Comment by chrysoprace
6 days ago
Yes but it's a measure of _volume_, whereas flour is best measured by _weight_. Any volume measurement of flour can vary wildly depending on many factors, such as how densely packed it is.
King Arthur Flour have a short video[0] demonstrating the wildly different weight measurements from measuring a "cup" (the same cup size across samples).
Measuring liquids by volume is totally fine because you generally won't get a large difference between two different cups of water (although I still generally measure that by weight as a personal preference).
Absolutely, which is why you need an ingredient weight chart. There are print versions, but personally I have this link bookmarked and it comes out every time I bake: https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/learn/ingredient-weight-cha...
But that doesn't work. The chart states that 1 cup of 00 flour is 116g which is simply not true. It _might_ be 116g, but it could also be 200g (!). Volume measurement is simply not suitable for baking.
For things like sauces or marinades, you use a much smaller amount, and approximate is generally fine.
Well yes, but it's a matter of perspective I think. Is it the amount that the recipe author used? Maybe, maybe not. But is it the amount you used the last dozen times you used this recipe? Of course, as long as your chart hasn't changed.
To be clear, I'm not disagreeing with your general premise, everything would be much easier if all recipes used weights for powder-like-ingredients. But recipes that actually have weights listed are few and far between, I find.
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