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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I'm with you but I get it that sometimes it's convenient. My wife likes what we call "cup recipes" in baking where everything is measured in cups/glasses (this was a new thing couple of years ago where I live). It's very fast and convenient.
But yes, it gets out of hand. I mean "a cup of celery"? ... How? Why?
I much prefer when they just estimate how many of the particular vegetable I should probably use. A cup of celery? Like 1-2 celeries?
Take a 1-cup measuring cup, chop celery until it's full. That doesn't sound difficult to me. I infer it's merely not what you're used to.
I tend to prefer to weigh ingredients, but I also have measuring cups and spoons and using them is not so onerous. 🤷♂️
But celery is blocky and has gaps and doesn't pack well, the amount you get changes drastically depending on how fine you chop it and on random packing.
I'm not arguing that it's wise. I'm merely arguing that it's not nearly as inexplicable as that comment made it seem.