Comment on Why do Americans measure everything in cups?

Kolanaki@yiffit.net ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

• DarkThoughts@fedia.io ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  If you'd use metric, then weight & measurements on measuring cups would be basically the same. Like, 1 liter or milk or water is exactly 1 Kg. Using arbitrary measurements like "cups" or "feet" are just confusing and prone to error.

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  • HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Milk has a specific gravity slightly higher than 1, so that isn’t accurate.

    Also, “cups” and “feet” aren’t arbitrary. They aren’t part of the metric system, but a cup is a standardized unit of volume and a foot is a standardized unit of length.

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    • andrewta@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Exactly. How is a foot anymore arbitrary then a meter?

      Or a cup anymore arbitrary then an ounce?

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      • SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Imperial measurements were based on arbitrary things, metric has specific scientific definitions for their weights.

        1l of water is 1kg at sea level, why the fuck is kings foot size the defacto foot?

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    • lvxferre@mander.xyz ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Milk has a specific gravity slightly higher than 1, so that isn’t accurate.

      In this context milk is a bad example because the difference between 1.03g/ml and 1g/ml is negligible in a kitchen. Even oil (0.92g/ml) is close enough.

      This matters the most for stuff like below (with 1cup = 240ml):

      • honey: 340g/cup = 1.4g/ml
      • sugar: 200g/cup = 0.85g/ml [varies depending on granularity]
      • flour: 120g/cup = 0.5g/ml [sieved, and “properly” measured. It’s a PITA to measure it by volume.]

      Also, “cups” and “feet” aren’t arbitrary.

      All units are arbitrary, be them metric or esoteric.

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      • HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        In this context milk is a bad example because the difference between 1.03g/ml and 1g/ml is negligible in a kitchen. Even oil (0.92g/ml) is close enough.

        The context is that if you are going to hand wave away a 3% difference in a quantity, then having to weigh everything probably isn’t important.

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    • BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      It’s close enough for home cooking, the specific gravity of milk is around 1030g/L so unless your recipe calls for multiple liters of Milk the small difference isn’t going to affect the result.

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      • HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        It’s close enough for home cooking

        And now you are getting to the reason why American use volume for recipes. If I don’t need the precision of mass for recipes as it won’t appreciably affect the taste, then why break out the scale?

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      • SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Elevation changes everything though and if you don’t adjust this measurements change more.

        If you’re at sea level, sure.

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  • Feathercrown@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    We know

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  • teft@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    1 liter of milk weighs more than 1 kilo. Milk is denser than water therefore 1 liter of it has to weigh more than water.

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    • tunetardis@lemmy.ca ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Well since we’re nitpicking, a kilogram is a unit of mass, not weight. So unless by “kilo” you meant kilonewton…

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  • tate@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Water isn’t the only ingredient. One liter of flour is not nearly one kilogram. More importantly, the mass of one liter of flour varies a lot depending on how much it settled in the container. That’s why weight is always the better way to measure ingredients.

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• SuiXi3D@fedia.io ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Ding ding ding!

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