1 ml (volume) = 1 gram (weight)

It's important to note that 1ml of water weighs 1 gram. Liquids with different densities will have different weights. Oil, for example, is less dense than water - 1ml of olive oil weighs 0.9g. Milk is more dense than water; 1ml of milk weighs 1.04g.

Weigh everything in grams, find or create entries that report calories per gram or 100g. It's pretty easy to Google something like "olive oil weight per ml" and do some simple math to figure that your 15g tablespoon of olive oil was ~17ml (rounding up, IMO it's better to overestimate and undereat than the other way around if the goal is weight loss).

Also, this kind of measuring cup is for measuring dry goods, like flour or grains or pasta or whatever. This kind of measuring cup is for measuring liquids. They are not the same. Check it yourself - fill your 1-cup dry goods measuring cup with water and then pour that water into your liquid measuring cup.

glassyo

springlering62 wrote: »

I usually don’t have more than a cup of liquid in a recipe, and have found that 240ml (which equals a cup) is almost always pretty darn close to the “cup” line using a measuring cup.

So I weigh my liquids for convenience.

I started inadvertantly doing this with cereal. I'd weigh my cereal but then use a measuring cup for my unsweetened vanilla almond milk. But the scale didn't go off by the time I'd pour the almond milk in so I just started noting the weight after the milk was added and ended up eliminating cleaning the measuring cup by trying to get that weight with the milk by pouring it from the carton.