Why do Americans measure everything in cups? - eviltoast

Used a couple of US recipes recently and most of the ingredients are in cups, or spoons, not by weight. This is a nightmare to convert. Do Americans not own scales or something? What’s the reason for measuring everything by volume?

  • wjrii@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    7
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    9 months ago

    Baking can be troublesome, but it’s usually only flour that gets compacted to a problematic degree. Most good recipes will at least specify “sifted”. Otherwise, volume works about as well, and the cups and spoons will be standardized measurements with only a dim historical connection to the kind of insanity you may be be picturing.

    Mass would probably still be better of course, it’s just not quite the literal madness that some think.

    • TheBananaKing@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      9 months ago

      There’s also volume measurements of things like butter and honey, which are their own nightmare. Yeah, I’m totally going to carve 17 3/4 tablespoons of butter…