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!

I do t find that. I’ve never made a bad cake or bake with cups. Always turn out perfectly.

Yeah they use cups in Australia. Just a ridiculous way to measure things. Also I don't want to hear a person's life story before I get to the recipe. ’The first time I tried these pancakes, I was in Summer camp and blah blah ' shut up Chelsea, give me the dam recipe. That's why I always type 'uk' when I search for a recipe.

Before or after shrinkflation?

Now that does annoy me. I get that they need to do it for SEO purposes but it’s infuriating.

FWIW, I'm in the USA (although lived and cooked a long time in the UK, and learned to cook from my Scottish parent) and I use recipes from wherever they come from. In addition to US/American and UK, I like a lot of recipes that use EU measurements (I don't want to call them European because of course the UK is European too). I do use a precise digital scale - and it was very easy, cheap, and routine to get one - for almost any baking, but if I need a less exact measure I happily use cups, teaspoons, tablespoons, etc and their fractions over grams or kilos because it's easier FOR ME, and in a pinch I can estimate them by sight.

I think cups and their fractions in particular - since it's such a large measure - can be confusing and sometimes recipes just aren't specific enough, like for example from an influencer telling you "how I make it". But trad US recipes from reliable sources will be specific, like "a half cup of firmly packed brown sugar" or "a cup of flour, loosely sifted". These measurements seem more specific to me than "three cucumbers" or "one onion".

As a side note, most of the volume measurements used in the USA are not only US but standard throughout the Americas. I also find that adding the target country to your query on whatever search engine (I wouldn't recommend Google) works - for example, "Gazpacho recipe UK" or "traditional shortbread recipe USA".

I love US recipes with cups, it’s a quick way of measuring. I haven’t had bad results not using scales although I sometimes use scales. I have kids with allergies and found some great recipes from the US that manage their allergies. Just had to do a bit of googling to understand all purpose flour, baking soda etc. But that’s a good part of online recipes I think, trying different new recipes from other countries

RUDE

Me!

🤣

I had one recipe that used ounces, grams, cups (was never sure whether it was UK cups or US cups) and teaspoons, no idea who wrote it, but it gave me a chuckle and a headache.

I don't think quantities need to be all that precise unless you're baking when yes, they definitely do.

Grammes forever.

Did you Google the recipe? What else could you type into that search bar…? Think about it.

But I bake using cups every week and all my cakes turn out how they’re supposed to.

This online tool lets you convert any ingredient from any unit to a different unit, including volumes, and if you note it in a recipe then you only have to do it once.
https://www.traditionaloven.com/conversions_of_measures/flour_volume_weight.html

Why wouldn't they if you are consistent.

My son bless him tried making a cake with an American recipe but used one of our biggest mugs as the cup 🤣 needless to say it wasn’t the best cake.

Don’t most Americans make all their cakes with packet mix anyway? I’ve watched the reels of “home made” cakes that are anything but 🤨

Anyone with a set of cup measures? So much quicker than scales. It is really v basic for people who bake.

We have measuring cups in the kitchen yes but measuring things like tomatoes in cups can be very annoying. And don’t get me started on tablespoons of butter 🤦🏻‍♀️

Exactly.

I inherited my mum's hand written recipe book. You'd hate it OP.

It's all 'a handful of raisins', 'some sugar' and 'add nuts if it's Christmas'.

My favourite is 'Dad's blue dish of flour (SR)'.

This is why I stick with cookery books and don't cook from blogs if I can help it. So much pointless preamble just to fill column inches, and usually with terrible writing.

The internet is also good for giving you the equivalent weights

It’s because Google doesn’t like short posts, so it’s less likely to rank highly in a search unless they pad it out, so understandable, but bloody annoying.

Certainly not me. Tollhouse cookies, they call them, and they are divine.

I still have my copy of The Joy of Cooking from my time over there - it's like the US equivalent of Delia Smith.

Copy and paste the recipe into chatgpt and ask it to convert to UK measurements.

It's not that difficult. Plenty of countries do not do ounces and frown at pounds, stones, feet, etc.