Reply to Why do Americans use volumes instead of mass for baking/cooking?

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Reply to "Why do Americans use volumes instead of mass for baking/cooking?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]All recipe creators (including American ones) use weighed out ingredients when developing recipes bc it's so much more precise. For the US market they then convert back to volume based measurements.

Weighing and baking is a way better system and even Americans are speaking out in favor of it, eg. Alison Roman on one of her videos. [/quote]

But it doesn’t make sense to convert back to volumes.  Just leave it as mass. Yes, it is way more precise.  It makes zero sense to ever use volumes to measure out solids.  I worked as a chemist for years.[/quote]

NP. It does if you're writing for an audience that doesn't have scales. Your experience as a chemist is totally beside the point. Most Americans don't have kitchen scales, and volume measurements are fine for the vast majority of home cooking projects, even baking. Mass is more precise, but does a cake recipe written in cups work? Of course it does, you can tell because Americans successfully make cakes every day.[/quote]

DP. If you want consistent results you use a scale. People are always mystified why sometime their chocolate chip cookies are runny, cake like or somewhere in between or their cake is not baked well. It’s because you use volume and not mass for measuring. A cup of flour can weigh anywhere from around four ounces (113 grams) to six ounces (170 grams), a difference of 50%. A stick of butter does not weight four oz. Most weight about 3 7/8 oz or less.  This does not matter in cooking but baking it does because of the chemical reactions.

If you are a serious baker you have a scale and your recipes are all in weight not volume. If a baking book or recipe does not list ingredients by weight it is not serious. Scale cost like $20 on Amazon.

The other thing is cooking to an internal temperature not cooking at x temp for x long. 
[/quote]

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