4 ms·

There aren't really different varieties of "cups". 1 cup is 8 fluid ounces, or ~237 mL.

by skyyler 11y ago

pdwetz 11y ago
I think the one exception is a cup of coffee, which is 6 oz. And to make it more confusing, if mentioned in a recipe, it could actually mean 8 oz!
- thaumasiotes 11y ago
  Phrasing seems off here. Can you identify a recipe that uses "1 cup coffee" to mean 6 oz? I'd expect, very strongly, that "1 cup coffee" in a recipe would refer to 1 cup, and 6 oz would be indicated as "3/4 cup".
  - ianferrel 11y ago
    Any coffee-maker will be measured in 6 oz "cups". A bag of coffee will say "X Tablespoons makes Y cups", and mean 6 oz cups.
    - thaumasiotes 11y ago
      Those are not recipes. Also, the second example is measuring the coffee in tablespoons.
      - ianferrel 11y ago
        "Mix X T of coffee with Y cups of hot water" is a recipe, and measures something in 6 oz cups.
        thaumasiotes 11y ago
        This is just an error on your part. Y cups of hot water measures 8 oz cups. In trying to back up your claim for you, I checked three brands of instant coffee: Folgers, Nescafe, and Maxwell House (chosen because they were the brands I saw when searching Amazon for "instant coffee"). Folgers provides a website full of coffee-related recipes. Here are a few: http://www.folgerscoffee.com/coffee-how-to/how-to-make-coffee/instant http://www.folgerscoffee.com/coffee-how-to/how-to-make-coffe... "How to make coffee" tells us that a single-serve coffee packet should be added to "6 fluid ounces" of water (or optionally, milk). http://www.folgerscoffee.com/coffee-how-to/how-to-make-coffee/coffee-maker http://www.folgerscoffee.com/coffee-how-to/how-to-make-coffe... "How to make coffee (in a coffee maker)" tells us that a "serving size" is "6 fluid ounces", and that however much water you put in to the coffee maker, you should add about 1 tablespoon of coffee per 6 oz water for mild coffee and double that for strong coffee. http://www.folgerscoffee.com/coffee-how-to/how-to-measure-coffee http://www.folgerscoffee.com/coffee-how-to/how-to-measure-co... "How to measure coffee" makes no particular recommendation on serving sizes, but implies that natural measurement amounts are "6 fluid ounces", "30 fluid ounces", and "60 fluid ounces" of water. http://www.folgerscoffee.com/coffee-drink-recipes/vanilla-latte http://www.folgerscoffee.com/coffee-drink-recipes/vanilla-la... "Vanilla Latte", a recipe which includes brewed coffee as an ingredient, calls for "1/2 cup milk" and "1/4 cup" brewed coffee. If we assume they're still thinking that 6 oz is a natural serving size, then 1/4 cup of brewed coffee is, according to the folgers people, 2 fluid ounces. In fact, they have several different recipes under different categories ("latte", "mocha", "cappuccino"...) all of which call for (1) 1/2 cup milk; (2) 1/4 cup either water or brewed coffee; and (3) a generous dollop of flavoring, usually syrup. I didn't find any single-serving recipes for Nescafe or Maxwell House (or Kraft, which owns Maxwell House), so I looked at the packaging: http://www.amazon.com/Maxwell-House-Roast-Ground-Coffee/dp/B00I8GC9E8/ http://www.amazon.com/Maxwell-House-Roast-Ground-Coffee/dp/B... Maxwell House helpfully informs us that coffee should be mixed one tablespoon of coffee to one "serving" of water, or 8 tablespoons of coffee to ten "servings" of water. They also note, "1 serving of water is 6 fl oz (3/4 cup)". http://www.amazon.com/Nescafe-Classic-Instant-Coffee-Ounce/dp/B00CREY3AA/ http://www.amazon.com/Nescafe-Classic-Instant-Coffee-Ounce/d... Nescafe says "Use 1 heaping teaspoon of coffee per cup". However, it is immediately apparent that "cup" is not a measurement, because step 2 is "Pour 6 oz hot water over coffee". But wait! I did find a coffee recipe ("Pumpkin spice latte") on Kraft. It's multiple-serving, which is the ideal case for an instruction of the form "Mix X T of coffee with Y cups of hot water". But here are the relevant ingredients: 1. "1/2 cup GEVALIA House Blend" 2. "1 qt. (4 cups) water" There's no way to interpret those cups as being 6 ounces, since 4 of them make a quart. In sum, you have no clue what you're talking about. Where did you get this idea, and why are you polluting the comments with it?
Sukotto 11y ago
When I lived in Canada, my mother's cup set had a 250ml "1 cup" and my grandmother had a 284ml one. I just bought a measuring cup set here in Japan and the 1 cup measure is 255ml. If that's not bad enough, a "cup" is 150ml when measuring coffee and 180ml when measuring rice. Unfortunately, "cup" is not a standard measurement. :)
- zwily 11y ago
  I think GP meant that in the U.S. it's pretty standard.
- tjl 11y ago
  I live in Canada and my measuring cup is 250ml and so is my mother's. I think it's the standard here now. I've seen 284ml, but that's only on older ones.
oska 11y ago
There are. [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cup_%28unit%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cup_%28unit%29
- thaumasiotes 11y ago
  The fact that different countries have different standard "cups" isn't really relevant to "converting measurements from US recipes". The US has just the one cup.
nl 11y ago
There is the "Metric Cup"[1] commonly used in Australia. It is 250 ml, which is occasionally a significant enough difference to be important. The US Cup has two definitions; the "Customary Cup" (237ml) and the "Legal Cup" (240ml). The difference between these is rarely significant. The (rarely used) UK Cup 284ml, and the Japanese Cup is 200ml. If you don't live in the US and get a random recipe book, these differences are confusing. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cup_%28unit%29#Metric_cup https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cup_%28unit%29#Metric_cup
- mseebach 11y ago
  > which is occasionally a significant enough difference to be important Other factors likely to be (more) important: (a) Measuring dry ingredients by volume (b) The specific sub-type/quality of ingredient used.

There aren't really different varieties of "cups". 1 cup is 8 fluid ounces, or ~237 mL.

by skyyler 11y ago

There aren't really different varieties of "cups". 1 cup is 8 fluid ounces, or ~237 mL.

I think the one exception is a cup of coffee, which is 6 oz. And to make it more confusing, if mentioned in a recipe, it could actually mean 8 oz!

thaumasiotes 11y ago
Phrasing seems off here. Can you identify a recipe that uses "1 cup coffee" to mean 6 oz? I'd expect, very strongly, that "1 cup coffee" in a recipe would refer to 1 cup, and 6 oz would be indicated as "3/4 cup".
- ianferrel 11y ago
  Any coffee-maker will be measured in 6 oz "cups". A bag of coffee will say "X Tablespoons makes Y cups", and mean 6 oz cups.
  - thaumasiotes 11y ago
    Those are not recipes. Also, the second example is measuring the coffee in tablespoons.
    - ianferrel 11y ago
      "Mix X T of coffee with Y cups of hot water" is a recipe, and measures something in 6 oz cups.
      - thaumasiotes 11y ago
        This is just an error on your part. Y cups of hot water measures 8 oz cups. In trying to back up your claim for you, I checked three brands of instant coffee: Folgers, Nescafe, and Maxwell House (chosen because they were the brands I saw when searching Amazon for "instant coffee"). Folgers provides a website full of coffee-related recipes. Here are a few: http://www.folgerscoffee.com/coffee-how-to/how-to-make-coffee/instant http://www.folgerscoffee.com/coffee-how-to/how-to-make-coffe... "How to make coffee" tells us that a single-serve coffee packet should be added to "6 fluid ounces" of water (or optionally, milk). http://www.folgerscoffee.com/coffee-how-to/how-to-make-coffee/coffee-maker http://www.folgerscoffee.com/coffee-how-to/how-to-make-coffe... "How to make coffee (in a coffee maker)" tells us that a "serving size" is "6 fluid ounces", and that however much water you put in to the coffee maker, you should add about 1 tablespoon of coffee per 6 oz water for mild coffee and double that for strong coffee. http://www.folgerscoffee.com/coffee-how-to/how-to-measure-coffee http://www.folgerscoffee.com/coffee-how-to/how-to-measure-co... "How to measure coffee" makes no particular recommendation on serving sizes, but implies that natural measurement amounts are "6 fluid ounces", "30 fluid ounces", and "60 fluid ounces" of water. http://www.folgerscoffee.com/coffee-drink-recipes/vanilla-latte http://www.folgerscoffee.com/coffee-drink-recipes/vanilla-la... "Vanilla Latte", a recipe which includes brewed coffee as an ingredient, calls for "1/2 cup milk" and "1/4 cup" brewed coffee. If we assume they're still thinking that 6 oz is a natural serving size, then 1/4 cup of brewed coffee is, according to the folgers people, 2 fluid ounces. In fact, they have several different recipes under different categories ("latte", "mocha", "cappuccino"...) all of which call for (1) 1/2 cup milk; (2) 1/4 cup either water or brewed coffee; and (3) a generous dollop of flavoring, usually syrup. I didn't find any single-serving recipes for Nescafe or Maxwell House (or Kraft, which owns Maxwell House), so I looked at the packaging: http://www.amazon.com/Maxwell-House-Roast-Ground-Coffee/dp/B00I8GC9E8/ http://www.amazon.com/Maxwell-House-Roast-Ground-Coffee/dp/B... Maxwell House helpfully informs us that coffee should be mixed one tablespoon of coffee to one "serving" of water, or 8 tablespoons of coffee to ten "servings" of water. They also note, "1 serving of water is 6 fl oz (3/4 cup)". http://www.amazon.com/Nescafe-Classic-Instant-Coffee-Ounce/dp/B00CREY3AA/ http://www.amazon.com/Nescafe-Classic-Instant-Coffee-Ounce/d... Nescafe says "Use 1 heaping teaspoon of coffee per cup". However, it is immediately apparent that "cup" is not a measurement, because step 2 is "Pour 6 oz hot water over coffee". But wait! I did find a coffee recipe ("Pumpkin spice latte") on Kraft. It's multiple-serving, which is the ideal case for an instruction of the form "Mix X T of coffee with Y cups of hot water". But here are the relevant ingredients: 1. "1/2 cup GEVALIA House Blend" 2. "1 qt. (4 cups) water" There's no way to interpret those cups as being 6 ounces, since 4 of them make a quart. In sum, you have no clue what you're talking about. Where did you get this idea, and why are you polluting the comments with it?

Sukotto 11y ago

When I lived in Canada, my mother's cup set had a 250ml "1 cup" and my grandmother had a 284ml one. I just bought a measuring cup set here in Japan and the 1 cup measure is 255ml. If that's not bad enough, a "cup" is 150ml when measuring coffee and 180ml when measuring rice. Unfortunately, "cup" is not a standard measurement. :)

zwily 11y ago
I think GP meant that in the U.S. it's pretty standard.
tjl 11y ago
I live in Canada and my measuring cup is 250ml and so is my mother's. I think it's the standard here now. I've seen 284ml, but that's only on older ones.

oska 11y ago

There are. [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cup_%28unit%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cup_%28unit%29

thaumasiotes 11y ago
The fact that different countries have different standard "cups" isn't really relevant to "converting measurements from US recipes". The US has just the one cup.

nl 11y ago

There is the "Metric Cup"[1] commonly used in Australia. It is 250 ml, which is occasionally a significant enough difference to be important. The US Cup has two definitions; the "Customary Cup" (237ml) and the "Legal Cup" (240ml). The difference between these is rarely significant. The (rarely used) UK Cup 284ml, and the Japanese Cup is 200ml. If you don't live in the US and get a random recipe book, these differences are confusing. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cup_%28unit%29#Metric_cup https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cup_%28unit%29#Metric_cup

mseebach 11y ago
> which is occasionally a significant enough difference to be important Other factors likely to be (more) important: (a) Measuring dry ingredients by volume (b) The specific sub-type/quality of ingredient used.