What's the dumbest thing you thought as an adult that you recently learned was wrong?
I just realized while cooking that a measuring-cup cup (as measured out as 250mL in a glass measuring cup) is the same amount(s) as one of the actual plastic baking measuring cups that go inside each other like Russian dolls lol
I thought they were different somehow (something something imperial metric yadda yadda yaddda)
Your turn to come clean Lemmings!
**EDIT: to clarify, I mean volumetrically for measuring liquids
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They are different though! The glass measuring cup is for liquid and the ones that nestle into each other are for dry ingredients. You need to fill the little ‘1 cup’ dry measuring cup to the brim with ingredients to get an accurate measurement, which is pretty much impossible with the glass wet measuring cups.
When you are measuring dry ingredients, you can fill the same cup with more flour or whatever depending on how you fill it as well, but with liquid it’s, well, fluid.
So, you can measure wet ingredients in the dry ingredients cup, but not the other way around.
You shouldn't use measuring cups of any sort for dry ingredients. Use a scale. And if the recipe gives volumetric measurements instead of weight, you should convert them to weight first. You'll find your baking/cooking will become more consistent as a result.
It blows my mind that the OP was wrong and real answer to OP was not a reply, but a reply to a reply, ugh.
It wasn't dry stuff, is was water and milk for cooking. It was fine :) Its a good guideline tho re:consistency and definitely for baking/dry ingredients.
I also only eat to live, I don't have a super sensitive palate so its 99% the time just as well
If you have to eat to live, you may as learn to make it taste as good as you can. You may as well derive as much enjoyment as you can from the things you have to do anyway.
Meh, I'd rather it be little more than passable, so its not addictive and I don't get fat and also corralled into cooking for anybody else unless I want to ;)
Yup, you're right. I wouldn't want to end up fat like Gordon Ramsay either.
In case anyone wants to see the unedited retorts from this chucklefuck:
Ahh, internet. Never change
I'm too tired to destroy you haha, lets be more transient on this line of inquiry;)
You're right. Truce. I really shouldn't be facing off in a battle of wits against the unarmed anyway.
Thanks for the 1/2-baked retort, ch[i]ef 🤣
At least learn to spell your insults correctly cheese grater...
Nice edit there, che[i]ef
Measuring by mass is definitely more accurate, yeah (for dry and wet ingredients). But have you ever noticed that the recipe always uses round numbers? You never see 4/9 cup, or 2.3735 teaspoons. What's the point of being able to measure out an exact number of grams when the recipe is already extremely approximated at a not-necessarily-exactly-optimal amount?
I mean yes, ok, I admit that you will get more consistent results. But not necessarily consistently good results.
You're right, most recipes aren't great. But, the beauty of using the scale is that you can iterate to make the recipe better. And every change will be reflected, because you're using a scale to get precise, repeatable measurements.
It doesn't matter for a lot of things. Flour is compressible, but sugar isn't for example.
Sugar, like salt, is crystalline, and may not be compressible, but the crystal sizes do vary.
10 grams of rock salt will be the same as 10 grams of fine sea salt.
1 cup of rock salt =/= 1 cup of fine sea salt.
Use a scale. Always.
No, sorry but it's just not important. First, granulated sugar and table salt are both uniform at the macro scale and the individual structure of each crystal is immaterial to measurement at these scales. Secondly, your kitchen scale is neither accurate nor precise enough for it to matter for anything but the most compressible solids.
Since you don't accept the abstract argument, how about a concrete one.
This is a pizza dough recipe I make often,
Despite volumetric measurements being offered, there is no way to consistently get a 1/3 of a 1/4 of a teaspoon. But, I am able to get 0.3 grams consistently with a scale.
That's a twelfth of a teaspoon, also known as a "pinch". I bet you thought that wasn't a real measurement. https://www.amazon.com/Norpro-Stainless-Measuring-Spoons-smidgen/dp/B0009X1P9S?th=1 Here's the measuring spoons to accomplish that.
Why is it so important that your homemade pizza dough be so perfectly consistent? Good grief lmao
I mean, you're right, it's marginally better, but like ... Does it really matter that much? Can you even tell difference without a side by side comparison? I'm sure your pizza dough is just as delicious using a plain old inconsistent pinch instead of a scale.
Long fermentations require precise measurements if you want consistency.
Consistency isn't necessary, but I like tweaking baking recipes one ingredient at a time. And since I have several scales, including one that will measure up to 10 grams with a precision of +/-0.01 grams, I figure why not be precise and consistent.
You are consistently able to get your scale to read 0.3 grams. That is not the same as being able to consistently get 0.3 grams or have the same mass of a substance read out at 0.3 grams.
People should be required to do more lab work before just posting bullshit online.
Do you enjoy shifting goalposts?
I didn't move the goalposts at all. Literally all of my above comments mention the paucity of both accuracy and precision of any kitchen scale.
Why are you declaring the inaccuracy of their scale as if it's fact? You don't even know what kind of scale they're using and you end your comment with some grade-A "everyone is dumb except for me" crap like you somehow shut down their entire argument.
Not to mention how easy it is to test what you're arguing about. I literally just did this a few days ago with my roommate who was trying to bake some brownies. 3 scoops of flour placed on a scale resulted in 3 different readings that had a range of ~15g. I don't care how inaccurate you're going to claim my scale is, that's a very large discrepancy.
You should use a scale, but most kitchens don’t have a scale in them. I wasn’t trying to make things more difficult with my reply.
Every single kitchen I've ever been in had scales in it wtf
Well apart from that junkie bastard I met but he probably sold them for crack
Then you live in a fantasy lane and need to realize that the majority of the world doesn’t live in the same world as you. Have you also never seen a check engine light in a car?
97% of the world doesn't use cups. Tell me more about this majority :)
….you do realize that they are still called ‘measuring cups’ in other countries right? They aren’t called ‘measuring 250 grams’.
Solids weigh different amounts. You are talking about ml here. This is a good example of why it isn't ideal.
ML is also a measure of volume, which is what the measuring cups can measure. It’s not the 100% best method, but you will get comparable results. Again, I highly doubt anyone here could taste two recipes where the only difference is the use of a scale.
I would happily pay for a browser add-on that blocked American recipes.
Who the fuck uses cups to measure, outside of a nursery? 😂
Being good at cooking means knowing when that kind of precision is needed and when it isn't. For most things, it isn't.
Being good at baking means knowing it's always needed.
It wasn't dry stuff, is was water and milk for cooking. It was fine :)
The real hack comes when you realize you can weigh everything, so you never have to clean measuring devices ever again.
When I make cookies, I use a scale, and bake them on parchment paper. As a result, I only have to clean a bowl, and a spoon (and barely the baking sheet).
Measuring dry ingredients by volume is about as accurate as most kitchen scales, lol.
It’s still the same volume. Saying they are different is misleading. They just have different use cases.
I didn’t say the volume was different? I said the containers are different making it more difficult to get the proper volume of dry goods. You can’t flatten off 1 cup of flour that’s measured in a 2 cup measuring cup.
OP thought they were different as in different volumes, and then came to understand their mistake. you then came in to proclaim that they are different, then described how certain containers are harder to measure certain materials. Regardless of ease of use, a cup is a cup is a cup, so long is the “cup” in question is 8 oz of volume. Yes, some measurement tools have a different physical shape and may be more difficult to use for certain tasks, but that was not the “difference” being misidentified.
Also, you absolutely could use a glass measuring cup for flour, just tamp it down and go slowly, but that’d be stupid. Regardless, this is why using weight measurements for baking is vastly superior to using volume.
Aha, thanks for clarifying this :) And yes, I was measuring out liquids so that tracks
No worries! For cooking it wouldn’t be a big issue either way, but when it comes to baking you want to be precise.
And measuring by volume isn't very precise. Measure by weight.
It gets the job done, and is a lot easier for most people(plus most kitchens don’t have a scale). Don’t gatekeep cooking
It's not gate keeping. It's just as easy to get a scale as it is to get measuring cups. People should use the right tool for the job so they don't fuck up and lose their confidence to try again.
Scales are non essential tools that cost $20 or more, sure they do make things accurate but i honestly doubt you can tell if something your eating was cooked using measurements from a scale or with Betty Crocker measuring cups that are $3.