this post was submitted on 15 Feb 2025
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In metric, dry ingredients are measured by weight, so how much a cup is changes for each ingredient.
Dry ingredients by weight isn't a metric exclusive thing, it's an "accurate recipe" thing. Plenty of American recipes call for ounces and pounds. Cups are also a unit of volume, so 1c of milk occupies the same volume as 1c of water even though their masses are different (at a given temperature; which is why it's better to use weight for liquid ingredients as well)
The confusion is when you have no idea whether they are calling for 28.4ml, 29.5ml or 28.3g when they say "ounce"
No, I'm also confused by "a cup of flower" or even "a cup of broccoli" in American recipes.
What's confusing about it? It's the amount of flour that fills a 236ml cup. It's no different than measuring 1L of water
You may say "yeah well it depends on how finely ground the flour is or how tightly packed the broccoli is" and the answer is "it either doesn't matter or it's a bad recipe"
Not confusing, just crappy.
Volume for a powder is bad because they can "fluff up" when poured reducing the amount being added, so proportions are wrong.
Liquids don't hold air like flour does.
Sure, so then you do it by weight and I have to ask if your measuring the flours weight in Florida or Arizona and what time of year it is to figure out how much humidity is in it.
Food should never require that amount of accuracy. It's a bloody cake, how much flour and water do you need, about that much. Eggs? A few lol, only have 2 fuck it that's fine
That can vary wildly based on how compact the flour is.
There is a best practice of spooning flour into the measuring cup to avoid dense packing but in my experience most people just scoop and go even though it introduces variability. Usually it won't matter too much or you'll see things like, "If the dough seems dry add more water a tablespoon at a time." included in the recipe. Of course even with weight you sometimes see that sort of instruction because the moisture content of flour varies.
I get why that'd be a bit annoying particularly if you aren't experienced with the type of dish.
It DOES matter and that's why you need to be very clear on how you properly measure when you use volumetric measures for powders.
Most serioys US bakers use metric eg a stick of butter is 113g of butter.
If it's a recipe that it matters in then the standard is to not pack the flour and to level the top of the cup, otherwise (like broccoli) its being used as a helpful guestimate for an items total, not a necessary and essential measurement