this post was submitted on 11 Apr 2024
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Used a couple of US recipes recently and most of the ingredients are in cups, or spoons, not by weight. This is a nightmare to convert. Do Americans not own scales or something? What's the reason for measuring everything by volume?

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

As an American who has recently learned to love his scale, I'm with you 100%. With that being said, no, many Americans do not have kitchen scales.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Just another one of those things where the rest of world looks at the US and shakes its head. There seems to be a lot of things in the US purely in place based on tradition and logic goes out the window.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago (2 children)

But also, there’s no real incentive to change… my brownies taste just fine with a 1/3 cup of oil and a 1/3 cup of water. I am sure they would taste just as good with 80 g of each, but if it works, why change it?

What logic is there in saying grams are better than cups of both work well for the intended task? If I were a professional baker, it’s entirely possible I would have a different opinion, but I (like 99% of Americans) am not.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

Oil and water are fine, but flour already starts to be a problem. How densely is it packed?
Then we go on to salt, which can have a lot of different grain sizes (although that is annoying with a scale as well because most kitchen scales are not very accurate with single-digit-grams)
Then it gets really weird when they say to use a cup of grated cheese, because depending on how you grate it it has very different densities

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 months ago (1 children)

But what I’m saying is I’m plenty accurate enough with cups… there would be no appreciable difference for my box of brownies.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

You're maybe plenty accurate for the brownies of your preference, but probably not for professional cooking or other activities that require accuracy.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

The vast majority of the planet are not professional cooks.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Absolutely the point. Precision is not needed in the vast majority of cooking. It's a pointless, time-consuming step.

Volumetric measurement is superior. Yes, I'd rather it be liters instead of cups, but cups is better than grams.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I'm not just talking about home cooking. It's just one thing. I'm talking about life in general. We Americans have a tendency to do these weird things based purely on tradition when there are more precise and logical solutions available. But no, no: "We're unique and exceptional. We do it the American way." Ridiculous.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Well, I'm specifically talking about measurements in home cooking. But you have fun with that.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

Like I said, it goes for home cooking as well.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Why should I take an extra step to weigh everything out? Why should I give up some valuable counter space for a food scale? That's just extra work for no reason.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Precision. Volume varies by how tightly something is packed, how finely something is diced, etc. I've seen recipes that recommend spooning flour into the measuring cup to ensure it's not packed in tightly, so you don't use too much. How much simpler is it to just weigh it?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Unless you're a professional chef it does not matter if you use 65 grams or 70 grams of something in a recipe. Makes zero difference.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I'm happy that you don't need it, but some of us like better precision. Plus, it's convenient to put a mixing bowl on a scale and add things by weight, rather than using numerous measuring cups.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

You add thing using cups, dude

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Exactly. You need to use a cup to move the thing from its container to a mixing bowl, might as well use a measuring cup

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

Spoon out sugar, spoon out flour, pour in milk, pour in oil, drop bits of other things in until you get to the weight needed. Even if you wash all of the spoons, it's easier than measuring cups. At worst, you still use a measuring cup or two, but still fewer than before.

Look, I was with you until recently, but your argument really has no leg to stand on.