Did you ever bake a cake?
Then you know how completely retarded it is to measure "one cup" of butter. Butter comes in a hard, cold block. Sometimes it's a big block. Other times its a little block. But it's almost always a block. Hard, sticky, greasy. And squishing it into a measuring cup is NO FUN. You can eyeball it, you can guestimate. But measuring 1/2 cup of butter or 3 tablespoons of butter is always complicated.
I come from Europe, where people measure their ingredients with kitchen scales. Let's say the recipe requires 125 g of butter. You cut a piece of butter off from the block, drop it on the scale, read the number, then add a bit or cut a bit off, and voilà. PRECISE. Fast. Easy. CLEAN. But no. Just like they insist on measuring everything in inches, and 1/16th of inches, in North America they insist on measuring the butter in a cup. Desperation reigned in my kitchen, until I found this:
http://www.traditionaloven.com/conversions_of_measures/butter_converter.html
A website that will convert butter measurements from volume to weight! EUREKA! No more mess. No more guess. Simple, and easy.
Now go and bake something.
You can thank me later.
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mmmm butter
I'm 1/32nd jealous and 61/64ths grateful
If you buy your butter by the pound, there's no need to measure it by volume. A pound of butter is two cups. Cut the block in equal quarters and you get four half-cup cubes. Subdivide as necessary!
Still guessing, +Pat Kight. And then I need 2 TBSP for something else, and suddenly it's a problem.
the sticks of butter i used always had the measuring showing on the side so you knew how much to cut for your tablespoons… of course it has been a REALLY long time since I've looked at a stick of butter and not used the fake stuff out of a tub or spritz bottle so they may have changed the packaging
Nice capture!
Mmmm BUTTER
Very Handy conversion chart
In the US butter and margarine are sold in blocks (or 'sticks') which almost always have markings for tablespoons, 1/4 1/2 cup etc. on the wrapping. (1 stick = 1/2 cup). You need 3 tablespoons? Just slice it off using the markings on the wrapping.
Awesome!
We don't have sticks. We have blocks. So I need to keep a block for cups, and another block for tbsp??
butter need not be kept cold. my grandmother always kept hers on the counter in a 'crock'. easy to spread.
US butter comes with measurements imprinted on the foil.
Displacement.. float the butter in cold water, measure accordingly.
I tried that in our house, +ed chism. It started to grow mold. You can tell that we don't go through a lot of butter. :)
+mark simmons What??? That sounds like physics in the kitchen. AKA even more complicated.
ew! must have been some very 'wet' butter. i am pretty sure i have left it sit for a month and it has still been good.
now if i could just teach the kids to keep from getting bread crumbs on it!
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20061223045952AAk4BtR
2 sticks is one cup
We don't have sticks. Just blocks. BLOCKS.
lol. +Karin Nelson, did you really think you can successfully introduce the metric system to the US?
If a recipe calls for half a cup of butter, fill the cup half full of water, top it off with butter. Easy peasy.
Always better a bit too much rather than a bit not enough…
You might want to lay hands on a copy of "Joy of Cooking" – even an older edition, used. The "Know Your Ingredients" chapter has a detailed weight-to-volume conversion table for various ingredients.
I use mine all the time to convert weight measurements from European recipes to the volume system I'm more familiar with.
On the other hand, we may all be guilty of what's sometimes called Geek Answer Syndrome – offering "solutions" to someone who really just wants to enjoy a good rant. In that case … never mind (-:
weigh it…
I tend to use recipes that gave everything in measurements or ratios. :)
that's very pretty looking butter by the way - suddenly I'm hungry….
good point, +Paul van den Bergen - what kind of cake is that gonna be, +Karin Nelson? And where can we get a piece?
+Pat Kight - for the cooking and baking I'm doing (Weightwatchers) it's really important that the measurements are correct. More than ranting, I wanted to share a useful website that I believe will be a staple in my kitchen (because all my recipes are on my laptop, anyway). But I do understand that people who enjoy cooking and baking have their own system in place already, and I bet with you, if we were to go head to head, your measurements would be just as exact as mine. I'm certain of that. :)
Just throw in what looks about right-that's why my dishes always taste about right.
Apricot cake, +Will Pirnasch. I may have to take a picture, eh?
I'd rather get a piece, but I can see the issues with that…
Another way to get around the idiocy of trying to put a block of butter in a measuring cup is to use the water displacement method. That is, put three cups of cold water in a 4-cup measuring cup, then drop chunks of butter in until the water rises to the 4-cup mark and, voila! Drain off the water and you have a cup of (damp) butter. I know, it's messy and way more complicated than just using weight!!
That always throw me in for a loop as well, +Karin Nelson. Blocks of butter are what we get. Even the ones that have the measurement written on the packaging only go down to 1/4 cup. I always end up whipping out my kitchen scale. Le sigh lol
+Celeste Odono, I thought Canada uses the metric system?
You wish, +Will Pirnasch. :( They're trying, but most of the stuff we import from the big brother to the South, and cups it is.
Well…if you grew up in the southern part of the US you would just "add it till it looks right" …not sure one could ever have "too much" butter ;o)
And if I grew up in the southern part of the US I would probably be twice as big as I already am!! LOL But I also may be twice as happy! :)
I guess +Karin Nelson does not want to follow Lindsay Hollister example…
+Karin Nelson As you say, ingredients by weight would be more sensible. Not only is it more practical, but different densities would make measuring by volume unreliable.
On another note, the Imperial system should be taken out the back and shot.
Technically, yes, +Will Pirnasch. But if you go to the grocery stores, you'd find goods are still sold in pounds, with the equivalent in kilos written somewhere in the tags. lol
The sort of butter I buy has lines on it that tell you how many table spoons or cups it is, so you just cut on the line on the paper, and there's your measurement. Although, I do think you make a valid point about volumetric measurement vs. mass based measurements. I think we should likely switch to mass based measurements.
On a related note, apparently in bread baking they use bakers' percentages (which is a lot like silica normalized averages in geochemistry) and I was helping a friend who is in culinary school understand it with things I learned in mineralogy.
Karin – you sweat it off in the summer :) It all works out…
Here you go girls. This will make it easier.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooking_weights_and_measures
And I like peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies and brownies with walnuts. Oh and Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Fudge icing. And before I forget Apple Pie. Get cooking.
OH! I so agree. I'm a graphic designer and if someone wants an ad made up that is 5 7/16" wide… I want to scream! It would be so much easier in millimetres. My computer doesn't do fractions!! LOL!
You really don't want me baking anything, so I'll leave it up to you.
butter is bad for you anyway have a salad :)
+Karin Nelson Yes it does do fractions. It's and app and it's under accessories,system tools, Character map. Go to the start menu and go from there.
As a guy who is lazy I usually just use the guide on the side of the block of butter. As a guy with a science degree I like the accuracy of measuring with a scale vs. guesswork and relying on packaging! Then I'd have to wash something I weighed the butter in on the scale and we get back to that first part again.
Our (US) sticks are graduated in volume and weight on the wrapper. Slice what you need, unwrap, done deal.
Butter is similar to Bacon. If a little is good, more is better.
That's my problem too when I moved to the USA .. I grow with the French system metric . Is a nightmare for me measure everything with that stupid English antique measure system in pounds and miles and gallons that only the United State and England keep it from the colony when the rest of the world don't .. I asking all time when they gone change it !! OMG!!
+Maurice Chair There is still a bunch of that left over in Canada too – even though we are officially metric. I think the only countries officially using the other system are the USA, Liberia and Burma. I'm very familiar with both, and for most things I prefer metric.
The French metric system come after the French revolution !! And I guess that revolution never just got here .. Lol is so inaccurate .. Is too complicate and stupid when the other just only multiply by 100 or unit of 10 .. Why they complicate their life with not reasons? Even is easy for a kid do in that way … Lol it take time to adjust my brain with yard and pounds and gallons .. OMG !! You don't have a clue how much I was suffering . The only people are scrub are those how have to study medicine because they use the French metric system and they have to force then self to learned
Yeah. 12 inches in a foot. Not 10. Weird.
I know right?? Why,why, why??? Lol
And what the hell is a furlong? The Imperial system of weights and measures should be classified as an instrument of torture.
+Maurice Chair One thing the French got right.
large well delineated measuring instrument, 3 cup size is best. Fill with 1 cup of water, add butter to get the addition correctly, dump the water and voila you are there.
thanks i need that just now
All baking should be done with a scale and all recipes should be listed by weight.
If that came to fruition it would restore my faith in humanity.
Bath and Body and Soap recipes should all be done by weight too.
So tell me +Karin Nelson: what exactly is a pinch?
It's the time it will take for me to get to you, +Barry Blanchard - a pinch.
A dram? WTF is a DRAM?
There's a Greek dram and a Roman dram. The Roman dram is 3.41 grams, while the Greek dram is 4.37 grams. I suppose it's the weight of a drachm (a coin).
(Wikipedia is my friend.)
I'm gonna make you cry if you don't bring me a slice of your creation.
Ooooh… threats! :)
If we had time, I'd slay you in a bake-off. With or without a scale.
We won't have time, so consider yourself lucky.
I bet I still make you cry.
Someone's gonna cry, and it ain't gonna be me. :)
….soon……
22 days 2 hours 48 minutes 25 seconds 24 23 22 21…
Good thing I have E V E R Y T H I N G to keep me busy.
Have fun in Vegas!
I live in Austria and I got some recipes from american friends and never could use them, because I had no idea, how much a cup of butter would be. so thank you for that :)
Yay!!! It helped someone!!! :)