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?

  • EfreetSK
    150·
    6 months ago

    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?

    • Halosheep
      60·
      6 months ago

      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?

    • jbrains
      52·
      6 months ago

      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. 🤷‍♂️

      • Strykker
        81·
        6 months ago

        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.

        • jbrains
          51·
          6 months ago

          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.

        • Cryophilia
          31·
          6 months ago

          Why do you care about the tiny variations in volume? Recipe measurements very rarely need to be precise.

      • Cryophilia
        20·
        6 months ago

        That doesn’t sound difficult to me. I infer it’s merely not what you’re used to.

        /thread