I’m editing recipes for a cookbook, and many submissions come from Canada, with metric amounts listed. What confuses me is how often they use grams.
Here in the measurement-impaired United States, recipes rarely refer to small weights. If it can be measured in pounds (like potatoes, for instance), it may be included that way in an ingredient list, but we’ll never use non-fluid ounces as an amount.
I’m sure that part of this is that it’s easy to confuse weight-ounces with volume-ounces, but it is also because it’s easier to measure things with measuring cups and spoons than it is to weigh them.
For a specific example, I have a recipe in front of me now that specifies 100g of sugar. Now I could write that with a US equivalent of 3-1/2 ounces avoirdupois, but it makes more sense to call it 1/2 cup by volume (I have a reference that tells me that 1 cup of granulated sugar weighs 200g). By the way, the same recipe gives the amount of milk as 1/2 cup.
Let me close by saying that I wish the US would join the world in using the metric system. However, I’d probably prefer to still use volume measurements like ml for things like granulated sugar.
To sum up, the general question is: When someone in a metric system country prepare food from a recipe, do they weigh things in grams a lot, or do they use a measuring cup and have to look up the weight/volume ratio for a particular ingredient? Or, on the third hand, are these recipes I keep seeing with gram measurements atypical?
Even here in the UK we measure most cookery ingrediants with a scale when using either metric or imperial measurments. The only exceptions are liguid measurments (there are 20 UK fluid oz to the pint) and very small amounts when we use either a tea or table spoon. I have just purchased a new electronic scale which can be switched between either metric or imperial. What you must not do is mix these units. When a recipe gives both units they are not directly equivalent so you have to use either one or the other.
To answer the question in the OP- ALL kitchens need a scale, US or not! At least, you do if you bake.
Almost any recipe can be “fudged” when it comes to measurements. Indeed, when I was in cooking school (strictly amatuer), we were encouraged to use a free hand.
But if you are baking, you must adhere to the exact measures in your recipe, therefore you must have a scale handy. Most kitchen scales will show you grams or ounces.
Thanks for the replies. I have a few followup questions.
Do you find the recipes I’m used to useless? If a cookbook measures flour or sugar in cups, do you consider it a poor source of cooking information? I don’t do a lot of baking, but I’ve looked at a lot of recipes these last few months. And almost all of them seem to use volume measurements for dry ingredients. Am I doing a disservice to Canadian consumers (not to leave out the rest of the world, but this book will only be sent to the US and Canada) by including so many recipes that use volume measurements?
My wife and I do have some American cook-books in our collection and indeed they usually have the dry ingrediants in “cups”. Luckilly there are sets of standard cups on sale together with sets of standard spoons to be used for this purpose.
I’m with Saltire here. Are you outside the USA, EJsGirl? Because just about EVERY cookbook I’ve seen uses ONLY volume measures–never weights. The landmark “Joy of Cooking” comes to mind (though I don’t have it handy now, I’m almost positive I’ve never seen a weight measurement in it). Seems to me that you can get by perfectly fine w/o a scale, assuming that the recipe-writers knew the proper volume for a given mass of a given ingredient.
Count me in with EJsGirl. Yes, just about every US cookbook gives measurements in volume (ie, cups). But once you buy and start using a kitchen scale, you’ll never go back. It’s MUCH more accurate when it comes to measuring things like flour. Ever notice you can fill a measuring cup with flour, then cut through it a couple times with a knife and suddenly instead of a cup of flour, you have 3/4 cup of flour? Measure by weight and you won’t have that problem.
Also, it’s a LOT easier to measure things out with a scale. Need 6 cups of flour? Grab a big bowl, stick it on the scale, keep filling until you get to 30 oz (standard measurement for flour is 5oz to a cup.) Need 1.5 cups of wheat flour? Just add it in on top until you get to 37.5 oz. Need 1/4 pound of butter? Get the butter dish out and start glopping it in until you have another 4 oz. Etc. etc. I love my scale.
The downside is, of course, that you have to get good at converting volume measurements to weight. I’m convinced that the only reason we measure in volume is simply tradition. Cookbook writers can assume everyone has measuring cups. They can’t assume everyone has a scale, so they write their recipes using measuring cups.
An interesting point - all the professional recipes I’ve seen measure just about everything by weight. I’m guessing that’s because of two things - 1, it’s MUCH easier when doing large quantities (who wants to measure out 60 cups of flour?!?) and 2, it’s much more accurate.
I’ve got cups and scales and I switch between both systems depending on whether I am using a US cookbook or a UK or Australasian cookbook.
Very small amounts like 5 grams - I know which measuring spoons relate to that. I’d love a digital scale but I’ve got a fairly manky old scale which isn’t precise enough for tiny amounts.