Weight of one cup of cheese?

[storm]

How much does one cup of cheese weigh? Does it matter is it's one cup of cheddar or one cup of Swiss?

[phatch]

It varies by type and preparation. Swiss and cheddar will weigh about the same as they're about the same water content. Grated on the large holes, you'll get about 2 oz in a cup as I recall. Cubed,is probably a bit heavier.

Scales aren't expensive and solve this issue quite well.

Phil

[Suzanne]

Actually, for Cheddar, Swiss, Monterey Jack, mozzarella, blue cheese, and feta, the standard is 1 cup = 4 ounces (1/4 pound) shredded/grated/crumbled if not very tightly packed. Grated parmesan and romano are somewhere between 3 and a little more than 5 ounces per cup, depending on how tightly packed they are -- looser pack yields a lower weight (shredded is closer to 4 ounces).

Cream cheese and cottage cheese both weigh in at 8 ounces (1/2 pound) per cup, and ricotta is a little less (7-1/2 ounces per cup).

If your recipe calls for a volume only of cubes, find another recipe. (Sorry -- this is one of my big issues when I'm working on recipes; I really wish that all American recipes included both weights and volumes, since weight is so much more accurate. But, sigh, everyone else in the world uses scales, so I guess that means in the U.S. we have to continue being different. ) Phil is right about scales, but unfortunately lots of recipes are written badly (imho) and only specify volumes.

[phatch]

I can't always trust my memory. 4 sounds more reasonable and I certainly trust Suzanne.

Phil

[MikeLM]

In Alton Brown's recent book on baking he makes Suzanne's point quite forcefully- weight is a far better measure than volume. (He gives weight for every ingredient in each recipe.)

We've found a small elecronic scale extremely helpful in a lot of things in the home kitchen, even though we don't do a lot of baking. It's one of those things about good tools- once you get one you wonder how you got along without it!

You can find a nice selection of electronic scales - especially the Soehnle brand of very stylish ones - at www.Homeclick.com, along with thousands of other household items at remarkably reasonable prices. The scales run from about $45 to $80 or so. Ours was $65 and handles up to 11 pounds with good accuracy. Gave one to our daughter for Christmas and they now use it a lot.

Mike