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Wowfunhappy

I can't say I'm sure how I would measure an ounce of sugar...

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I have a simple kitchen scale, it has become indispensable.

I measure everything: 100g of pasta if I'm not too hungry, 22g of coffee beans for 300g of water etc

And don't think I'm particularly OCD, it's just so much more convenient to have repeatable results.

100% this. I initially bought the scale so that I could have a scientific and repeatable process for making coffee, but now I use it for everything I eat and make. It's become second nature now.

As a European that's like hearing someone say they have no idea how to measure the width of a box (measuring tape or ruler), an amount of water (measuring cup), or an amount of a solid that won't nicely fit into cups or spoons (e.g. apple). You never came across a recipe that called for 200g sugar and 400g flower, for example?

From someone who watches american vlogs I heard that everything in the USA is cups and spoons. It makes me wonder: doesn't it get old to have to clean the cup and a set of spoons after every use? Why not pour directly into the mixing bowl that you put on a scale?

> doesn't it get old to have to clean the cup and a set of spoons after every use

sort of, but I just measure all the dry ingredients first, then the wet ingredients, and then put the cups/spoons in the dishwasher

> Why not pour directly into the mixing bowl that you put on a scale?

Recipes here very rarely give weights.

> You never came across a recipe that called for 200g sugar and 400g flower, for example?

Not in any American recipe book or web site. It's always by volume. This makes baking extra difficult.

It’s a joke. An ounce is both a unit of volume and weight...or rather two units of weight. The two units of weight are less of an issue when cooking because gold is rarely eaten at all and certainly not in troy ounce quantities.

Sugar is sold by weight but measured by volume when cooking...and not in volumetric ounces but using cups and fractional cups...a cup being eight volumetric ounces.

The nexus between volumetric ounces and avoirdupois ounces is a pint of water is sixteen volumetric ounces and weighs about one avoirdupois pound and an avoirdupois pound weighs sixteen avoirdupois ounces. A roundabout way of sayin “a pint’s a pound the world around.” Obviously empire induces certain conceits.

An advantage of volumetric measuring is using utensils rather than mechanisms. A measuring cup can hold a cracked egg and a scale can’t...which also points out that the variability of eggs and walnuts suggests that gram accuracy is not warranted for ordinary cooking...you probably don’t adjust the weight of flour based on its moisture content.

A kitchen scale? You don’t weigh the amount, you add until the scale with your bowl on it registers an increment of that amount.

A tablespoon of sugar--a common amount in a recipe--is 12.5 grams. As the other guy said, a kitchen scale can easily do this: throw your bowl on there, hit the "tare" button to zero the scale, and then any sugar you add will be the reading on the scale. No spoons or cups needed; it's simpler! Tare again and add the next ingredient.

Whoa, okay, you've convinced me! I'm on board with this!

This would drive me crazy. Unless you're baking why do you need such specific amounts of things like sugar? Just taste the dish and add more sugar if you need it.

Using measuring spoons instead of a scale drives me crazy. Even basic recipes benefit from mise en place and wiping/cleaning measuring spoons to do that is maddening. When using a scale the task becomes a simple matter of counting in just the same way as using measuring spoons. Using grams is the real win. Having everything in a base 10 system means less math in your head while managing the rest of the kitchen.

Well, unless you need to divide a recipe down. Base 10 isn't optimal for everything.

If I'm baking bread or a cake or something that really needs exact amounts yes. Strict mise en place and measuring things by the gram for basic recipes seems like major overkill to me, I'd eyeball everything and avoid dirtying the measuring spoons at all. Maybe I'm lazy.

How do you taste an uncooked cookie dough?

That falls under baking IMO.

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