At 19 November 2005, 08:29 AM, Remek Kocz wrote:
I've been exposed to quite a few American cookbooks, and ounces are definitely hard to find in them. Pounds or fractions of a pound are prevalent for weights and cups and fractions of cups dominate the liquids. The occasional ounce references I've seen were to the size of a container of ingredients, like a can of beans or tomatoes.
I am not sure what cookbooks you are looking at, but I believe ounces (both mass and volume) are fairly common in American cookbooks. Liquids volumes above 1 tablespoon are frequently specified in ounces (very common in alcoholic drink recipes). Mass ounces are very common for things like ground beef and flour (e.g., four onces of ground beef for a burger).
I have heard the Food Network "Good Eats" host Alton Brown emphasize the need for a digital scale in the kitchen for measuring amounts of things like flour, sugar and spices. Unfortunately, he does almost everything using traditional American units.
As to which ounce, at least in cooking the "volume" ounce (used for liquids) is 1/8th of a cup, which is 1/4 of a quart. A "mass" ounce is 1/16th of a pound. Both of these can be defined far more precisely than would ever be needed in cooking.
Jim
