[free rider]

I see this subject has been addressed before and never fully answered, so I'm putting it forward again. I'm going through a process of converting my American recipes into a format I understand. American recipes use volume measurements such as cups, which can lead to inconsistency and sometimes awful mistakes. Because of this, I am converting the recipes into weight measurements. I have found some info online about the weight of a cup of flour, for instance, but there seems to be quite some variation amongst sources as to what the weight of a cup of flour actually is.

Does anyone know of a reliable source, whether it be a book that I can buy or a free site on the web, of volume to weight conversions for various ingredients? I'm not looking for US->metric, but volume->weight.

 

[jim berman]

I have seen many attempts to convert volume to weight. However, those inconsistencies that define volume can not accurately be converted. For instance, the old 1 cup of brown sugar example... one user my pack the sugar gently, one user may pack the sugar with force while another may not pack down the sugar at all. How could you define the weight of 1 cup of brown sugar, in this case? The same can be said about other dry ingredients, especially depending on their variety (i.e flour). I think are some good 'rules of thumb' out there, but for an accurate take on converting... you may need to do it the old fashioned way.

 

[foodpump]

I've put my big foot in my big mouth about this issue many times.
Your best bet would be to buy a copy of "MASTERCOOK" software. Automatic conversion table there.

 

[free rider]

Perhaps the question should be asked... how much should a cup of flour/sugar/etc weigh? I know how much I can make them weigh by packing it in tightly, but I'm sure that's not what I'm supposed to do.

 

[aprilb]

5 oz of cornstarch. How much is that? Obviously a cup of fluffy powdery stuff isn't going to weigh as much as a cup of coarse granulated stuff.

It's been said, and I'm beginning to agree (and shopping for a digital scale) that the best way to make a consistent recipe is to use weight measures rather than cup/spoon measures.

April

 

[suzanne]

I was hoping that epicurious.com had the conversions you want, but alas no. However, the current version of the book they use for their other information, The New Food Lover's Companion, 3rd edition does have that information in the Appendix.

Remember too that for liquids (milk, juice, oil, even butter and eggs) volume in ounces equals weight in ounces.

Hope this helps.

 

[free rider]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm going to check them out. Just to add my own, there is a table in the appendix of Friberg's "Professional Pastry Chef" book, but I do feel that it lacks a bit on the descriptive side of the ingredient he's converted. That Mastercook software looks incredible and I'm going to check the book at the bookstore this afternoon. I might be safer with the book because that software looks like it does so much that I may not be able to tear myself away from it.

 

[mudbug]

April,

It is likely that a recipe which calls for the "fluffy powdery stuff" isn't going to be the same kind of recipe which uses the "coarse granulated stuff". As with most things, it depends on the recipe. 5 oz of corn starch is 5 oz of corn starch. If you have a flea market, they will likely have a really cheap scale you can use until you invest in a more permanent digital scale.

Places like Target and restaurant supply stores should have something you can use. Just make sure it has a "tear" function. Also check out the existing threads on scales.

This might help a little: How much does a cup weigh?
(...a conversion table of common kitchen ingredients...the approximate weight in ounces and grams of one cup of the product.)

 

[z~bestus]

FREE RIDER:
Good morning. I am going to make attempt to clarify some of the answer you are seeking. not all at least not at this time. When it comes to flour I can post to you what the industry standards are for each flour. That will not be helpful to you.... why... because you do not know how the author filled their flour cup. Allow me to to explain, A/P flour that is "DIPPED & SCOOPED" will weigh 4.7/8 oz per cup. If employing the "SPOONING" method, ie, with a spoon & dipping it into the flour bag & dumping the flour into your measuring cup then that amount will weigh 4 1/4 to 4 3/8, oz per cup.
Cake flour DIPPED= 4 5/8 oz SPOONED= 4 1/8 oz.

Free Rider as you can see it depends on the manner that was utilized & that goes for "ALL" ingredients not just flour.
Now then one secret to use is to read the beginning of the book that the author wrote. There they should have explained to their readers the manner employed to arrive of the measurements. Some do this... many do not.
Industry standards are A/P flour is 5, oz per cup
Bread flour 5 375 oz per cup Hi-Gluten flour is 5.5 oz per cup
Whole wheat flour Approx. 5 1/4 oz per cup
Free Rider if you wish more send me a post with the ingredients you wish to know it's weight about. I will submit the answers to you.
Good luck in your endeaver & enjoy the rest of the day as well.
~Z~BESTUS. :chef:

 

[mudbug]

Please feel free to post the responses here int his thread Z~BESTUS.

 

[free rider]

Thank you. Those industry standards will be helpful as the authors of these recipes did not bother to explain how they did their measuring. I can start with the industry standard of weight and then adjust from there if the recipe is a flop.

Perhaps another question should be asked at this point. Anyone have good recipe book suggestions that have the dry ingredients by weight instead of volume?

And even another question... is this a consipiracy on the part of professional chefs so that when their recipe flops in our kitchens they can just say, "you must have packed the sugar too tightly into your cup measurement."?

 

[mudbug]

I don't think so. Because professional chefs know that weighing ingredients is the most accurate route. As with most things, a little common sense is involved as well. For instance when baking, I always, always sift my flour whether I measure by volume or by weight. By the way, humidity also affects the weight of ingredients such as flour.

 

[free rider]

Hee hee... then I'm going to blame the publishers! Conspiracy on their part to sell us these recipes carefully done by the pros all the time guarding the secret "real" recipe.

Btw, I downloaded a demo of Mastercook and it's very nice. Interesting nutritional info too.

 

[z~bestus]

FREE RIDER:
The book that will help you greatly in learning about food science & weights of ingredients is "COOKWISE" By Shirley Corriher. She is a food sciencetist. If you do not have this book, get a copy from the library & zerox page 140 there you will have the weights of most ingredients used in baking. I hope this info is helpful to you. Till next time. .
~CASS.:lips:

 

[oldschool1982]

Weigh the items in question per your technique, the technique you wish to standardize or how the recipe calls for them to be. Once you establish the spec then the conversion is complete. It might be prudent to test the recipe once it has been completed to. Then you'll have proof-positive the technique/conversion was successful. Or even better yet ... Weigh everything 4 times then take the average weight for all 4 then again the software looks fairly accurate. I guess it all depends on how much time you have.

 

[free rider]

I did indeed begin to weigh my cups of flour. Being somewhat of a statistician, however, the urge to take the average of 100 cups of flour was just about overwhelming. On one very auspicious occasion, my one cup of flour weighed over 12 ounces without my even needing to pack it in. Even worse is that I grew up with metric and having ounces as both a volume and a weight measure just frustrates me. Most recipe books don't indicate whether they mean volume ounces that are part of a cup or weight ounces that are part of a pound. eeek

 

[mudbug]

The rule of thumb is liquid is measured in fluid ounces.
Dry ingredients would be measured by dry ounces in a pound.

You also need to take into consideration the audience of the cookbook. Was it written for Europeans or Americans?

 

[oldschool1982]

And some folks wonder why some Chef's shave their heads. Personally issues like this or even costing out recipes/menus (which is the only other time I did/needed conversions) among many other issues made it necessary to even out the areas that were "picked clean". Well it was either that or buy stock in RumpleMinz. :crazy:

 

[free rider]

Good gracious, what are you trying to do to me?! In the specific case that got me onto this, I have two similar books that have sort of exactly the same recipes. They are titled the same and have the same photographs. They have the same method and the same ingredients. The only difference is that one book has the recipes in weight and the other in volume. I noticed that the weights were different for one cup of flour in one recipe than the 1 cup of flour in another. I think the recipes were originally for a European audience, but were converted to American. The one with weights, for instance, mentions caster sugar, so is European. I've been working up a recipe book of my own (not for publication, but just my reference) and just decided to convert all to weight as I prefer using weight (amongst many other things, it's less messy).

So in converting ingredients, I think that caster sugar is about equivalent to C&H's "Baker's" sugar. Am I right?

 

[mudbug]

Yes. This is correct.