Measuring liquids

hmg90
hmg90 Posts: 314 Member
edited February 13 in Food and Nutrition
Okay this might be a stupid question but here goes...

I got a food scale, but it only measures grams. I don't have liquid measurements.

So I know 1l of water is about 1000grams. But what about other liquids?

Say 50g og gin, what should I list that as? Or coconut milk? ALL the measurements in the database is in ml. I tried googling it, but didn't find anything.

Edit: 1l of water is 1000g obviously, typo :)

Replies

  • SimoneBee12
    SimoneBee12 Posts: 268 Member
    You need a measuring glass, you can get Pyrex ones for a few bucks anywhere, they have cups and mL measurements on them.

    Oh, and 1L is roughly 1000g, not 100g :)
  • ChrisM8971
    ChrisM8971 Posts: 1,067 Member
    I believe that 1 litre of water is 1,000 g and I do weigh a lot of my liquids because its often easier to, say weight milk into a bowl of cereal than to get a jug out.

    Whether it is an accurate conversion depends on the specific gravity of the liquid being measured but in most cases I think it is close enough, after all, how many measuring jugs are calibrated?

    Never done the experiment with alcohol though but I am sure that 25 g with be very close to 25 mls
  • _Zardoz_
    _Zardoz_ Posts: 3,987 Member
    Buy a measuring jug they're really cheap. Also depending on the liquid and viscosity the weight can change. Also the smaller amount you weigh say 50 mls the greater the margin of error. For the sake of £2 for a cheap plastic measuring jug it seems silly not to get it accurate
  • melissalatzel24
    melissalatzel24 Posts: 26
    i know that 11ml of olive oil = 10g

    so the gram value is ALMOST the same, just a fraction less
    (i also checked this on MFP for milk 100grams versus 100ml and there is only a tiny difference)
  • mungowungo
    mungowungo Posts: 327 Member
    Normally you'd measure liquids by volume not weight - that is in a measuring cup or jug and I'm pretty sure that a litre of water would weigh a bit more than 100 grams - yep just googled it a litre of water weighs a tad over a kilo or 1,010 grams.

    Sorry but I think you will need a set of measuring cups or a glass measuring jug for your liquids.
  • ChrisM8971
    ChrisM8971 Posts: 1,067 Member
    Buy a measuring jug they're really cheap. Also depending on the liquid and viscosity the weight can change. Also the smaller amount you weigh say 50 mls the greater the margin of error. For the sake of £2 for a cheap plastic measuring jug it seems silly not to get it accurate

    While I do think that buying a jug is worth doing because it is useful to have I sometimes have to wonder why anyone would think that a "cheap plastic jug" would be particularly accurate, or more accurate than weighing most liquids (In the OP coconut milk is mentioned and I find that is always in grams on the tin)
  • geebusuk
    geebusuk Posts: 3,348 Member
    Measuring jug is much more sensible option - the reason some scales offer a 'liquid' measurement thing is for say adding milk into a cake recipe.
  • SimoneBee12
    SimoneBee12 Posts: 268 Member
    Buy a measuring jug they're really cheap. Also depending on the liquid and viscosity the weight can change. Also the smaller amount you weigh say 50 mls the greater the margin of error. For the sake of £2 for a cheap plastic measuring jug it seems silly not to get it accurate

    While I do think that buying a jug is worth doing because it is useful to have I sometimes have to wonder why anyone would think that a "cheap plastic" would be particularly accurate, or more accurate than weighing most liquids (In the OP coconut milk is mentioned and I find that is always in grams on the tin)

    The volume of a mL doesn't change, why would it not be accurate? Maybe a cheap one from the dollar store could be wrong from the get go, but a decent glass measuring jug will always be correct when measuring liquids.

    1 liquid cup of molasses will weigh more than 1 liquid cup of water, because it's more dense, but the volumes of a liquid cup is the same.
  • ChrisM8971
    ChrisM8971 Posts: 1,067 Member
    Buy a measuring jug they're really cheap. Also depending on the liquid and viscosity the weight can change. Also the smaller amount you weigh say 50 mls the greater the margin of error. For the sake of £2 for a cheap plastic measuring jug it seems silly not to get it accurate

    While I do think that buying a jug is worth doing because it is useful to have I sometimes have to wonder why anyone would think that a "cheap plastic" would be particularly accurate, or more accurate than weighing most liquids (In the OP coconut milk is mentioned and I find that is always in grams on the tin)

    The volume of a mL doesn't change, why would it not be accurate? Maybe a cheap one from the dollar store could be wrong from the get go, but a decent glass measuring jug will always be correct when measuring liquids.

    1 liquid cup of molasses will weigh more than 1 liquid cup of water, because it's more dense, but the volumes of a liquid cup is the same.

    You are correct the volume of a ml doesn't change but different measuring jugs will differ slightly in how much volume you actually have in the jug due to the tolerances allowable in manufacture.

    I have said that the jug is the right way to go but for the minor difference in the specific gravity of say milk, I don't think the weighing accuracy would be any less than the measuring accuracy. For other liquids that obviously would not be the case.

    My general point is that we shouldn't just assume that the jug is accurate either and that we may be consuming more or less calories than we think we are.
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