Why do Americans measure everything in cups?
Why do Americans measure everything in cups?
Used a couple of US recipes recently and most of the ingredients are in cups, or spoons, not by weight. This is a nightmare to convert. Do Americans not own scales or something? What's the reason for measuring everything by volume?
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Volumetric measurements, like the imperial system, is largely in place due to tradition.
But no, most people do not own good food scales. They aren't pricey (I think mine was $25), but they are very uncommon. I don't think I've ever seen one in a store.
I'm amazed they are that uncommon. Here (UK) you can walk into a supermarket and pick them up for less than £20.
"uncommon" is an overstatement, you can get them pretty much anywhere that has pots and pans. It's uncommon in that most people don't bother owning one, not that they're hard to get
I think you're.right about tradition. I have a set of recipes from 3 generations ago. It's been converted over the generations from a list of ingredients to "a fistful of flour" to "a juice glass of broth" to "1/3 cup of butter" as it was passed to me. Maybe my contribution will be to convert it to weight and pass it to my kids for them to finally convert it to metric weights.