Damn cups

(Christina) #1

I’m getting really hacked off with all the American recipes in cups. Us Europeans are all about the weight. Cups are not exact and I’m finding myself getting increasingly annoyed when looking for recipes. Does anyone have a reliable, exact conversion. It’s different for everything whereas weight is exact. 50g of cheese and 50g of almond flour is different volume but same weight so cup measurements are different. Aaarrgghhh :angry::angry::angry::angry:

(suzanna) #2

I realize this is horribly frustrating as Americans are the only country not on metric still using antiquated systems of measuring…its insane and says so much about our culture.
I cook a lot, (and prepare food without cooking!) even when traveling around the world staying in campers, hostels, even hotel rooms. So often I don’t have any measurement devices at all. I realize it’s a learned skill to cook without a recipe. But, it’s an awesome skill -my family calls it rustling something up (Russell is my maiden name, so “russelling” something up.)
If an American recipe calls for cups can you not just do proportions? 1 cup mayo to 1/2 cup sour cream would just mean start with mayo and use 1:2 ratio? I learned this at 17 trying to make my moms buttermilk biscuit recipe without measuring cups or spoons. I lived in a basement room shared with two others in old barracks in Germany - but we had bowls, silverware and a small oven! I used coffee cups and teaspoons and eventually figured it out. It changes your world when you can experiment, taste and alter next time. I realize this doesn’t usually work with baking where precise measuring is required. When following a recipe from anywhere but America I google conversions. Not easy but maybe eventually Americans will convert to the logical system of measuring and we can all share recipes easily! Meanwhile here’s a recipe you could definitely fake with a coffee cup-(the kind used with a saucer, smaller than a mug) and a teaspoon from the silverware drawer

Suzanne’s homemade keto ranch dressing

2 c soured heavy whipping cream (1 tsp apple cider vinegar per cup, let sit 10 min first)
1 c mayonnaise
1/3 c sour cream
(or full fat Greek yogurt)
1 tsp dill weed/or 2 fresh
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 tsp sweetener (if you must)
2 cloves garlic pressed

#3

Here’s a very simple solution.
Get a set of measuring cups. Very inexpensive investment.
Follow recipe as directed.
Done. Problem solved. Simple.
:wink:

(Christina) #4

Thanks both. I find it almost impossible not to measure everything out.

I looked at measuring cups before but they’re all different sizes. 1 cup in one set holds a different volume than another set. :thinking:

#5

I think the cups measure are typically “US Customary Cups”. About 236 ml. There are other cups measure versions, too.

(carl) #6

A cup may hold different weights of products but if you’re following a recipe, a cup of cream is always a cup of cream, no?

(Luke Jeffery) #7

Google is very good for converting. Ask for “half a cup of almond flour in grams” for example and you usually get a result.

I’ve got an Amazon echo in the kitchen which makes it even easier- I just have to ask and Alexa tells me.

I get the frustration though.

#8

@Carl…the typical measure for cups is “US Customary Cups”. There are other slightly different cups measures. It’s like the fiasco with tons (short tons, long tons, metric tonnes. …etc)

There is also the accuracy of the measuring tool. You can buy chef quality cup measure (which you can verify with water…as water has a specific gravity of 1 gram per mL). Or if you buy the cheapo stuff at a dollar store it’s buyer beware quality control issues.

(Jake P) #9

On behalf of America, I apologize for this injustice to the world. We are certainly stubborn in many areas, but this one should be a no-brainer.

(Keto Troll) #10

Here is a link to shandy chart for various foods. I’m from the US but long ago started using a scale instead of cups especially when baking. Hope it helps. http://dish.allrecipes.com/cup-to-gram-conversions/

(Jessica K) #11

Cups are not in weight, but are still an exact measurement in volume. In any set of measuring cups, 1 cup will always be the same amount.

(Mark Myers) #12
(Mark Myers) #13

This drives me nuts too!

#14

For a really good chuckle, take a look at this wiki page on the insanity of cups measurements. There is also a Canadian cup measure, different from the two USA cup measures, which of course is different from UK cups. Geeeeeeeeez!

(Steven Cook) #15

I feel your pain, I ended up just buying a set of measuring cups and spoons from Amazon. Seemed the easiest solution…

(jketoscribe) #16

I learned to bake using grams. I use a handy app called “Kitchen Pro” to convert the volume measurement of various foods (they have an extensive database) to weight.

So easy to scale with weight vs volume measurements! I keep my recipes in Evernote and put the weight of an ingredient in grams in parenthesis next to the volume. If it’s not in the database I weigh it out myself the first time.

Americans are missing out! And I love not having to wash measuring cups!

(Jane Reed) #17

I object to the snarky comments about Imperial measurements. Guess who we got them from. They have served us
well. They continue to serve us well in most applications. Years ago, my family spent some time in England and my mother came home with a cookbook with measurements by weights. Do you know what a decent kitchen scale cost at that time? It was prohibitive. Despite the change time has brought, people don’t care to alter their habits, and there is no reason they should when it is seldom necessary. I, for one, am not in a hurry to join the herd just to be one with them. It is common for people to be enthusiastic about “diversity” (ugh)…what happened to their joy in other folks doing things their own traditional way? Count me a reactionary, and proud of it.

Moreover, if you happen across any recipe I might have posted, you will find I have listed grams beside cup measurements, as a kindness to non-Americans. Kindness ought to be our default practice with one another in any case. And it works both ways across the oceans.

(Mark) #18

I probably shouldn’t be telling you one of America’s national security secrets about why we won’t switch to the metric system,but since you are a fellow ketonian I will spill the beans just this one time,oh wait beans aren’t low carb so I guess I’ll have to spill the bacon,but the real reason we won’t switch is because us Americans love us some FOOTBALL,that’s right the metric system just won’t work on the football field so we all secretly got together and decided to give the rest of the world the big middle finger,cause nobody messes with our FOOTBALL and if you don’t believe me go look up the Liter Bowl it was a metric football game that was a huge failure and we sent all those players to Canada for trying to ruin FOOTBALL!!!

(Lauren) #19

I struggled today when I realised an American Tablespoon is different to an Aussie tablespoon…

Weights would be so much easier, even if they were in oz or whatever we can convert them to grams easier than not knowing 250ml vs 240ml etc

(Richard Morris) #20

Oh yeah, actually the rest of the world is different to Aussies when it comes to a table spoon. Ours are 20 mls. The rest of the world’s are 15 mls.