Uh-oh. Is 1/2 cup cooked rice NOT the same as 4 oz?
CeeBeeSlim
Posts: 1,359 Member
I thought I'd improve my measuring and read here that measuring solids was best done on a food scale; liquids in a cup. I was measuring rice in a measuring cup. But the 1/2 cup if rice in the measuring cup seemed a lot less than the 4oz of rice on the scale. Am i doing this correctly?
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1/2 C of cooked rice for me is 75 grams = 2.65 ounces.0
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Probably. There are alot of foods which will weigh much more than the measured serving would suggest. You can smoosh alot of rice into 1/2 cup.
Inversely, there are also some foods which you will get more of....shredded cheese being one for me.0 -
You can't measure solids with volume measurements.
4 ounces is not the same as 4 fluid ounces.0 -
Probably. There are alot of foods which will weigh much more than the measured serving would suggest. You can smoosh alot of rice into 1/2 cup.
Inversely, there are also some foods which you will get more of....shredded cheese being one for me.
Yes, I got a lot more sunflower seeds using the scale than I did when I used the cup.0 -
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Rice is one of those foods that should be weighed - before cooking. It will weigh different amounts depending on how much water it has absorbed.0
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Probably. There are alot of foods which will weigh much more than the measured serving would suggest. You can smoosh alot of rice into 1/2 cup.
Inversely, there are also some foods which you will get more of....shredded cheese being one for me.
^^^ this.. my 1 cup rice tend to range between 130g - 200 g depending on how i smoosh them in.. lol..0 -
I'm dense! So does that mean I should or shouldn't use the food scale for the rice? And if so, I should've used grams as a measure - not oz? I saw 1/2 cup and figured oh, that's 4 oz.0
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CeeBeeSlim wrote: »I'm dense! So does that mean I should or shouldn't use the food scale for the rice? And if so, I should've used grams as a measure - not oz? I saw 1/2 cup and figured oh, that's 4 oz.
You use a food scale, preferably before cooking the rice. And grams is the most accurate measure for solids.0 -
Four fluid ounces is half a cup, but the unit of mass called an ounce is 28 grams, rounded off. I'd measure out the half cup serving you want, then weigh it to determine your standard serving in grams. Then find a database entry for cooked rice that records the amount in either grams or 100 grams. Metric makes the math easier.0
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Because volume and weight measurements are different. A half cup is 4 fluid oz, or volume measurement. But the weight will be another matter.0
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endlessfall16 wrote: »
4oz for solid foods is not the same as 4oz for liquids. They're saying stop using measuring cups for solid foods like rice--use the scale and use grams. Use the measuring cups for liquids.0 -
Probably. There are alot of foods which will weigh much more than the measured serving would suggest. You can smoosh alot of rice into 1/2 cup.
Inversely, there are also some foods which you will get more of....shredded cheese being one for me.
^^^ this.. my 1 cup rice tend to range between 130g - 200 g depending on how i smoosh them in.. lol..endlessfall16 wrote: »
4oz for solid foods is not the same as 4oz for liquids. They're saying stop using measuring cups for solid foods like rice--use the scale and use grams. Use the measuring cups for liquids.
Now I'm confused!
I thought cup, oz was also a weight measurement unit. Why the vary?
(I'm reminded of a childhood riddle. Which is heavier: 1 kg of iron or 1 kg of cotton?)
----from googling...
Cup To Gram Conversions
Cups Grams Ounces
1/4 cup 85 g 3 oz
1/3 cup 113 g 4 oz
1/2 cup 170 g 6 oz
2/3 cup 227 g 8 oz0 -
endlessfall16 wrote: »Probably. There are alot of foods which will weigh much more than the measured serving would suggest. You can smoosh alot of rice into 1/2 cup.
Inversely, there are also some foods which you will get more of....shredded cheese being one for me.
^^^ this.. my 1 cup rice tend to range between 130g - 200 g depending on how i smoosh them in.. lol..endlessfall16 wrote: »
4oz for solid foods is not the same as 4oz for liquids. They're saying stop using measuring cups for solid foods like rice--use the scale and use grams. Use the measuring cups for liquids.
Now I'm confused!
I thought cup, oz was also a weight measurement unit. Why the vary?
(I'm reminded of a childhood riddle. Which is heavier: 1 kg of iron or 1 kg of cotton?)
----from googling...
Cup To Gram Conversions
Cups Grams Ounces
1/4 cup 85 g 3 oz
1/3 cup 113 g 4 oz
1/2 cup 170 g 6 oz
2/3 cup 227 g 8 oz
Or the mfp version....which weighs more? Fat or muscle?
Weigh 3 oz of orange juice from a measuring cup and see if it equals 85 grams on the scale. Or 3 oz of any cereal. Measuring cups for liquids. Scale for solids.0 -
Oh shoot boo...then I've been doing it wrong all this time
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endlessfall16 wrote: »
Not necessarily.
4 oz of water is close enough to 4 fl oz to be considered equal. (It's actually 0.9587 oz/fl oz)
4 oz of molasses ... not so much.
Solid items really should never be measured by volume, but for some things you can get decent consistency. Not with squishy or irregularly shaped things (cooked rice, chopped veg, etc) because the packing of the measuring vessel is not consistent.
4 oz measures weight.
4 fl oz measures volume.
An oz measures the same as a fl oz if the density of the liquid is 1 oz/fl oz0 -
Also make sure the label states if the serving size is dry or cooked. I weighed 2oz of dry spaghetti the other night on my food scale and it was about 5oz cooked.0
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The confusing thing is that we use "ounces" for two types of measurements (weight and volume). It's dumb and confusing. But that's how it is. If people specified "fluid ounces" for volume it would certainly help.
Ounces for weight: 16oz = 1lb
This measures how heavy something is
Fluid ounces: 8oz = cup
This measures how much space something takes up.
Think of something like feathers. A pound of feathers would fill a HUGE bag. But just because that pound weighs 16 ounces does not mean that it's two cups (or 16 fl. oz.)
The same goes for food. If you shred 4oz. of cheese it will give you a pretty good heap. But if you really cram it in, you might get 6oz (of weight) into a 4oz. cup.
But they're totally different measurements. A pound (weight) is totally different than a liter (volume). Ounce and fluid ounce are the same. But some people leave of the "fluid" part which can make it confusing.0 -
Also, using grams for weight instead of ounces is more precise, but it also helps keep it less confusing since "ounce" is often confused for "fluid ounce"...
Does that help?
That's why measuring cups and spoons that measure volume, like fluid ounces, milliliters, liters, cups, gallons (or how much space it takes up) are best used for FLUIDS! Oils, juices, etc.
And the scale is best used for weights, like grams, ounces or pounds.
Most packaging will specify mL (for milliliter) or fl. oz. if they're giving serving sizes in a volume measurement. If it lists the serving size in grams or "oz" then it's a measurement that needs to be weighed. That should help you know when to weigh on a scale vs. use a measuring spoon or cup.0 -
I learned something new in this post. I had no idea that fl.oz. and oz. were not the same thing.0
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4 oz = 1/2 cup, doesn't matter is it's a solid or a liquid.
Weigh your rice dry rather than cooked. My 1/2 cup dry Basmati rice is 45 grams.0 -
Very informative! Thank you.0
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You need to see if the 4 oz is cooked or uncooked weight. 4 oz of uncooked rice is a lot less than 4 oz of cooked rice. I am a professional chef of 15 years, and I was trying to convert uncooked pasta to cooked pasta to get a proper portion size, and for some reason I could not get it because the uncooked pasta was in Cups, and the cooked pasta was in Pounds. All very confusing.
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michelle172415 wrote: »I learned something new in this post. I had no idea that fl.oz. and oz. were not the same thing.
This is one problem that really annoys me in the database. I have come across so many entries for solid foods (like apples) with volume units like milliliters and fluid ounces but not weight measurements like ounces and grams. You should not be logging solids like an apple in volumetric units but in weight units. This makes so many of the entries unusable and sometimes it's hard to find an entry with the correct units.
@zyxst saying 4 oz = 1/2 cup regardless if the matter is solid or liquid is only true for volumetric measurements. 4 fluid ounces in a liquid measuring cup is NOT the same as 4 ounces on a food scale. They are completely different units of measurement with different meanings. As mentioned above, water is generally considered the only product in which 4 fluid ounces = 4 ounces because it is a standardization. For other liquids and solids which are more or less dense than water, this is not true.
The rule of thumb is measure liquids by volume in a liquid measure cup (fluid ounces or milliliters) and measure solids by weight on a food scale (ounces and grams).0 -
OP, just wanted to summarize for you since this thread has gotten a little confusing!
- You should always measure dry when you can, that is what the info on the package is for. Cooked rice expands by absorbing some of the cooking liquid which obviously affects the weight.
- In general, rice doubles from dry to cooked, but that is only an approximation. If your package also gives you nutrition info for 1/2 cup cooked, you might as well measure by volume because the weight will be different depending on how much cooking liquid your rice happened to absorb this time.
- Ounces is a weight measurement, fluid ounces is a volume measurement.
- 1/2 cup (volume) = 4 fl oz (volume) But we should avoid volume measurements.
- A typical serving of rice dry is listed as 1/4 cup or 45 grams. 45 grams is @ 1.6 oz. So if your scale is giving you ounces, one serving is 1.6 oz. If it is giving you grams, one serving is 45 grams.
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Not to complicate things,
but part of the reason you see volume measurements next to the serving size & weight measurement is because a lot of people don't have a scale and/or need to eyeball the serving size. Basically, it's to make things "easy." But "easy" isn't good enough when you're cutting calories and every calorie counts. 
My peanut butter says a serving is 32g, or about 2 Tbsp. But if you want to be really accurate, you must use the weight (32g), because that is how the food manufacturers are actually doing it when they run the actual tests that measure nutritional info and calorie counts. The "about 2 Tbsp" is just because consumers can't easily gauge what 32g really is.
Same with my Cosmos popcorn snacks. 28g is one serving. And that's actually a lighter weight than a serving of peanut butter. I'd never gauge the amount correctly. They put "about 2 1/2 cups" on the package because otherwise the nutritional info would be completely unusable to the average person. No one would accurately gauge weight measurements.
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Thank you all. I think I'm there. Here's what i ate last night.
http://m.minuterice.com/en-us/products/92/WholeGrainBrownRice.aspx
If I understand, I incorrectly measured and ate 4oz of cooked rice on the food scale.
Before hand, I would just put enough cooked rice in one of those glass Pyrex glasses. That was sooo much less rice.
So the word problem I now have is how many calories of the rice did I have?
And from now on I should convert the oz to grand and weigh that on the scale, right?0
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XpHykP6e_Uk
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