# Metric recipes use mass not volume? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 14, 2011, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/metric-recipes-use-mass-not-volume/571330 "2011-02-14T18:07:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2011, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/metric-recipes-use-mass-not-volume/571330/41 "2011-02-15T08:00:02Z")
Someone once asked me if I’d convert the metric recipe amounts on my website to ‘standard’ measures. Made I laugh. ---
**Author:** ![TravisFromOR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cc9497/32.png) [@TravisFromOR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TravisFromOR)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2011, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/metric-recipes-use-mass-not-volume/571330/42 "2011-02-15T08:11:22Z")
> [@sh1bu1](#): > > I prefer recipes that use “weight”. You put a bowl on the scale and zero it out. Add 50g or flour and zero it our, add 25g of sugar, and zero it out. I can’t imagine anything easier. I grew up using tsp and cups and such, but they are not easier. Ok, you’re pouring your stuff into the bowel, and you pour too much in, what then? ---
**Author:** ![Rayne\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2011, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/metric-recipes-use-mass-not-volume/571330/43 "2011-02-15T08:13:59Z")
> [@TravisFromOR](#): > > Ok, you’re pouring your stuff into the bowel, and you pour too much in, what then? You take some out again until you have the correct weight. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2011, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/metric-recipes-use-mass-not-volume/571330/44 "2011-02-15T08:19:46Z")
> [@clairobscur](#): > > I don’t know about other countries, but in France, you would typically use a kind of large plastic or glass cup with many graduations around it (one for sugar, one for flour, one for milk, etc…). So, if the recipe calls for 500 ml of milk, you would fill the cup up to the “500 ml” mark under “milk” and use that. Alyternatively, you could, indeed, use a scale. I think you meant to write grams rather than ml. As already mentioned by **Kevbo** for Germany and you for France\*, and now me for Norway, these are common across Europe. Quicker than using a scale, and accurate enough for baking. \*Unless France really does have weird measuring devices showing 500ml of sugar, milk and flour on different scales. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2011, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/metric-recipes-use-mass-not-volume/571330/45 "2011-02-15T08:21:46Z")
You take some out? If the recipe calls for 450 grams of flour and you have 454 grams or 447 grams I really don’t think it will matter. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2011, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/metric-recipes-use-mass-not-volume/571330/46 "2011-02-15T08:24:34Z")
> [@TravisFromOR](#): > > Ok, you’re pouring your stuff into the bowel, and you pour too much in, what then? If it’s in your bowel it no longer matters if it’s according to the recipe. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2011, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/metric-recipes-use-mass-not-volume/571330/47 "2011-02-15T08:27:55Z")
> [@TravisFromOR](#): > > Ok, you’re pouring your stuff into the bowel, and you pour too much in, what then? Accidents happen less frequently if you’re careful. If you’re measuring flour by weight into a bowl that already has other ingredients in it, with the scale re-zeroed, you slow down as you approach the right weight. Personally, I don’t tend to work that way, because my favourite mixing bowl is quite heavy and when full, would exceed the weight limit of my electronic scales, so I tend to weigh in a small dish on the scales and tip each ingredient into the mixing bowl as I go - I tend to weigh the butter or fat straight after the flour, so the residual dusting stops it sticking in the measuring dish. When I’m making cakes, I weigh the eggs (in their shells) and adjust the other ingredients to fit them - it’s a really reliable way to get consistent results. ---
**Author:** ![TravisFromOR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cc9497/32.png) [@TravisFromOR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TravisFromOR)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2011, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/metric-recipes-use-mass-not-volume/571330/48 "2011-02-15T08:30:00Z")
> [@Rayne\_Man](#): > > You take some out again until you have the correct weight. So you keep adjusting back and forth until it’s perfect? It’s been said that it’s quicker and easier to use mass instead of volume, but that sounds both slower and harder. > [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > You take some out? > > If the recipe calls for 450 grams of flour and you have 454 grams or 447 grams I really don’t think it will matter. Doesn’t that make things inaccurate (which is one of the things the pro-mass people accused using volume of)? ---
**Author:** ![Rayne\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2011, 8:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/metric-recipes-use-mass-not-volume/571330/49 "2011-02-15T08:34:25Z")
> [@TravisFromOR](#): > > So you keep adjusting back and forth until it’s perfect? > > It’s been said that it’s quicker and easier to use mass instead of volume, but that sounds both slower and harder. > > Doesn’t that make things inaccurate (which is one of the things the pro-mass people accused using volume of)? I can’t see why. I tend to use **Mangetout’s** method where you weigh ingredients individually and then then transfer them to a mixing bowl ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2011, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/metric-recipes-use-mass-not-volume/571330/50 "2011-02-15T08:41:54Z")
> [@TravisFromOR](#): > > So you keep adjusting back and forth until it’s perfect? > It’s been said that it’s quicker and easier to use mass instead of volume, but that sounds both slower and harder. With just a little care, that’s not necessary. Really, this is an absurd objection - kitchen scales display the measurement pretty much in real time - it’s not impossible to make mistakes, but it’s not at all difficult to avoid them. > [@](#): > > Doesn’t that make things inaccurate (which is one of the things the pro-mass people accused using volume of)? Come on. The weight variance between measured cups of flour is likely to be greater than the amount you’re raising an eyebrow at here. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2011, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/metric-recipes-use-mass-not-volume/571330/51 "2011-02-15T08:43:03Z")
> [@TravisFromOR](#): > > So you keep adjusting back and forth until it’s perfect? Meh, I don’t have a scale, although I want one but I did take a chemistry class or two where it was actually important to be accurate within so many sigfigs. I think the longest I ever took to measure out something was 30 seconds. > [@](#): > > Doesn’t that make things inaccurate (which is one of the things the pro-mass people accused using volume of)? Yes. But not in a significant way. Grams are really effing small and a few extra or a few less will not hurt your recipe the way severely compacted flour can. I don’t really think baking requires being that accurate and don’t see much functional difference between measuring by weight and volume other than habit. I used to bake everything using a one third measuring cup because that’s all I had. The quarter and half cups were basically guesses but everything turned out all right. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2011, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/metric-recipes-use-mass-not-volume/571330/52 "2011-02-15T08:45:40Z")
What I mean is: your objections might as well be: “What if I accidentally use salt instead of sugar? What if I accidentally throw the flour over my head instead of into the mixing bowl?” Weighing ingredients does not demand an absurd level of additional care. ETA: (above in response to **TravisFromOR** ) ---
**Author:** ![TravisFromOR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cc9497/32.png) [@TravisFromOR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TravisFromOR)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2011, 8:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/metric-recipes-use-mass-not-volume/571330/53 "2011-02-15T08:50:20Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > Meh, I don’t have a scale, although I want one but I did take a chemistry class or two where it was actually important to be accurate within so many sigfigs. I think the longest I ever took to measure out something was 30 seconds. I guess that’s the thing–I’m extremely uncoordinated, and in Chemistry (both High School and college), it would take me several minutes to measure things accurately. > [@](#): > > Yes. But not in a significant way. Grams are really effing small and a few extra or a few less will not hurt your recipe the way severely compacted flour can. I don’t really think baking requires being that accurate and don’t see much functional difference between measuring by weight and volume other than habit. I used to bake everything using a one third measuring cup because that’s all I had. The quarter and half cups were basically guesses but everything turned out all right. “Severely impacted flour”-- that’s why you sift things. Thanks for explaining that to me. I still really can’t see the advantage to mass over volume, though. ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2011, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/metric-recipes-use-mass-not-volume/571330/54 "2011-02-15T08:53:17Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > In America, butter is sold in sticks of uniform size (IIRC, a stick of butter is half a cup), and a fraction of a stick (or a whole stick, or some number of sticks) is the easiest way to measure it. If you have a recipe that calls for half a stick of butter, you just get out the box of butter, take one individually-wrapped stick out of it, cut it in half, and put the other half back in the fridge for the next recipe, no measuring device of any sort needed. But of course, while being perfectly convenient for anyone who lives where the American standard butter stick is sold, that would be completely useless for anyone where that standard is not used. This US-centrism is one of the big bugs about trying to translate recipes. In metric recipes, it’s usually given in grams, so regardless the package size in your country, you can figure it out. Ditto for “one package of haselnuts” or similar: they usually come in 200g, but the recipe says “200 g” in addition to “1 package”, so you can figure it out even if your country has different packages. ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2011, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/metric-recipes-use-mass-not-volume/571330/55 "2011-02-15T08:54:47Z")
> [@sh1bu1](#): > > The UK and US are very different. First, pints are 20oz vs 16 and teaspoons are 50% bigger than the US. Which means, when reading a recipe in English on the internet, instead of simply running the measurements through a converter tool, you have to figure out: is this using English or US measurements, liquid or dry ounces? It’s not as if the recipes give any hints! ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2011, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/metric-recipes-use-mass-not-volume/571330/56 "2011-02-15T10:10:16Z")
In addition to there being a different number of fluid ounces in a pint for Imperial vs US, the ounces themselves are not the same. The one that bugs me most is: “A pint’s a pound - the world around!” Um. No, it just isn’t (and not just because everyone else uses metric). In UK Imperial: “A pint of water weighs a pound and a quarter” (but we’re not so presumptuous as to declare this as global) ---
**Author:** ![TravisFromOR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cc9497/32.png) [@TravisFromOR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TravisFromOR)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2011, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/metric-recipes-use-mass-not-volume/571330/57 "2011-02-15T10:23:06Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > In addition to there being a different number of fluid ounces in a pint for Imperial vs US, the ounces themselves are not the same. > > The one that bugs me most is: “A pint’s a pound - the world around!” > > Um. No, it just isn’t (and not just because everyone else uses metric). > In UK Imperial: “A pint of water weighs a pound and a quarter” (but we’re not so presumptuous as to declare this as global) Bah. The rhyme wouldn’t work otherwise: A pint’s a pound in those few countries that still use the imperial system, yet bastardize it so a pint has sixteen ounces, and a pint of water weighs a pound… ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2011, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/metric-recipes-use-mass-not-volume/571330/58 "2011-02-15T11:19:52Z")
> [@Mogle](#): > > Exactly, Sweden has been metric since the 19th century and most of our cook books use volume(for dry ingredients at least)… True. I don’t think I have ever seen a recipe using weight instead of volume (at least I don’t remember one). ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2011, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/metric-recipes-use-mass-not-volume/571330/59 "2011-02-15T11:38:33Z")
> [@TravisFromOR](#): > > Bah. > > The rhyme wouldn’t work otherwise: > > A pint’s a pound in those few countries that still use the imperial system, yet bastardize it so a pint has sixteen ounces, and a pint of water weighs a pound… As **Mangetout** says, we have our own rhyme, which works perfectly. (I know it as “A pint of pure water weighs a pound and a quarter” which scans slightly better, I think.) What I want to know is why Americans started using volume for recipes when it seems that Europeans have been using mass for generations (including, presumably, back when they settled America?) ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2011, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/metric-recipes-use-mass-not-volume/571330/60 "2011-02-15T11:40:17Z")
> [@TravisFromOR](#): > > Bah. > > The rhyme wouldn’t work otherwise: Well, sure, but it just makes anyone saying it sound like they’re unaware of the world that exists beyond the periphery of the USA. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/metric-recipes-use-mass-not-volume/571330.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/metric-recipes-use-mass-not-volume/571330.md?page=4)