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?

  • Lvxferre@mander.xyz
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    9 months ago

    Milk has a specific gravity slightly higher than 1, so that isn’t accurate.

    In this context milk is a bad example because the difference between 1.03g/ml and 1g/ml is negligible in a kitchen. Even oil (0.92g/ml) is close enough.

    This matters the most for stuff like below (with 1cup = 240ml):

    • honey: 340g/cup = 1.4g/ml
    • sugar: 200g/cup = 0.85g/ml [varies depending on granularity]
    • flour: 120g/cup = 0.5g/ml [sieved, and “properly” measured. It’s a PITA to measure it by volume.]

    Also, “cups” and “feet” aren’t arbitrary.

    All units are arbitrary, be them metric or esoteric.

    • HobbitFoot @thelemmy.club
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      9 months ago

      In this context milk is a bad example because the difference between 1.03g/ml and 1g/ml is negligible in a kitchen. Even oil (0.92g/ml) is close enough.

      The context is that if you are going to hand wave away a 3% difference in a quantity, then having to weigh everything probably isn’t important.

      • Lvxferre@mander.xyz
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        9 months ago

        The context [SIC - rationale] is that if you are going to hand wave away a 3% difference in a quantity, then having to weigh everything probably isn’t important.

        That’s poor reasoning; ignoring a tiny difference doesn’t imply ignoring larger ones. Myself mentioned three cases where the difference matters, with one (flour) being highly variable.

        A better argument to defend your point would be that most differences in the kitchen are tiny.

        • HobbitFoot @thelemmy.club
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          9 months ago

          I’ve been making that argument in other comments. If I had to argue the nuances of this argument in every comment, I’d be copying and pasting pages long comments that no one would read.