I'm all for respecting cultural differences, but...

[EscargotChic]

I love the internet as a source of recipes, but when they give ingredients US-style it drives me nuts. I think the one currently in the oven will be fine with approximate amounts which is good because it called for a pint of cherry tomatoes and a quarter of a cup chopped onion.
Not wanting to disrespect lovely US Mumsnetters, but seriously, kitchen scales are an amazing invention!

So stick to British recipes then.

Volume over weight is a weird thing to get used to. I can manage some (cups etc) but others I give up and guess.

Have to agree OP. Who measures by cups FFS!

Are you always a nasty person or just about Americans?

Presumably the "they" that give the American measurements in a recipe are American. You can convert them to metric measurements. Do you expect everything on the Internet to be written the same way regardless of the origin? How do you feel about French websites written in French for example?

I bought cups in the end. I find it really odd that when I look for recipes, American ones always come up first. I wonder why that is. And I have no idea what a stick of butter is!

Well, the Americans do, and have sets of measuring cups in their kitchen, so it’s no harder for them to use those than it is for us to weigh. You can buy them here too - I saw them in Dunelm this weekend.

Cups are fine for things like flour I think. But a quarter of a cup of chopped onion?? Just tell me how many bloody onions to cut up.

we have cups in the house
or you can google

Happy OP?

It’s how Americans buy their butter! It’s about 4oz so ideal for a basic sponge.

But onions are different sizes! Two onions is no definitely not more precise than 1/2 cup.

I ended up buying cups, it does make some recipes easier, like cakes and pancakes.

It's so strange to me that this comes up so often. It's a huge country that has a system that has worked for it for its whole existence, but MN seems to think it should change simply because they want the recipes they write.

It's like complaining that your favourite Mexican recipe is written in Spanish.

A lot of Americans actually use scales now for accuracy. There are still some hard-core cup users though, stuck in their ways. I just convert the recipes myself, as long as you know if it is US/Aus etc cups, aa they're all slightly different. I agree op, baking especially is a science and it needs to be right!

I know it’s not more precise. I actually think that for a savoury meal that involves onions, 1/2 cup is unnecessarily precise - and what do you do with the rest of the onion. “One onion” is a fine amount of precision for a bolognese or whatever. Doesn’t matter if it’s a big one or a small one. It’s not like a cake where the weights really matter.

Maybe it’s aimed at people who buy pre chopped onion? And so need a weight or volume.

I‘ve increasingly seen Americans online saying that no serious cooks use cups /sticks of butter etc. and that grams are the way to go because they’re so much more precise. Obviously the problem is that most people who cook in the US are not serious cooks.

I bought a set of measuring spoons that also has all the main cup measurements (quarter, half etc) - that gets me through any US-only recipes.

So rude you had to send it twice!

I'm American. I easily go back and forth from recipes in cups and recipes in grams and ounces. It's not in the least difficult, so it's not really about accepting "cultural differences."

😂 Honestly it reminds me of a scene I'm sure that was on Motherlode where the Mother was trying to give the daughter half an onion along with other things, and who the hell has this in their fridge!

I admit to actively seeking out US recipes. That's because I'm far too lazy to get the scales out, put it on the counter, pour the ingredient into it, get a spoon to get some out or add some in to get it right. Then another round of shots for the next ingredient and so on. It's cups all the way for me now, and I use the butter measurements on the wrapper. Works fine for me, but I just use cups for baking measurements, anything else is by eye mostly.

Some recipes are more forgiving than others.

It's definitely not! If you've ever read an old cookbook you'd see cups for chopped veg. Definitely before pre-chopped veg.