Fear not, you have company. Off the top of my head, I have:
3 complete ordinary sets of measuring cups - the kind that have 1, 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, and a 1/8 measure.
2 two-cup glass measuring cups
1 8-cup glass measuring up
2 4-cup plastic measuring cups, one with a lid
A set of odd sizes (1.5 cups, 3/4 cup, and 2/3 cup) that I love, because really, who can be bothered to measure out 1.5 cups of flour using TWO measuring cups when you could save time and mess by using one?
4 sets of regular teaspoons, the best of which is stainless steel, has elongated spoons to make it easier to get into small jars, and a 3/4 tsp measure
A nice metal set of odd teaspoon sizes, including 1/2 tablespoon, 2 teaspoons, and 1/3 teaspoon
Loose teaspoon measures that I keep around because they’re handy: 1/2 tablespoon, 1/3 teaspoon, and - this one is quite useful - an Australian tablespoon (4 teaspoons). It’s nice because I have a lot of Australian cookbooks, or if I’m dividing/doubling a recipe and need something like 7 teaspoons, I can use 1 American TBS and 1 Australian TBS.
A nice stainless steel mini-teaspoon set marked somewhat whimsically with a pinch, a dash, a sprinkle, and something else. (I believe these do have culinary definitions - a pinch is 1/8 tsp, a dash is 1/16, and so on).
Of course, once you start dealing with amounts like 1/3 teaspoon or a “dash,” you really don’t need such precise measurements. Still, it amuses me to own them, and some (Oz TBS, 1/2 TBS) are actually quite useful.
What I don’t have, and wish I did, is a 2-and-1/4-teaspoon measure, as that is the amount in a packet of yeast, and I always buy my yeast in bulk.
Both my sets are nice stainless steel and both get used a lot. The cheap thin elliptical ones were long ago relegated to measuring things that should never mingle with food, meaning spa chemicals.
Which reminds me… I have a fifth 2-cup Pyrex measuring cup out with the spa stuff. Astonishing how many chemicals have to be mixed with water before adding them to the spa.
Measuring cups everywhere around this place!
It’s nice to know a fellow measuring traveler!
I buy my yeast in bulk, too, but I play a little fast and loose with the measurements. If I get it somewhere between 2 1/8 and 2 1/2, that’s good enough for who it’s for. But if you really want a 2 1/4 tsp measure, there is such a thing on Amazon!
For some bread recipes where the measurements are crucial, I weigh the ingredients rather than rely on volume measurements. My successes with breads improved dramatically when I started doing that.
I do breads in two completely different ways, depending on why I’m baking. If I’m just making bread for myself, I don’t measure anything, I just eyeball it. That works quite well, but occasionally I end up thinking, “I wish I’d upped the amounts a little, I ended up with two somewhat undersized loaves,” or “could have used more salt,” etc.
So if I am baking a specific type of bread for a dinner party, or to give to others (I cook once a week as a respite service for a local family), I want to be 100% sure I get predictable results. That’s when the measuring equipment comes out
For a while, every few years, I’d buy another set of the individual cups, what my son calls the “matrioshka” cups after the Russian dolls that fit inside each other.
Recently, they have been including a 1/8-cup (2 tablespoon) in the cup sets, which I find useful for tons off things, but only recently learned it is for filling reusable Keurig filters.
I have at 2 1-cup measures, and 3 1/4-cup measures. The ones I have the fewest are the ones I tend to lose, like 2/3-cup, albeit, I have several 1/3-cup measures.
I also have a glass liquid cup measure that is marked off in liquid ounces. It was left behind by the previous tenants of an apartment I lived in, in the 80s.
And, I have my great-grandmother’s jelly jar. She wrote down family recipes for the first time (after much pleading from my mother and grandmother). A lot of them call for "3 jelly jars of flour, one of sugar, and soforth.
Dry measuring cups: an ancient (whoops, I mean, vintage) set of vomit yellow Tupperware cups that my wife adores because they include both ⅓c and ⅔c sizes. Apparently (she says) this was a Rare Thing when she was a kid so this particular set is, according to her, rare and highly prized because similar sets are so difficult to find. When she told me that I was like, ::points to Amazon:: But whatever. I don’t like them.
Liquid: one plastic 1 cup, 3 plastic 2 cups. One Pyrex 2 cup, one Pampered Chef 4 cup, and one Pampered Chef 8 cup. The Pampered Chef stuff sucks but my wife paid a king’s ransom for them so swears they aren’t as craptacular as they really are.
I want to get a set of those cups Alton Brown liked that looked like big pistons inside a cylinder. Perfect for measuring thick sticky stuff like peanut butter. But I don’t cook with that stuff enough to justify buying them. Yet.
For liquids I have a 2 cup plastic and 1 cup Pyrex. I made a brownie recipe a couple weeks ago that called for boiling water, so I was glad to have the Pyrex for that.
For dry ingredients I have a set of metal measuring cups, from Oxo, I think.
I have two sets of measuring spoons, one of which is skinny enough to fit through the neck of small spice jars. I can scoop out a tablespoon of chili powder (or whatever) and not worry about spilling any.
I have (all old-style pyrex, steep sides and pour spouts):
4 cup
2 x 2 cup
2 x 1 cup
One of the 2 cup ones is all scratched on the inside because i routinely use it to beat eggs and then mix in the milk, when making corn bread and other quick breads, etc.
A set of pretty copper measuring scoops (wedding present) that hang on the wall. They are great for dry measures, like sugar. I also use them for water and milk.
4 sets of measuring spoons:
1 stainless round spoons
1 aluminum oval spoons
2 stainless rectangular spoons, like these
Except mine are unbranded and don’t include 1/2 Tablespoon.
I mostly use the last two, because they are bulletproof and fit into my spice bottles.
I also have aluminum scoops in the flour and sugar jars, but they aren’t measured. They are good for pouring for into a bowl perched on the scale, though.
Those look like a nuisance to clean. I’ve taken to weighing all my sticky ingredients. Usually, i can add them after the flour, and i just pour (molasses, corn syrup) or spoon (shortening, peanut butter) them into the flour, without needing to dirty another item, except maybe a random spoon.
I have a couple of REI Thermal mugs (with the older logo). One is my water cup, and the other one is in the cupboard. They’re not measuring cups, but they are graduated on one side. I’ve never used them to measure.
So tell me about this Wonder Cup. How is it an improvement over regular measuring cups for things like honey or peanut butter?
My typical experience is that ingredients like honey, molasses, or syrup usually appear in recipes with similar amounts of oil. So all you have to do is measure the oil first and then use the same cup for the honey - it’ll slide up perfectly.
As to peanut butter, I do the old trick of plopping it into a measuring cup of water.
And for the rest of it - things like mayonnaise, sour cream, whatever - I don’t find them particularly difficult to measure.
Having said that, I am eternally in the market for more fun kitchen gadgets that I’ll actually use (which, given my passion for trying new things in the kitchen, is pretty much everything). So - why is the Wonder Cup useful? I’ll get one if it improves my kitchen experience!
I’ve never heard about oil-then-honey or peanut butter-in water. (Full disclosure: I don’t use honey.) For peanut butter or mayonnaise, there’s always residue in the measuring cup. With a measuring cylinder, you set the piston to the desired amount, then put in the sticky stuff and smooth the top level. It’s easy to ensure you’ve filled all of the voids. Then just plop it out by pushing (or, more fun, slapping) the piston. Anything remaining on the face of the plunger is quickly and cleanly scraped off so there’s no waste.
This. My 2/3 and 3/4 cup measures are invaluable, especially when adjusting recipes when I have to double, halve, or 1.5x ingredients.
I also have a kitchen drawer with an assortment of disposable plastic scoops that came with various powdered things I’ve bought, in different sizes by ml.
Sounds good. My solution for the gunk in the measuring cup is a varied collection of spatulas, including small ones that work very well for scraping out small containers. But I can see how the Wonder Cup would be useful in that regard, plus providing a high degree of accuracy when measuring stuff out.
My collection is much like yours–too many to count.
Plus my wife drinks a lot of a powdered iced tea that comes with a 1/4-cup measuring cup in the can. I have…a LOT of these, like dozens, maybe hundreds. There’s one in every canister of flour, sugar, bread crumbs, etc., and I give handfuls to friends for the same purpose.
I also have found other oddball sizes in other products, like 3TBS and 3oz versions. These are useful when you need those amounts, since they save time. Though I tend to do more and more measuring by weight these days, too.
