AIBU to not understand cups?

[Thisnamechanger]

This is probably the most minor, pedantic, first world problem AIBU I've ever posted but can anyone explain the American recipe measurements to me?

I do get that they have standard measuring cups (have seen them in shops but never bought them) and I totally understand that for things like milk, flour, rice etc. but how the feck does it work with things like spinach?? Surely the cup would be full with about 5 spinach leaves because they don't sit flat? Is it chopped? Shredded? Or is it cooked spinach? If so how on earth do you know how much raw spinach will produce a cup of cooked spinach?

Surely I can't be the only person that struggles with this or am I missing something really really obvious?

Can you tell I'm using myfitnesspal and I'm hangry

Even hard of thinking posters must be able to recognise that the size of the cup doesn't matter as long as you use the same cup throughout the recipe.

^^
That's debatable.

Im not a fan of cups, I never understand if i have to cram it in, pat it down or what. I get it doesnt make a HUGE difference but i like the precision of scales. Also it seems to create more washing up, and a cup does not fit in a bag of flour to just scoop it it.

Oh I hate cups!

Cups should measure bra size and nothing else.

@Angie169 don't get me started on a 'stick of butter'. Stick it up your arse more like.

In America butter comes in a box the size of our normal pats of butter but is divided into individually wrapped sticks. It’s genius and I wish we had them here!

Cup of butter anyone? How?? That really boils my piss.

I love cups
I’m old and was used to lbs and ounces and found the switch to metric measurements baffling. I know roughly what 8oz of flour looks like but haven’t a clue what 225grammes of anything looks like.
So I use American recipes and cups and spoons. So much easier.

@DragonsAndCakes - I've just realised how far from my (vaguely) rock'n'roll youth I am when I'm getting excited about a baking scales!

I'm off to smash a guitar. No scales required.

I must be hard of thinking then, because if the recipe calls for one egg and two cups of flour etc etc, then how can it not matter the size of cup used? If I use an egg cup will my cake turn out ok? Or will there be too much egg?

I don't mind baking with cups but I always use grams on MFP. Put spinach and a UK supermarket, or scan the bag, though spinach is still a pain in the arse because you can hardly fit any in a bowl/container.

The thing I find really annoying with MFP is when things like pasta are listed as their cooked weight when you would be much more likely to weigh them dry.

Brown eyed girl, so 'liquid cups' are what I would call a measuring jug then....

My scales are the flat sort you put your mixing bowl onto. They also measure in ml and floz as well as grams and oz so I don't make any jug or cup dirty, just the bowl I'm mixing in.

Tablespoon of butter is a ridiculous concept. But in America it is sold in sticks that are equivalent to a tablespoonful so then not so ridiculous.

Tablespoon of butter is a ridiculous concept. But in America it is sold in sticks that are equivalent to a tablespoonful so then not so ridiculous.

That makes some of the recipes I've read seems a lot less insane.

Well as eggs are are all different sizes it would be the same problem if you were weighing the dry ingredients.

@Ghostontoast a stick of butter is (roughly) just slightly less than our average 250 g pack of UK butter.

So for less than a stick e.g 1/3 rd I would open the pack of butter, lightly mark with my knife the line for a stick (just less than half, and i find it easier to do this on the length not the width) then find the 3rd of that and cut.

But I do agree it would be nice if we could buy sticks.

Other things I find fascinating about American recipes include:

their use of the word casserole
use of other complete things as ingredients (e.g I've seen a box of cake mix or a tin of soup as an ingredient in a recipe)
putting sweet potato and marshmallows together
Kosher Salt (I recently discovered this just means course salt)
words like broil, grill, skillet
biscuits and gravy

I'm sure these things are delicious by the way I just find it thoroughly intriguing

I thought this was going to be a complaint about teacups with their tiny handles, which only hold two shrew's mouthfuls of tea, and why would anyone bother with them when they could use mugs instead.

I am obsessed with cups for cookery!

I have these and the matching spoon measures

AND these

a china set ...i broke one, but cannot bear to chuck them as I have matching spoon measures and jug

a metal set from tesco

another china set from a friend

I really really want these geesey ones They have been in and out of my trolley in tesco, I don't know why I put them back. I won't next time.

I need cat ones as well. But apparently I am not allowed any more.

Same here, liz !

"biscuits and gravy"

The biscuits in question are more like a sort of hardish, pan fried savoury scone, and the gravy is a sort of savoury white sauce with finely chopped bits of meat in it. So not Peek Freans dipped in Bisto. It's a southern dish, isn't it?

Kosher salt is the salt that was used for ‘Koshering’. The salt was used to draw out the liquid.

Also scallions sounds like something from Lord of the Rings.

and it's no good being snippy about people being hard of thinking because it works no matter what cup you use, because that's just NOT true for any recipe that has any other non cup weight/fluid measurement in it

anything that uses eggs, or sticks of butter for a start will only work with the proper sized cup.

a stick of butter is 4 ozs/8 tablespoons/half a UK pack

But eggs aren’t a standard size, so you will get into the same problem with grams.

Actually while we are here talking food and baking, sort of.
Can one of yous enlighten moi about oil instead of butter in baking?
I did a cake a while ago and didn't want to use the last of my butter so I swapped for oil, too much oil, it was nasty.
I did Google but ended up guessing as no definitive answers.

A cup is approximately equal to 250mls in volume and a stick of butter is just over 100g. If you don't have measuring cups you can measure the volume using a measuring jug maybe?