What's the dumbest thing you thought as an adult that you recently learned was wrong?
I just realized while cooking that a measuring-cup cup (as measured out as 250mL in a glass measuring cup) is the same amount(s) as one of the actual plastic baking measuring cups that go inside each other like Russian dolls lol
I thought they were different somehow (something something imperial metric yadda yadda yaddda)
Your turn to come clean Lemmings!
**EDIT: to clarify, I mean volumetrically for measuring liquids
They are different though! The glass measuring cup is for liquid and the ones that nestle into each other are for dry ingredients. You need to fill the little ‘1 cup’ dry measuring cup to the brim with ingredients to get an accurate measurement, which is pretty much impossible with the glass wet measuring cups.
When you are measuring dry ingredients, you can fill the same cup with more flour or whatever depending on how you fill it as well, but with liquid it’s, well, fluid.
So, you can measure wet ingredients in the dry ingredients cup, but not the other way around.
You shouldn't use measuring cups of any sort for dry ingredients. Use a scale. And if the recipe gives volumetric measurements instead of weight, you should convert them to weight first. You'll find your baking/cooking will become more consistent as a result.
It wasn't dry stuff, is was water and milk for cooking. It was fine :) Its a good guideline tho re:consistency and definitely for baking/dry ingredients.
I also only eat to live, I don't have a super sensitive palate so its 99% the time just as well
If you have to eat to live, you may as learn to make it taste as good as you can. You may as well derive as much enjoyment as you can from the things you have to do anyway.
Meh, I'd rather it be little more than passable, so its not addictive and I don't get fat and also corralled into cooking for anybody else unless I want to ;)
Measuring by mass is definitely more accurate, yeah (for dry and wet ingredients). But have you ever noticed that the recipe always uses round numbers? You never see 4/9 cup, or 2.3735 teaspoons. What's the point of being able to measure out an exact number of grams when the recipe is already extremely approximated at a not-necessarily-exactly-optimal amount?
I mean yes, ok, I admit that you will get more consistent results. But not necessarily consistently good results.
You're right, most recipes aren't great. But, the beauty of using the scale is that you can iterate to make the recipe better. And every change will be reflected, because you're using a scale to get precise, repeatable measurements.
The real hack comes when you realize you can weigh everything, so you never have to clean measuring devices ever again.
When I make cookies, I use a scale, and bake them on parchment paper. As a result, I only have to clean a bowl, and a spoon (and barely the baking sheet).
I didn’t say the volume was different? I said the containers are different making it more difficult to get the proper volume of dry goods. You can’t flatten off 1 cup of flour that’s measured in a 2 cup measuring cup.
OP thought they were different as in different volumes, and then came to understand their mistake. you then came in to proclaim that they are different, then described how certain containers are harder to measure certain materials. Regardless of ease of use, a cup is a cup is a cup, so long is the “cup” in question is 8 oz of volume. Yes, some measurement tools have a different physical shape and may be more difficult to use for certain tasks, but that was not the “difference” being misidentified.
Also, you absolutely could use a glass measuring cup for flour, just tamp it down and go slowly, but that’d be stupid. Regardless, this is why using weight measurements for baking is vastly superior to using volume.
It's not gate keeping. It's just as easy to get a scale as it is to get measuring cups. People should use the right tool for the job so they don't fuck up and lose their confidence to try again.
Scales are non essential tools that cost $20 or more, sure they do make things accurate but i honestly doubt you can tell if something your eating was cooked using measurements from a scale or with Betty Crocker measuring cups that are $3.