3 ms·

This drives me crazy. It’s ok if we’re talking about a liquid, I guess, but what is 1 cup of cheese? Or 1 cup of broccoli? 1 cup of walnuts? Using volume for t

This drives me crazy. It’s ok if we’re talking about a liquid, I guess, but what is 1 cup of cheese? Or 1 cup of broccoli? 1 cup of walnuts? Using volume for those, the amount you’re actually using can vary by a factor of 10 depending on how granular it is, how finely chopped or shredded it is, or how it fell that day. I do everything in grams, but with some recipes and labels it’s just not possible to know how much of something it’s talking about. Which is unfortunate because that’s the entire purpose of a recipe or a label. Why can’t we stop this?

HarryHirsch 9y ago
What's the void volume in a packing of spheres again? I seem to remember it's 74 %. You underestimate the weight by at most 25 %. Broccoli is really an edge case. The traditional measuring cup for the kitchen (looks like this: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Messbecher.jpg https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Messbecher.jpg) has more typical ingredients: semolina, raisins, flour, pearl barley, pulses & so on.
kqr 9y ago
> but what is 1 cup of cheese? Or 1 cup of broccoli? 1 cup of walnuts? ... depending on how granular it is, how finely chopped or shredded it is Well, the recipe should give you an indication of granularity, although you won't get an ASTM number. That said, for cooking you're supposed to eyeball it a bit and judge through experience. Rarely does a little too much broccoli kill. It sucks when it's a new dish or you are inexperienced -- but if you can't afford practise runs where the result is allowed to be sub-par, then it's probably a good idea to switch to a different source of recipes.