/ck/ - Food & Cooking

[Anonymous No.6380494]

Hey /ck/, I was wondering why americans seem to use 'cups' to tell the amount of ingredients. I mean isn't that very inaccurate. Cups are different size and you will never be as accurate as with a scale.

[Anonymous No.6380498]

The standard American "cup" is 8 ounces.

[Anonymous No.6380505]

>>6380498
Someone who has created a recipe and shared it online likely isn't following that standard.

[Anonymous No.6380509]

>>6380505
are you fucking kidding me?

do they not have measuring cups in europe?

[Anonymous No.6380513]

[Anonymous No.6380519]

>>6380509
We use pic related

[Anonymous No.6380520]

>>6380505
ur retarded bro

[Anonymous No.6380525]

>>6380494
Here you go op

[Anonymous No.6380527]

>>6380509
Most countries use dry weight for dry ingredients and volume for wet ingredients. On the metric scale, of course.

OP, the "cups" "teaspoons" and "tablespoons" in American recipes are standardized measurements, though not necessarily sensible ones. You can blame Fannie Farmer for them, as she tried to put some sort of regularity to all the recipes which had terms like "a dash" or "a goodly amount of" for ingredients.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fannie_Farmer

Of course, OP knows that and was simply trying to make a "why are Americans so dumb?" thread because /ck/ is one of the worst boards.

[Anonymous No.6380528]

>>6380509
Stop taking the bait.

[Anonymous No.6380529]

>>6380494
It's dangerous to go alone, take this! (see pic)
>>6380509
not OP, we DO have measuring cups for stuff, yeah. But we do not use the imperial system, of course.
Anyway, since there is some good recipes sources allocated in USA internet directories, I had to adapt and use imperial too. Too bad since it's completely useless shitty measuring system.

[Anonymous No.6380534]

> he needs to measure out his ingredients

[Anonymous No.6380538]

>>6380519
and what's so hard about converting 2 cups to mL?

[Anonymous No.6380539]

>>6380527
Haha, that might explain something when I just used random cups. But I've seen some people use random cups as well in videos.

And I was not trying to do such a thread I was just wondering... and to lazy to google that shit.

[Anonymous No.6380545]

>>6380538
I used random cups...

[Anonymous No.6380549]

>>6380539
why wouldn't you type into google "*blank* cups in L"?

did you seriously not know that cups/pints/quarts/gallons were the imperial units of volume?

[Anonymous No.6380559]

>>6380549
Who the fuck would think that cups are standarized. If I think about a cup I think from very very small to huge ass tits cup

[Anonymous No.6380566]

>>6380559
Do they not teach both systems in European schools? Because in the Anglosphere, we learn both.

Unrelated, but Fahrenheit is the superior scale for temperature as it relates to weather, because the a change in 1 degree F is smaller than a change in one degree C. Since Kelvin is used of science, there's really no need for Celsius.

[Anonymous No.6380570]

>>6380566
because a change*

[Anonymous No.6380582]

>>6380566
No we don't learn imperials... we sometimes have to work with miles. Why would we anyways the metric system is just way easier.
About Celsius I somehow agree even though Celsius still relates to the aggregate stade of water.

[Anonymous No.6380585]

>>6380582
>why would we learn this thing that would have been useful to me when reading recipes
gee I wonder

[Anonymous No.6380592]

>>6380585
Like you would learn something at school that really helps you in real life... we prefer to calculate the speed of shit when shit happens under shit sircumstances... and don't forget pi

[Anonymous No.6380598]

>>6380592
You must be Romanian.

[Anonymous No.6380605]

>>6380598
German. But I am only talking for schools in Berlin... it might be completely different in Bavaria... how do you right that shit just say Bayern.

[Anonymous No.6380618]

>>6380605
What kind of secondary school did you go to?

[Anonymous No.6380641]

Don't you euros weigh your shit out by grams?
That always seemed retarded to me since mass varies based on how dense something is but volume is constant.
We only use weight for meats and even then the volume is given.

[Anonymous No.6380648]

>>6380566
Eh. You couldn't tell me the difference between 22 and 24 C. Let alone 71 and 72 F. If we're talking about temperature as it relates to weather then the granularity of the scale isn't very important at all. Celsius is useful since it tells you weather it's above or below freezing intrinsically unlike the Fahrenheit system where weather reporters report the temperature and tell you whether its above or below freezing.

Fahrenheit is more handy for body temperature though imo.

[Anonymous No.6380654]

>>6380641
If you're weighing something like flour, it makes more sense to weight it out instead of measuring the volume. Depending on how packed the measuring cup is, the actual amount of flour in a cup of flour can vary significantly. When you weigh it, it's the same amount of flour every time.

[Anonymous No.6380659]

>>6380618
Gymnasium... you would probably call it High School.

>>6380641
grams are way more accurate... I mean why should I want to count the air inbetween my sugar... I don't want to put air in my cake.

[Anonymous No.6380662]

>>6380648
There is definitely a difference between 72 F(22 C) and 75 F(24 C), especially in a closed space.

[Anonymous No.6380670]

>>6380659
You went to the most academically focused kind of secondary school, and in the 6 years you were there, they never took a week to learn the only other measurement system besides metric and SI?

[Anonymous No.6380672]

>>6380654
I've never encountered a problem with my flour being too packed in my life

>>6380659
It just seems like a massive waste of time to get out a scale and weigh everything out compared to just using volume

[Anonymous No.6380677]

>>6380670
No

>>6380672
why would it my scale stands right were I cook. I put my bowl on it turn it on and pour whatever I wanna weight in it.

[Anonymous No.6380680]

>>6380670
Well maybe once. But I never use imperials so I might have forgotten

[Anonymous No.6380683]

>>6380641
>That always seemed retarded to me since mass varies based on how dense something is but volume is constant.
What are you trying to say? Density is the ratio of mass and volume neither of them are constant. A gram of flour is the same weight as a gram of sugar. Just like an ounce of flour is the same as an ounce of sugar. Weight is more useful since 100 gms of flour will always be the same amount while a cup of flour will have different amounts depending on how tightly packed the flour is in the cup.

>>6380662
But could you tell me the difference between 72 and 73? If you couldn't that extra granularity when compared to 24 and 25 isn't warranted.

[Anonymous No.6380685]

>>6380534
>doesn't bake
Stay pleb.

[Anonymous No.6380688]

>>6380677
Cause scales are fucking annoying as shit
You have to adjust and adjust rather than just pouring/scooping and going

[Anonymous No.6380691]

>>6380688
>has never seen a modern scale

[Anonymous No.6380699]

>>6380688
The only time you need to measure something is during baking. And while baking even a small amount of inaccuracy can make a difference in the final product.

For cooking you should be able to eyeball the amounts and you have taste and adjust the seasoning anyway so it doesn't matter.

[Anonymous No.6380700]

>>6380683
Yes, actually. When setting an thermostat, one degree definitely makes a difference.

[Anonymous No.6380701]

>>6380683
Yes but the weight differs based on the thing
You have to scale everything in order to know the weight compared to a simple cup (which is consistent) to get the volume

[Anonymous No.6380702]

>>6380688
Well it sure is somewhat harder to right the number you want. But you'll get used to it pretty quickly. And it feels sooo good to just hit the exact amount you want.

[Anonymous No.6380706]

>>6380701
most baking recipes include the weights. good ones, anyway.

[Anonymous No.6380715]

>>6380699
Depends on what you're baking

>>6380702
See that's just too frustrating for me
I remember that pissing me off a lot when I took chemistry

>>6380706
Damn I must use some shit recipes then

[Anonymous No.6380721]

>>6380706
I don't agree

[Anonymous No.6380722]

>>6380721
That's because you're a fucking moron.

[Anonymous No.6380733]

>>6380722
I am baking and cooking for years now and it definitely is not about the way the recipe is written. They could just say things like "add flour 'till it feels good" and the recipe could still be grat

[Anonymous No.6380737]

>>6380700
>Yes, actually. When setting an thermostat, one degree definitely makes a difference.
That's a completely different phenomena, which number you set it to determines how long the cooling/heating cycles will be, it would make no difference if you used a C scale. The question is whether you can tell me a difference of a single Fahrenheit without using any technology. If you can good for you but I've never been able to tell the difference between 54 and 55F.

Both scales jusst assign numbers to the degree of hotness. One has the added information about whether water will be in liquid or solid state. The other has marginally more granularity which imo is not useful to our perception of temperature as it relates to weather.

Like I said earlier it is useful when it comes to body temperature.

[Anonymous No.6380744]

>>6380509
Of course we do. A cup is 240ml and OP is a faggot

[Anonymous No.6380748]

European here.
We use both cups and ml. We don't use the same measures for mass at all, though.

A metric cup is 250ml, just slightly more than the imperial cup (240ml), so they're nearly interchangeable.

2 pounds is just under a 1 kg (about 900g) and is also equal to 32oz.

1 cup is 8floz, so 1floz is equal to 240ml / 8 (that is, 30ml).
A quart is four cups and just shy of 1L (about 950ml).

Damned near no one measured by pints except Brits and if you're desperate enough to use a Brit recipe, you deserve the failure that comes with it.

[Anonymous No.6380751]

>>6380744
no u r

[Anonymous No.6380757]

>>6380748
Yes, we all know this. Except for the German, apparently.

[Anonymous No.6380760]

>>6380748
Where do you life? I've never heard about cups in germany.

[Anonymous No.6380771]

>>6380760
That's why you guys lost the war.

[Anonymous No.6380772]

>>6380648
No American weather reporter is going to specify whether it's "below freezing" because everyone older than 3 knows the freezing point is 32F.

[Anonymous No.6380775]

>>6380760
Good thing we did.

[Anonymous No.6380778]

>>6380494
>>6380505
>>6380509
I can't tell which one of you is most retarded

[Anonymous No.6380779]

>>6380771
good thing we did.
cklicked wrong message in >>6380775

[Anonymous No.6380784]

>>6380772
>No American weather reporter is going to specify whether it's "below freezing"
I'm American and they do that all the time. They even mention that the temp is going to go above freezing if it's a warm day in the middle of winter.

[Anonymous No.6380791]

>>6380784
They do that instead of saying the actual temperature.

[Anonymous No.6381011]

>>6380538
A cup isn't a standardised unit of measurement.

[Anonymous No.6381018]

>>6381011
Except it is. 1 cup is 236ml if you're autistic otherwise you can just round up to 240/250ml

[Anonymous No.6381054]

>>6380494
Why are people flipping out about cups now. I've never heard of people having problems with cups, but in the last month I've seen like five different threads across different websites devoted to them. Fuck you. Cups are great.

[Anonymous No.6381065]

>>6380494
An American liquid "cup" used in cooking is 8 fluid ounces. It's actually quite exact.
A dry "cup" is also 8 ounces, equaling half a pound.

[Anonymous No.6381242]

>>6380685
Bake for long enough and pay attention to what's happening and you won't need to follow recipes anymore. You'll be able to tell how much of particular ingredients you need for whatever effect you want by eye.

Following lists of specific measurements is a relatively new phenomenon. Baking is not.

[Anonymous No.6381244]

Why do Americans measure length in feet when everybody has different sized feet?

Why do Brits measure weight in stone when different stones weigh different amounts?

[Anonymous No.6381330]

>>6380566
>since kelvin is used for science
Kelvin comes from Celsius, its the same thing dick head, it's just offset by two hundred and something making it really shitty to use for every day things so we use Celsius instead. farenheight is an arbitrary number pulled out of some guys ass so I think Celsius is better but obviously whatever people grew up with they will know better

[Anonymous No.6381344]

>>6381330
>implying
celcius is retarded for anything but water temperature, since it uses nonstandard measurement for each step
fahrenheits only problem is that for some reason putting waters freezing point at 0 instead of 32 was too hard

[Anonymous No.6381417]

[Anonymous No.6381438]

>>6381344
What do you mean by non standard measurement for each step? It works exactly like farenheight only the value is different

[Anonymous No.6381450]

>>6380509
They measure liquids in Kilometers and grams.

[Anonymous No.6381453]

>>6381344
This doesn't even make any sense, both systems work exactly the same, obviously whatever you grew up with you'd prefer

[Anonymous No.6382019]

>>6381450
>Kilometers

[Anonymous No.6382028]

>>6380494
1 cup = 250ml
nice attempt at epic trole, OP

[Anonymous No.6382033]

>>6380494
a cup is 8 ounces, dummy

[Anonymous No.6382034]

>>6380539
>use random cups
you could do this too. the whole point is being kept, keeping things in proportion to eachother

[Anonymous No.6382036]

>>6380685
>macaroni & cheese recipe
>baking
You dun goofed. Baked mac n cheese is not baking in the sense you're using it.

[Anonymous No.6382042]

>>6381011
Yes it is.

>>6380559
Someone who is using a recipe that calls for "cups," faggot. If I saw a recipe calling for "twelve niggerfaggots of salt," I'd assume they were using a standardized version of "niggerfaggots".

[Anonymous No.6382047]

>>6380582
>The metric system is just way easier
No it's not. The imperial system largely works on halves. Metric works on tenths. Tell me-- which is easier to do practically? Tenths or halves?

Need half a cup? Great, eyeball half a cup.

Need 120 mL? Better bust out the graduated cylinder.

Fuckin commies.

[Anonymous No.6382053]

>>6382047

If you're eyeballing you don't need units in the first place.

The point of units is when exactness is required, and in that case decimal math is easier than fractions.

[Anonymous No.6382058]

>>6380659
>I don't want to put air in my cake
confirmed for not liking fluffy cake

why are euros such trash?

[Anonymous No.6382064]

>>6381417
The answer is 877699 foot-pounds, asshat.

Besides, calorie isn't standard anymore. Joules are.