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

Measuring is only required for baking. I used to think this, but have discovered that Victoria sponge is incredibly forgiving of inaccuracies. I can produce a sponge pudding in the microwave in under 5 mins total, using tablespoon for "measuring" and a fork for beating.

For those who have trouble with metric, 30 grams = 1 ounce is accurate enough for most things. A pound is a bit less than half a kilo. (More accurate is 28g to an ounce, and half a kilo is 1.1lbs)

Liz70 As did I.

The explanation of how the 'cup' came in to use has got me wanting some in honour of all the hardy and courageous women who hacked lives out of the plains and mountains in the 1800's.

You'd all hate me. I have four 'measures'. Some, too much, not enough and about right. I blame the YTS in catering I did. Never yet come across a professional cook/chef that uses scales.

words like broil, grill, skillet They're all good old English words, aren't they? (I find it so annoying when "Americanisms" turn out to be traditional English, whereas we use the tarted up pseudo-latinised Victorian word. Fall, sidewalk, vs autumn, pavement for example)

I love a skillet. When people say 'do you mean a frying pan' I have to count to ten.

the tolerance of a large or small egg to a set weight is less likely to cause issues than arsing with egg size and teeeeeeeeny tiny or extra large cup size though

Also, how dafuq do you do a cup of butter? Melt it?

I think it's a stupid system. If I see any recipe in cups, I convert it to grams.

@Thisnamechanger - we call them scallions in Ireland. I hate seeing them called spring onions in the likes of tesco. Makes me want to abandon my shopping and go to Dunnes instead.

www.gardentrading.co.uk/kitchen/baking/louella-glass-measuring-cup.html?gclid=CjwKCAjwzoDXBRBbEiwAGZRIeI8INNXIbUSbYErGANJ-LpsLUyh7shgrnnrv3KkiOvfV5uYLf83N5xoCl4kQAvD_BwE#.WuCW6NvMwWo

We have this

Sorry didnt RTFT

Doesn’t help with spinach, but I found this converter useful when making toffee from an American recipe the other day.

www.goodtoknow.co.uk/food/cups-to-grams-converter-87833

I convert everything in a recipe to weight or volume using these calculators before I start.

For about 20 years I've intended to buy proper cups, but I'm still using coffee cups. No idea whether they bear much relation to the US cup size, but I it's worked fine and I can't be arsed to check.

Saying it's a dumb system does not mean that you think Americans are dumb . It's pretty dumb to use a mixture of metric and imperial - that doesn't mean we're insulting everyone in the UK.

I have a set of cups. They are fine for measuring liquid, flour, sugar, rice etc but they are a pain in the arse for most other things. Of course they'd be useful if you didn't have scales, but they are a poor substitute imo.

A lot of us in the US don't have scales in our kitchen (I don't). If we did, they might well measure in ounces rather than grams. We don't use the metric system as much as you do.

When I use a recipe that uses grams, I have to convert it to measurements I've got. The net weight on the package is often helpful here- it calls for about half a package of this.

Cups work best for liquids, stuff that you don't have to pack down, and recipes where getting precisely the right amount of something isn't critical. That's true of a lot of recipes (less so when baking). I generally stay away from cooking that requires precision, because I find measuring precisely to be a pain in general.

Of course most of us these days don't remember things like how many ounces in a cup- we Google it on our phones. I didn't really cook much before Google, so I don't know how people used to do it.

I use my scales at least every other day, because I make bread in my breadmaker and you can't be slapdash about quantities. It's not time-consuming or faffy. It's accurate and practical.

Can one of yous enlighten moi about oil instead of butter in baking?

Yes. Don’t swap oil for butter in baking. It tastes nasty.

It’s just ratios. I find them easier tbh.

"Don’t swap oil for butter in baking. It tastes nasty."

Yep. As the ancient proverb goes,
Butter in bakey tastey nicey;
Oil in bakey tastey nasty.

But how do you measure a cup of butter??? That's the main thing that puts me off using them - never know what to do when the recipe asks for a cup of butter.

Not sure about the science bit flooffloof but IMHO butter does taste better. I think you have to use less oil if you replace it?

Watched an American TV show and they put in a cup of brown sugar and a full stick of budder in with the mashed sweet pots

Re. butter. You use solid, not melted butter, surely?

here we are

The equivalent of a cup of butter is delineated on the packet - you do not have to decant the butter into a measuring cup.

So what, you pack the cup full of butter? It doesn't make sense.