/ck/ - Food & Cooking

[Anonymous No.14652738]

Why do Americans measure butter with sticks?

[Anonymous No.14652748]

>>14652738
It's easy to cut into fractions

[Anonymous No.14652752]

>>14652748
Pic related

[Anonymous No.14652768]

Because we've standardized it.

[Anonymous No.14652776]

>>14652738
Because they can.

[Anonymous No.14652794]

>>14652738
Why do euros use those big brick?

[Anonymous No.14652803]

>>14652794
cause we weigh stuff in grams, not sticks

[Anonymous No.14652804]

>>14652794
No idea but I'm thinking the stick might be more convenient.

[Anonymous No.14652821]

>>14652803
Unless you're a baker, most american kitchens aren't equipped with a scale.

We have measuring bowls, cups, and spoons.

Americans tend to use volumetric measurements for their recipes, whereas Europeans tend to use weight.

Though butter is often still given in weight in American recipes, especially for baking. Most Americans know a stick of butter is 1/4 of a pound, and a package of butter is generally 1 lbs (4 sticks).

[Anonymous No.14652825]

>>14652738
This is one where the Americans got it right. It’s far more convenient than the tub or brick. Far more specific and reliable. Plus it’s already a standard measure in the country so there’s no ambiguity with how much is a stick, you can easily converted to grams if you like.

[Anonymous No.14652829]

>>14652803
The sticks are cut into measures of volume, not weight. The ones I buy are 8 tablespoons each, which is coincidentally around 1/4 a pound.

[Anonymous No.14652831]

>>14652738
It used to confuse me, too.

But 1 American stick equals half a cup or 4 oz, or roughly 100 grams.

[Anonymous No.14652849]

>>14652821
>most american kitchens aren't equipped with a scale.
Wat.

[Anonymous No.14652865]

>>14652738
A stick is a half cup. The wrapper even has measurement hashes on it. Are you retarded?

[Anonymous No.14652870]

>>14652849
all the recipes here use quarts, cups, tablespoons/teaspoons.
What would be the point in owning a scale?

Even in baking most things are presented in standard cups or tablespoon/teaspoon. Though that goes out the window once you get into bread making in which things shift back to weight and most bread making books for the US market will point out the need for a kitchen scale.

[Anonymous No.14652906]

>>14652821
When density is constant then volume and weight can be used interchangeably.
And before some motherfucker gets around to complaining how they're utterly incapable of measuring something like flour by the deciliter then know that if such basic tasks are beyond you then exact measurements are irrevelevant for you. There's enough variance in difference in the goods themselves that baking at anything short of an industrial scale is an art, not a science. You can easily observe this yourself by making the exact same recipe with four completely different brands of ingredients (flour, butter, baking powder etc.) and noticing that there's massive differences in the final product. Not just taste but consistency. If every single gram of butter actually mattered then so does the brand of butter and even the particular fucking batch of butter.

[Anonymous No.14652951]

>>14652849
v o l u m e t r i c

[Anonymous No.14653326]

>>14652804
but then if you needed a lot of butter you'd either buy an uncomfortably long stick of butter or many smaller ones instead of a reasonably sized brick

[Anonymous No.14653334]

>>14652738
Go away you spamming faggot

[Anonymous No.14653343]

>>14653326
Sticks tessellate, they can always form a brick sized rectangle/square inside a box that can then be easily taken apart.

[Anonymous No.14653350]

>>14653343
sounds like a waste of packaging

[Anonymous No.14653352]

>>14653326
>needing more than a pound of butter at once
and I thought we were the fat ones

[Anonymous No.14653412]

>>14652738
It's also how we measure Europeans. A single European = a bundle of sticks, one bundle of sticks =a faggot.

[Anonymous No.14653419]

>>14652849
A lack of mass based portion control is common.
Don't wonder why we're fat.
We measure by scooping, or by scooping with the big scoop, or just dumping the whole container in.

Kitchen scales exist, they just won't be standard until a reasonable number of recipes use weights instead of a scoop count, and the scoop counting will remain standard until scales are commonplace.
Chickens and eggs.

[Anonymous No.14653438]

>>14653352
>leaving the house frequently enough to need less in your fridge

[Anonymous No.14653475]

>>14652865
It even has its weight in grams written on it. what's stopping you from weighing a stick? wtf op

[Anonymous No.14653507]

>>14652738

we don't know no better

[Anonymous No.14653557]

>>14652803
victims of big scale.

[Anonymous No.14653909]

>>14653350
The waxed paper they come in are great for starting fires in my woodstove. No waste. Rarely do I need more the 1/4 of a lb of butter for any one meal anyhow.

[Anonymous No.14653961]

>>14652738
>8 spoons of butter (1 stick) 120 grams

[Anonymous No.14653966]

>>14652738
I can't imagine cookng with so little butter you don't use a measuring stick

[Anonymous No.14654030]

>export your product to the US where sticks of butter at 8 ounces
>decide to make yours 7 ounces

[Anonymous No.14654033]

>>14652829
>coincidentally
how do you think butter is made

[Anonymous No.14654038]

>>14652849
we're retards and we don't like numbers

[Anonymous No.14654043]

>>14654030
they also export it to the entirety of the rest of the world, anon, where 200 grams is a perfectly reasonable weight

[Anonymous No.14654047]

Its funny when mutts and bongs pretend they are not both ugly daemons. You are different sides of the same shit coin.

[Anonymous No.14654114]

>>14652748
>>14652752
This, you literally don’t even NEED to measure anything, you just cut right through the paper wrapping if you need less than half a cup. It’s so fucking easy it’s brain dead stupid and I didn’t even notice those marks until I started cooking and it was like Ho Lee Fuk this is genius

[Anonymous No.14654120]

>>14652738
It works with motor oil. Why fix what isn't broken?

[Anonymous No.14654126]

>>14654030
I think this butter exists for people in the US to buy once and then never again. It's more expensive and about the same as Tillamook, and it's about the same price as Kerrygold and significantly worse.

[Anonymous No.14654137]

>>14652803
You don't weigh shit. You define nearly arbitrary volumes as approximations of mass. It's the worst system on earth.
>this cup is 200g if you fill it up to this line
Is it? Is it really? 200g of what? Water? White flour? Whole wheat flour? Dark rye? Olive oil? Melted butter? Raisins?
Grams aren't a measurement of volume but the average amateur kitchen sure likes to pretend they are.

[Anonymous No.14654270]

>>14653961
it's 113 g of butter in a stick though

[Anonymous No.14654851]

>>14652752
The same marks are on normal sized butter too

[Anonymous No.14654916]

>>14654851
That is normal sized butter.

[Anonymous No.14654937]

>>14654137
This might be the dumbest thing I’ve ever read. I’d try to explain why gram is the most accurately defined unit since it’s defined by Planck constant, but let’s be realisic, you are so fucking incredibly stupid it’s a miracle you know how to breathe.
Congrats on making the whole world stupid, you actively contribute to a lower IQ average for everyone else. The world would be a MUCH better place without you, and you will never be remembered for when you are gone, the world will be a better place for it.

[Anonymous No.14655979]

>>14654937
>writes a stupid irrelevant rant
>calls me stupid
Meanwhile in real life the very simple problem of mass being approximated by volume is as simple as it is common.

[Anonymous No.14655987]

>>14654937
>>14655979
BTFO

[Anonymous No.14655997]

>>14655979
>200g of feathers is approximately the same as 200g of steel in volume
Wow, you really are outrageously retarded

[Anonymous No.14656002]

>>14655979
>>14655997
BTFOOO

[Anonymous No.14656013]

>>14652831
1 stick = 100g
This is very pleasant. (Even though it's 113g, that's close enough.)

[Anonymous No.14656029]

>>14655997
You've really nuked that spot besides the point. Just utterly devastated it, looks like the surface of the moon. I can't even see where you hoisted up the straw man first before calling down the thunder.

[Anonymous No.14656045]

>>14656029
There’s roughly 30% difference in volume between fine salt and flaky salt alone, you absolutely disgusting retard. Go fucking kill yourself so the whole world’s average IQ increases.

[Anonymous No.14656046]

>>14656013
All the employees at the butter factory go "above and beyond", and are widely recognized for giving 110%.

Not just a meme, dude.

[Anonymous No.14656114]

As an American, I find it odd that I have a very good understanding of the both the metric system and our own system of measurement and their respective conversions, while the rest of the world seems to think the metric system is the be all end all way of doing things and we’re retarded for using our own system. If you didn’t know already, food sold in the USA is labeled in standard and metric weights. Just because standard measures are based on fractions and not nice round numbers doesn’t make it useless. It’s easy to cut things in half, right? So if you cut a pound of butter in half and then cut the halves in half, you have quarters, and the eighths and so on. This can be accomplished without a scale or measuring spoons or cups and still be fairly accurate. So what if you get a bit of extra butter, makes it good, right? Now when it comes to length and distance, metric makes more sense as a standard, especially when building thing that require precision measurements.

[Anonymous No.14656130]

>>14656045
You can't wipe the smug smile off my face no matter how hard you try. In fact the harder you try the funnier you are. Everyone with even the room temperature IQ you're so afraid of can see how you're deliberately side stepping my original point.

[Anonymous No.14656331]

>>14656046
113%
Nice.
Thank you, buttermen.

[Anonymous No.14656333]

>>14652738
americans are retarded