Americans, please help me prevent recipe disaster!!

[gnu]

I'm following an American recipe for Galician Fish Stew. It has a spicy paprika sauce to accompany it. There could be 2 problems:

1. I don't know how much a 'cup' is in metric.
2. The recipe called for a crushed red pepper. It didn't mean a chilli pepper did it? i hope not cos I've just mashed up a sweet red pepper!!

I suppose you have already finished your stew now so perhaps a moot point but...

a cup depends on what you are measuring, if it is liquid it is about 237ml or 1/2 pint. Cup can also be used for dry ingredients which will vary in weight obviously on what you are using. probably shouldn't worry, though, recipes usually aren't that particular - are they?

oh, and yes, crushed red pepper generally is dried hot peppers - obviously the spicy bit of your sauce.

Your modifications will make your meal your own unique recipe!

An American cup is usually about 8 oz but like jrbsa23 said it depends if you are measuring dry or liquid ingredients. I've essentially given up using American recipes because I?m never quite sure, although with savoury recipes there's usually a bit more room for error. And crushed red pepper probably refers to dried pepper, like pepper flakes. I realise all this is a bit late though - how did it come out?