Is it Bad to Use Liquid Measuring Cups to Measure Dry Ingredients?
Vložit
- čas přidán 27. 07. 2024
- Can you use liquid measuring cups for dry ingredients and vice versa? Hannah explains why this common cooking and baking practice can result in a failed recipe.
Buy Our Winning Dry Measuring Cups: cooks.io/2Ty91S0
Buy Our Winning Liquid Measuring Cups: cooks.io/2DQFtdx
Buy Our Winning Adjustable Measuring Cups: cooks.io/2DRCbXK
Buy Our Winning Scale: cooks.io/2IYPYLs
Follow Hannah on Instagram: / hannah_crowley8
Watch more Is it Bad? • Is It Bad? With Hannah...
Check out our What's Eating Dan? series:
• What's Eating Dan? wit...
ABOUT US: Located in Boston’s Seaport District in the historic Innovation and Design Building, America's Test Kitchen features 15,000 square feet of kitchen space including multiple photography and video studios. It is the home of Cook’s Illustrated magazine and Cook’s Country magazine and is the workday destination for more than 60 test cooks, editors, and cookware specialists. Our mission is to test recipes over and over again until we understand how and why they work and until we arrive at the best version.
If you like us, follow us:
cooksillustrated.com
/ cooksillustrated
/ testkitchen
/ cooksillustrated
/ testkitchen
Weighing is king. I've been converting my recipes to grams wherever possible, especially for baked goods.
Agreed. At first I thought it would be more tedious, but then I found myself looking at a digital display, and instead of worrying if the cup is level, I just put in 120g of flour.
It gets to be a pain though when using 120g of flour (I prefer grams because they are more accurate of a measure), then measuring butter. Oh man, butter is a pain. I found some sticks of butter are 7.5 oz instead of 8 oz!
Not to mention most 'Cups' are marked incorrectly -AND- there are at least 3 kinds of 'cups' sold in North America: a 237 mL cup, a 240 mL cup, and a 250 mL cup. Scales FTW!
Back when English system was just easy to remember as a kid.
Then you start cooking and you realize your whole life was a lie.
Don’t even get me started on all the variations of what constitutes a “cup” of coffee.
@@CantankerousDave Depends on who you ask right? I think 6oz is a "standard" coffee cup.(which kind of makes sense, because if your actual drinking vessel is 8oz, you'll probably want to leave two oz of space on the top)
Also, the smaller the "cup", the more "cups" your coffee machine will make. Basically you have a 12-cup coffee maker and you end up with like 4 mugs worth.
OMG this, a thousand times this... And globally, I there are about 8 or so that I have found...
Glen & Friends Cooking
Also how cups vary in weight
You have 4.5 - 5 oz for a cup of flour, but flours have different densities. I would keep the cups because
1. Children
2. You can use dry cups as scoops, liquid measuring cups as pitchers and adjustable cups for the more viscous.
I worked at a restaurant with an elderly German woman and she forbade me from ever use an a measuring cup she showed me with her hand Quarter cup, half a cup and cup! She was one of the best cooks I’ve ever met or eaten their food! What a phenomenal human being I think about her often great role model!
Thumbs up for kitchen scales! My wife thinks I crazy because I won't bake a bread recipe that isn't in grams/ounces.
My baking teacher taught me that to measure flour, you never "dip" the measuring cup!! You spoon the flour in the cup and THEN level it off with the back of the knife. When you dip the cup inside, you're packing some of the flour and it will not be as accurate.
I think it was King Arthur's Flour that recommends fluffing the flour before measuring it into a cup
Yay. This was my question! For the longest time I didn't even know there was a difference! Love that plunger tool. I usually just eyeball for honey, peanut butter, tahini, etc
Weighing ingredients has vastly improved my baking results.
Same here. And I am also gradually shifting more and more towards metric vs those stupid ounces pounds cups tablespoons. But only a few cookbooks made for the US have metric.
Sorry, but I've tasted your food, and it still sucks.
Totally agreed
Lol....my Italian immigrant grandmothers used their hands to measure, my mother used liquid measuring cups to measure dry and I convinced her to use dry measuring cups because it was quicker and more accurate. Now I have converted most of the old recipes to weight measure. IMO the most accurate and consistent. Fast too.
Yes, and I use the Oxo measuring scale!
Scales scales scales scales scales
And scales
I went to stage at a restaurant and asked the sous if I could use my cups instead of the scale. He said "SCALE, SCALE, SCALE! NO CUPS!" and so I used no cups. I understood why after but for the sake of speed I wanted cups at first
Edit: I live by scales now. Makes selling drugs more efficient as well
Idiots Idiots Idiots Idiots Idiots Idiots Idiots Idiots
Yes yes yes
23% measuring liquid in a dry cup? That surface tension bulge in the video is not hanging a quarter over the rim.
Anand Saxena I don't know how she could continue with such exaggeration.
Yeah. That was maybe an extra 2% at best.
raedwulf61 I think what really happened was there was a test group where they tested people's measuring tendencies with one instance being that far off. They fubared the bubble/meniscus error with the testing.
weight everything! easy to do. i hate recipes that use cups
I hate recipes with weights as I can't afford a scale (yes, I am that poor before your sarcastic comment). It IS however on my "hopefully someday, maybe" list, along with some baking tins that didn't see the civil war.
@@Saitaina you can get cheap one for like $15. if you save a dollar a day, you'll get it in two weeks. if that's still out of your budget, I'm sure kitchen scale is the least of your worry
Home Depot and Amazon have several good ones in the $15 range. www.google.com/search?q=best+ozeri+kitchen+scale&rlz=1C1CHZL_enUS752US752&source=univ&tbm=shop&tbo=u&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjd6fCBye3eAhWqrVQKHc2tAQ4QsxgILQ&biw=1313&bih=715
The worst part is converting everything into weights.
do that then.
I learned my cooking skills in a moderate-level American restaurant kitchen. Our production kitchen had four Pelouze food scales (analog, boing boing), one at each station, and we had to tare our weight by memory (that prep bowl weights 14 grams. Start there). The Exec and Chef de Cuisine (still a friend 40+ years later) was persnickety about precise measurement. Of weight, temperature, and anything else you could measure and repeat. We had a successful restaurant where teenagers like me learned to do successful, repeatable cooking. I was in awe of the numerous tools the pastry chefs used to get their job done (happy not to be one), including the right dry measuring cups to dip and sweep. Using the right measuring tools in many ways makes the final dish.
Is it bad to throw flour in the air and stand under it as it falls? Only if you keep your eyes open. LOL!
Paul L. Rogers LOFL!
They say they measure everything on a scale but why are all their recipes on the website using cups/spoons.
For liquid ingredients does not matter much, but for dry it can make a huge difference. Hard to find metric cookbooks though, managed to get a couple in English from Amazon but the vast majority are those stupid cups and spoons.
It's an American thing for the most part. Europeans usually use metric and scales
Americans and Brits are the only holdouts left not using metric. A good cookbook should use both. Metric is more precise.
Pavol Celuch Because it is more handy, and it is satisfactorily accurate.
Uses weight measurements in the test kitchen then publishes volume measurement recipes
I guess they figure more people have means of measuring in volume and makes it easier for the most common method. I'm just guessing though
When it comes to baking; I'd prefer to stick to volume.
Right? What's up with that? Scales are so cheap and 100% accurate.
Most recipes in US cookbooks give the ingredients in cups and ounces, not grams
we publish both for baking.
Thank you. Super helpful!
Good to know. Thanks. Do you compensate in any way for ingredients sticking to the measuring device?
Thanks for the great video. Most of my time in the kitchen is baking as opposed to cooking, so I agree 100% with using a kitchen scale. I have found one problem though, where can I find an accurate conversion table for the correct weight of items. I have downloaded several from popular CZcams channels, and some are way different for the same item, ie: 1 cup flour is listed as 120g on table A, and 127g on table B.
Bruce Johnson www.dianasdesserts.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/tools.measures/Measures.cfm
Let me ask my Grandmother how she measures her stuff...oh look it's a metal set of "dry cups" and metal set of "spoons"...no liquid cups, no Metric and no scale....so it must be Magic then that she was able to cook for all those years.
Roomie and I were just discussing this earlier today! Thank you!!!
Aha! I knew I was right! But I like the scale idea the best!
My mom has a lard measuring cup ( I think she sent away for from the lard box) that looks an awful lot like your "sticky" measuring cup. She's had it since the early 70's, for context of how long this kind of thing has been around. :)
When your scale shows when a fly lands on it, and when it takes off, you know you have the right scale. And you need to do something about the flies in the kitchen.
lol
Variances create the spice in life. Embrace variation, don't run from it. Sometimes, and don't tell anyone, but I put double chocolate chips in my cookies and 3/4 the sugar. Shhhh! I hope I don't get in trouble with the cooking police. Shhhh!
How bad are you at measuring if you are off by 25%? I mean, for liquids, did you just keep pouring it in after it was full for a few more seconds? I am skeptical of these results much like when they taste tested hot sauces and clearly got Cholula and Tobasco mixed up.
Yeah - there's no way that the amount of liquid above the rim of the measuring cup due to surface tension accounts for 25% extra
I would have to say I agree!! Thanks for the video
Great info and video 😎👍🏻
Chemists measure liquids from the BOTTOM of the meniscus, not the middle.
She said "center of the meniscus", which I took to mean the same way I learned in chemistry classes. Since not all liquids climb the walls, bottom isn't necessarily the best word to use either.
I was taught to read the bottom. sciencenotes.org/how-to-read-a-meniscus/.
yep same, from the bottom
though that was from small tubes, the meniscus of a large measuring cup might be significant enough the include some of it. plus, this is just cooking so I don't think scientific rigor is needed
Great video, Thanks
Coarse dry ingredients such as white sugar or semolina can be levelled just fine by shaking the cup, but it takes more time. I find it convenient to prepare ingredients on the table in regular glass cups, as many as required. You probably wouldn't want to fill a dry cup to the rim with liquid and make a mess.
sorry for this late question but I was wondering do I use the liquid or dry measuring cups for things like mustard and mayo and ketchup or honey?
As in chemistry, you should always measure from the bottom of the meniscus.
So then are those small measuring spoons only for dry ingredients then? What should you use to measure small amounts of liquids (teaspoon, tablespoon, etc.)
I know this is 5 years old but there have been studies done recently that prove that plastic cutting boards and sheets release microplastic particles that end up in your food.
Thank you
Should I measure first then sift my dry ingredients altogether or sift then measure each dry ingredient individually?
Been a chef for a 18 years. Using a dry cup for liquid works perfectly and vice versa. If you over fill either one, it’s very obvious.
Scales every time. What does a cup of grated cheddar mean? Do you grated it first or after?
This has been an ongoing debate in our house! Thanks for proving me to be correct. :)
25%? Maybe like 2%.
I agree on most of what's discussed about measuring dry/wet/in-between ingredients. HOWEVER, you can't really compare volume measurements and MASS measurements. What's the use of the scale if recipes usually call for VOLUME measurements? The only substance that has the same measurement in mass AND volume is water. 1kg of water equals to 1liter. How does this translate to flour? high fructose syrup? you need the viscosity factor to understand how much does a cup of honey weigh in the scale, since scales will measure MASS (grams, pounds, etc)
Most digital scales have the option to weigh in fl oz, lbs, g, and oz. I just my scale to fit my need.
@@thatsoserious Not fluid oz, but DRY oz, or just oz. czcams.com/video/hg6OqPNqXG4/video.html
Well, you’ve just given the answer to one common ‘argument’ in this house... ! I’ll let the ‘baker’ in the family have a look at this
I've heard horror stories of those adjustable measuring cups O.o
I have never used a scale. 99% of my recipes are excellent in the past 45 years.
One learns early on..consistency and measuring implements.
The
I didn’t know there was even a different cup for liquid and dry. Good thing I scale most things.
i though you should measure from the lower meniscus in the case of water/ water like liquids; especially at those volumes
what about measuring tablespoons via a cup setting on a digital scale ( by weight)?
But wouldn't zeroing the scales every time affect the sensitivity of the scale? Also, for small scales, keeping heavy mixing bowls and weighing using them would damage the spring in the scale.
No, it would not impact the sensitivity or accuracy of the scale. Using the Zero or "Tare" button simply subtracts the weight digitally, when you add more ingredients the scale will show you a new measurement. This is the same if you did the math in your head without using the tear function on the scale. Also when you turn off the scale it will usually reset back to "natural zero" disregarding the "Tare" function
Too much...never knew there were dry measuring devices and liquid measuring devices. Just like a pinch of salt. My pinch is smaller than your pinch. I'll just stick to what I normally do...eye ball it. But thank you for the info💟
This is all well and good, but i really need to know which circle of hell will it send me to(?)
When a recipe calls for "2.5 cups (12.5 oz.) of flour," should I use the 12.5 oz. weight no matter the brand, or should I use the weight that the packaging claims is 2.5 cups?
pagobo www.dianasdesserts.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/tools.measures/Measures.cfm
Human beings will find the 'easiest' way to measure things like flour - it's just the way we are. I think that's why many people still prefer using 'cups'. For some people such as myself, using kitchen scales is the easiest method. Messing about with filling a measuring cup the 'right way' i.e. fluff, spoon and level off is more trouble than it's worth, IMO - not to mention all cup filling methods are wildly variable. Unfortunately, so many recipes are published using 'cups' (with no mention of which size/type of cups were used). I've basically given up trying to convert any of them. Even some that supposedly have metric conversions can be inaccurate too - because 'a cup' of flour can weigh anything from 120 to 140-odd grams according to myriad search results on the 'net - and depending what the recipe author actually used is often anybody's guess.
Why aren’t all ATK recipe ingredients listed in grams as well as volume?
Is it bad to ask for more videos with Hannah?
Not bad, just creepy.
dont get me wrong with my final comment i to sometimes use a scale but people have been baking things such as breads, cookies deserts long before any formal measuring tools came out. i dont know many grand parents who known many measuring tools. does that mean they are not needed no but at times you will need to know how to adjust the recipe like in bread due to humidity. ive seen people who are in school for cooking/baking and still barely know how to make a loaf of good homemade bread because they are taught to follow the recipe to the T and unfortunally bread is not one of those things plus there are a million recipes out there for homemade breads even the same kind have many recipes.
You measure from the bottom of a concave meniscus, and from the top of a convex meniscus. You really should not estimate the middle of the meniscus. For a vessel as large as a measuring cup, the meniscus if flattened certainly would not equal half its height in volume. This is nitpicking, I know, but it's just as easy to remember to measure from the bottom as it is from the middle.
I understand that using a scale is more accurate, but if my recipe gives measurements by volume, how do you convert the recipe's measurements to weight. Doesn't sound like an easy task as a cup of flour doesn't weigh the same as a cup of butter. Please tell us how we are to use a scale when your recipes are by volume? 💜🌞🌵
Find a weight based recipe of the same food. Or weight the volume before hand, write it down, and if you liked the result keep using the weights you used from then on.
@@UntakenNick That "might" work...however dry goods are effected by humidity, so in the Summer, Flour will weigh less than in the rest of the year or when it's raining.
I use Google's unit conversion calculator. I know there is 8ozs in one cup (dry). I type/speak into the Google search bar/engine, " How many grams in 8oz?". I do all my unit conversions before I start cooking.
@@thatsoserious, there's a problem with your practice. All the measuring vessels shown in this are in "fluid ounces" not "dry ounces". Fluid ounces is a measurement of volume, where as dry ounces is a measurement of weight. Google assumed that you knew that and is giving you the dry weight conversion, otherwise your answer would be ounces to liters or milliliters. The way you can remember this is that 1cup of gold weighs more than a cup of feathers and all of USA standard recipes are measured by volume. Hope this will save you from ruining a recipe. Very critical in baking. 💜🌞🌵
I don't bake (i don't need the calories),
What I cook the error between wet and dry doesn't really matter and are easy to correct.
Hard to say. Most do not write in the recipe which measuring method they used.
I don't really mind the Americans pounds and miles and football fields because those can be easily converted to the metric system.
Now
CUPS mean something different for every American. I have seen cup being referred as 120g , 200g , 250g
And to think they put a man on the moon
"With the liquid in the dry cup, testers were up to 23% off." So, people were able to fit one-and-a-quarter cups of liquid in a one-cup cup?
Yeah..She covered that. Surface tension. It allows liquid to go above the "fill line", or rim of a glass.
Why would you measure flour by volume?
In nearly all older and even many new ones, that is the only measurement given.
Andrew Mantha Reasonably accurate with handy measuring cups.
OMG, this is why my white bread never comes out right.
Yes. WEIGH.
how would you measure a recipe of two cups dry ingredient with a scale?
Need to convert. This site can convert almost anything to metric www.aqua-calc.com/calculate/food-volume-to-weight
Joe H. www.dianasdesserts.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/tools.measures/Measures.cfm
😀💜tyvm Have a great day
You used a scale to measure sugar? I thought one cup dry ingredients would not weigh the same as 8 oz liquid?
Scale 👍🏻👍🏼👍🏽👍🏾👍🏿
It's the bottom of the meniscus at the center.
Flour weight varies from season to season. Did you know there is a difference in cake flour and bread flour? Do you weigh your eggs too, they vary? Liquids are the only things that don't vary in weight, should we weigh them?
If a kilogram of flour has a different weight from season to season, move away from the black hole.
Go to the Joy of Baking website and CZcams channel. She has over a million subscribers. She gives the number of grams for every ingredient, even eggs, and her recipes always work!
I find that meniscus gives an off flavour to milk.
Is it bad if my olive oil comes in a plastic bottle?
Is it bad to use corn-kernel-based measuring systems such as pounds and inches at this day and age, as opposed to science-based ones such as grams, liters, and meters? This channel seems to be scientific enough, what do you think?
"Can be bad", but is the same. But the whole water tension thing on the dry measure cup was silly. Any idiot can see that the wet measuring cup with the flour was way too much. And the bit about the meniscus...if you are sweating this, you need to learn that Cooking is more about not being afraid than anything else.
Oh no 🤦♀️ I have been doing this all wrong
Flour wasn't a very good item to test on
I love accuracy and would love to weigh but American recipes are not metric. It would be so hard to convert them. But I cook a little something Gluten free for myself sometimes and got tired of measuring at all except for the baking powder. When you get down to the basics pancakes, muffins, cakes, biscuits are all basically so close you just change it up a little.
I'm sure the imperial system must have some mass unit..
I mostly convert flour and sugar. 1 cup of AP flour = 120g. 1 cup of sugar = 200g. This takes care of the bulk of the cooking
or use a scale
its not the international space station its cooking..... : P
_1:33__ .. _*_Meniscus_*_ ? it's that in a cartilage pad in your knee?_
Thought that this was common knowledge: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meniscus_(liquid). I always forget that not everyone has taken high school chemistry yet.
It's the same word. Both share the same shape (curved, like a lens). The root of the word relates to the moon and its shape in crescent/gibbous phases.
(Realizing that I'm taking the chance of being the pedantic word freak who actually answers what might be a clever rhetorical one - liner.)
@@martinw4261 you might not wear a cape sir, but we appreciate you non the less
Martin W Thank you, from a fellow pedantic word freak! 🤓
Shouldn't a dry measuring cup and a liquid measuring cup at the 4oz mark both hold 4oz of water? What am I missing? I get that for flour you would want to level out of a measuring spoon, and not use a pitcher or jar to measure. But with a liquid ingredient why would it matter? These measurements are not nearly precise enough for surface tension to be a factor! A few drops stay in the measuring container. Maybe we add a few drops more, totally eyeballing it, to compensate. If precision was essential the recipe would have (or should have) given a weight, not a volume. Actually, it should always give a weight, even if it's for a teaspoon of salt (though also note that it's a teaspoon for convenience). I generally loathe measuring by volume, especially where precision is important. Just tell me how many grams. I'll put them in the bowl on the scale with the other ingredients. No need to dirty a bunch of spoons and cups. When I make a recipe with only volume measurements (AKA an imprecise and poorly written recipe) I both measure volume _and then weigh_ the measured volume of each ingredient, which I write on the ingredients list so that I don't have to measure by volume again. Just look at measuring that honey and that contraption people buy an clean in this video just to do it! We could be weighing the honey right in the mixing bowl like civilized people, wasting no honey and having nothing to clean! Argh! I have no problem with volume measurements on my recipes, sometimes they may be convenient (teaspoon of salt), but _always_ include weight. Even the teaspoon of salt depending on the recipe I might want to just pinch or pour into the bowl on the scale.
This video is complete nonsense, you are exactly right. 0:45 how is that going to effect the recipe?, then she says can that be off by "as much as 25%"? so if you need to add 1/4 oz or 7.393382 mL to your recipe you're going to be "off" because of the residual left on the measuring device.
i tried correcting my friends this zmas eve by telling them it DOES make a difference using the wrong measuring cup and i got CUSSED OUT so thanks alot
Measure liquids to the bottom of the meniscus.
Why are you measuring flour by the cup? Flour is best measured by weight since it can become compacted unintentionally
I always tell people this but nobody listens.
Wouldn't the adjustable measuring cup meet all the requirements for both dry and liquid measuring?
It does and has dry and wet markings on the side. But it's kind of clunky to use, so I only use it when there isn't a better option.
Until you try to measure something like peanut butter. But even then I think they suck. For example 1 cup of sifted flour is a lot less than 1 cup of scooped flour.
Ive had to purchase dry cups to follow american recipes. I could use the scale but then i would have to convert everything!
why do you bring up a weigh scale, when the topic is measures of volume? every ingredients have their own density
In regards to Flour, it better to go by weight
Cooks Illustrated/ATK, please please PLEASE publish metric weights in recipes whenever possible. You guys are all about consistency and precision except in this one crucial area! 🙏🙏🙏
100% agreed. I'm more for grams because grams are a more precise measure vs oz.
She just cover several things covered in AMERICAN high school science classes dating back to WWII. Yes american cooks know how to use a fucking scale.
You get an extra quarter of a cup? That does not seem likely, at least for the liquids.
Liquids are not the problem, it is dry ingredients.
Just use weights and scales!
if you advise weighing, why don't you provide your recipes with weight rather than volume measurements?
"Off by 23%"? Were they freaking blind? That's ridiculously exaggerated. If they were that off, they didn't care in the first place.
Nice comparison of results between precise and imprecise measuring, though.
Is it bad that she reminds me of cindy lou from the grinch but all grown up?
why do we persist to measure by volume? why oh why don't recipes just use mass instead. I love love love companies that publish recipes by mass not volume. This way you won't miss no matter what you measure
Just use a scale and the metric system for Christ sake.
1g = 1ml (water or milk)
Tahdah 🥳
How about just dumping cups all together and go metric. One litre of water weights one kilo. It is that simple. And most liquid measuring jugs are wrong anyway. So weigh everything and get it right instead of all this.
Kitchen scales! Anybody? No?
Kitchen scales! Anybody? No?
Kitchen scales! Anybody? No?
Kitchen scales! Anybody? No?