“cup” is a unit of measure like a foot. It measures volume and it is approx equal to 236 ml.
There also exist metric cups with a round 250 ml, supposedly for easier adoption of the metric system.
Comment on Why do Americans measure everything in cups?
Blizzard@lemmy.zip 7 months agoBy the way, there’s just one size of cups in America?
themoonisacheese@sh.itjust.works 7 months ago
ryven@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 months ago
A measuring cup is a specific size, about 237mL. There’s a whole system of US measurements, actually:
3 teaspoons in a tablespoon
2 tablespoons in an ounce
8 ounces in a cup
2 cups in a pint
2 pints in a quart
4 quarts in a gallon
Not all cups are measuring cups; if you are having a cup of coffee that doesn’t mean your cup is exactly 8oz. You just infer from context that if someone is talking about ingredients then you should measure them with a measuring cup.
Sinthesis@lemmy.world 7 months ago
fluid ounce, since most liquids used in food are nearly the same density.
howrar@lemmy.ca 7 months ago
I’ve seen “cups” used to mean anywhere between 225ml and 250ml. It’s very confusing.
Delta_V@lemmy.world 7 months ago
The things people drink out of are many different sizes of course, but when the word “cup” is used in the context of a measure of volume, then yes, they’re called “measuring cups”, and the volume is standardized.
Same thing with teaspoons and tablespoons. They’re not just any random spoon - when talking about measurements, they have a standardized volume and you need to use a cheap and ubiquitous measuring device if you want to follow a recipe precisely.
Most people in USA do not have a scale in their kitchen, but we do have a measuring cup and a set of measuring spoons.