[USMA:32214] Re: cook by mass or volume? - OFF TOPIC

[Scott Hudnall]

Title: Re: [USMA:32212] cook by mass or volume? - OFF TOPIC

I cook like a lot of people in the world – which is neither SI nor imperial, but often humorous. I use the method of the “secret family recipe”. (Translation: I improvise a lot)

If the recipe calls for 2 eggs, I use 2 eggs. If the recipe calls for milk or water – I reach into the cabinet to get a measuring cup and can’t find it - one of my housemates must be watering the plants with it or something. I improvise and use my favorite coffee mug instead. I fill the mug most of the way to the top, then I transfer part of the liquid from the mug to the mix and stir until I get a certain consistency. If it looks like it needs more, I add more. If I screw it up, I order takeout. Hahahaha!

Then there are always the measurements grandma used: the “pinch” and the “smidgen”. “Pinch” is easy – just pick up an ingredient between two fingers. Whatever you can hold together with your fingers pinched together is a “pinch”. I have yet to figure out the “smidgen” but I THINK it is one of those spice measurements that can only be determined by taste. (Add a little bit, stir it, taste it, add a little more, repeat until it tastes the way you like it).

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From: Pierre Abbat <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Organization: dis
Reply-To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Sat, 5 Feb 2005 19:39:27 -0500
To: "U.S. Metric Association" <usma@colostate.edu>
Subject: [USMA:32212] cook by mass or volume?

I've read that metric recipes usually quote the mass, not volume, of solid
ingredients. A recipe I found on a cereal box illustrates why. It calls for 2
cups of flakes, lightly crushed. I don't know whether that means to measure 2
cups and then crush them, or crush them and measure 2 cups, which could
easily be twice as much. The box is labeled 340 grams, not by volume.

For rice, though, I'm used to measuring volumes. So I poured some rice into a
measuring cup, noted that it's 150 ml, and measured 300 ml of water, and just
turned the heat down.

Once for fun, when making pancakes, I measured it au pifomètre as I always do,
then put it on the scale after each ingredient. It came out to:
111 g mix (Arrowhead Mills buttermilk, maybe with another kind mixed in)
142 g water
6 g oil (olive, maybe hemp)
47 g egg.

So how do you cook? Mass or volume?

phma
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.i le babzba ba zbasu
lo jbazbabu lo babjba