measurements around the world

[pastrygirl]

I'm converting some recipes in a little cookbook the hotel I work for gives to our guests from grams to grams/ounces/cups, trying to make them useable for anyone around the world. Our guests are about half American and half from absolutely everywhere else.

Does anyone besides Americans use cups? I think I've heard that Australian cups are larger, so is it better to specify 'US cups'? Or do Aussies know if the recipe didn't come from Australia, it's US cups?

For those who use metric, is there any sort of volumetric equivalent to cups? It seems odd to me to say '480 ml chopped cabbage', but if that is the best way to describe how much cabbage, then so be it.

Thanks for any input.

[Lior]

I personally prefer by weight- just pull out my scale- no wondering about the space and air in between the cabbage pieces in a cup etc! But I jnow Americans prefer cups and such!! Good luck!!

Edited September 13, 2008 by Lior (log)

[pastrygirl]

I personally prefer by weight- just pull out my scale- no wondering about the space and air in between the cabbage pieces in a cup etc! But I jnow Americans prefer cups and such!! Good luck!!

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Guess who doesn't feel like chopping and weighing 2 cups of cabbage?

Do most people have scales? Some other threads have suggested that Americans don't generally have scales, which is why our recipes are all in cups, and the cookbook people don't want to give weights until everyone has a scale!

Does the rest of the world weigh everything?

[jumanggy]

The home baking tradition was introduced to the Philippines by the Americans, during our occupation in 1898-1940. We do use the American cup system in most baking recipes published for the home cook. Australian cups I've forgotten if they are also 240mL or are 250mL. The only major difference I can discern is the tablespoon measure: 15mL for Americans and 20mL for Australians (though I've seen a New Zealand reference that also lists 15mL).

Yes, it's absolutely correct to convert a cup into 240mL. But of course, the best way to describe how much cabbage (or other nonpackable, irregular solids) is by weight-- grams for those who use the metric system and ounces for Americans. It makes shopping for ingredients much easier too.

Oh-- to answer the question, this part of the world does use cups, but I hate that system. Looove my scale. I would weigh the portion of cabbage I'm going to use before chopping, of course

Edited September 13, 2008 by jumanggy (log)

[ChefCrash]

Checkout this site Recipes On Rails. Done by one of ours here, can't remember his name.

[ElsieD]

Canada used both imperial (cups and ounces) and metric (litres and grams), although officially we are a metric nation. Canadian cookbooks tend to have both measures in them. The cups and tsps. & tbsp. we use are the same as those in the USA.

Edited September 13, 2008 by ElsieD (log)

[naguere]

As a schoolboy in the late 1940's in England we had a small amount of milk each for elevenses. Winter in those times would see it frozen in the bottle, with the creme shot out of the top , rigid .

It was a gill of milk, a quarter of a pint.

'Four gills , one pint' went the recitation.

Then, years later Maggie Thatcher stopped the allowance 'Maggie Thatcher, milk snatcher', went around the playground.

Clickety

It charms me just to think about that measure, never mind rod, pole or perch.

Edited September 13, 2008 by naguere (log)

[dougal]

I'm converting some recipes in a little cookbook the hotel I work for gives to our guests from grams to grams/ounces/cups, trying to make them useable for anyone around the world.  Our guests are about half American and half from absolutely everywhere else.

Does anyone besides Americans use cups?  I think I've heard that Australian cups are larger, so is it better to specify 'US cups'?  Or do Aussies know if the recipe didn't come from Australia, it's US cups?

For those who use metric, is there any sort of volumetric equivalent to cups?  It seems odd to me to say '480 ml chopped cabbage' ...

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The Japanese cup (really) is smaller than the US one, and yes, the Australian one is bigger.

Its not just boasting!

The thing that seems wrong about "480 ml of chopped cabbage" is that its a volume measurement for a solid of variable and uncertain packing density. Volume measures, whether cups or ml, are simply inappropriate for variably loosely packed solids.

I enjoy drinking beer by the pint (and not those funny little US pints either), and I still think of vehicle fuel economy in 'miles per gallon', I'm looking for a bit of wood about six inches long - and so on.

BUT I now cook in grams. Its just plain easier.

Any tourist unworried by Bhutan's daily visitor tax really should have no difficulty finding $20 to treat themselves to a basic digital scale, that should have a 'grams' setting, and a 'tare' (add and weigh) facility. If they use your recipes, in grams, measured on such a scale, then they too will soon become evangelists for simple, logical, reproduceable specification of recipe quantities and will, to their own surprise and amazement, find themselves banging on about such things, even on internet fora...

[andiesenji]

I like the cookbooks published by The Australian Women's Weekly.

The inside back cover of each cookbook has conversion tables which are very helpful.

In the UK and US a tablespoon is 15 ml in Australia it is 20 ml.

Their website has a very useful metric converter

here

[torakris]

The Japanese cup is 200ml.

I wish more cookbooks were "universal", Having spent the past 14 years in Japan I have pretty much completely switched to metric and find it so much easier. The ideal cookbook would have both US and metric measurements for everything.

I would also avoid using terms referring to the packaging, I still see in US cookbooks 'a stick of butter' or 'a carton of cream'. Butter is sold in 200g blocks and cream in 200ml cartons in Japan and I no longer have any idea of how much butter is in an American stick or how much cream is in a carton.

[Ruth]

http://forums.egullet.org/style_images/dev...icons/icon7.gif There is nothing I hate more than volume measurements for solids. Cup measurements are so inaccurate and cumbersome that they should have been abandoned long ago. Excellent digital scales that measure in both ounces and grams are now available at reasonable prices. No serious cook should be without them

[lamington]

Does anyone besides Americans use cups?  I think I've heard that Australian cups are larger, so is it better to specify 'US cups'?  Or do Aussies know if the recipe didn't come from Australia, it's US cups?

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Aussies don't automatically convert from US to Aus cups, especially with most not understanding the imperial/US customary measures anymore.

I'd strongly go for either "US cups" or put a note under each recipe saying the cup used for the recipe is a standard US cup of 237ml.

[nickrey]

The home baking tradition was introduced to the Philippines by the Americans, during our Australian cups I've forgotten if they are also 240mL or are 250mL.

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Australian cups are 250 ml.

As for many others replying to this question, I'd much rather go by weight. 250ml of water = 250 g, it's an easy conversion. The cup measurement are extremely inaccurate because of the empty spaces created by the composition of the material you are using. As a consequence, weight is going to be closer to the original intention in virtually all cases.

Milk is a little more dense so at 20 degrees celsius, 100 mls = 103g but it's not a huge difference, particularly if you are judging your dough by feel (which can vary by temperature, flour, etc as much as that anyway).