Cookaholics Bulletin Board

SilverSage, meet Tim.

Take no offense - the table looks very useful and well-compiled, but I probably was the instigator of the questions because I couldn't get my mind around one cup of a liquid being other than 8 fluid ounces. Tim had offered an explanation that dealt with specific gravity and weight but in my experience a cup of liquid is 8 fluid ounces. Probably it's intended to be the weight of a cup of each of the liquids but as presented it's otherwise.

Tim's post originally was in a different thread and was moved into this thread by a moderator. Maybe he was trying to find the location of the thread that contained the link to your spreadsheet.

Silver Sage,

I am very sorry to have offended you and I hope that you will accept my apology.

I did not read the whole thread clearly did not understand the information that was presented. I then failed to understand Pete's comments and responded about specific gravity. I screwed up and am very sorry.

The title of the the discussion lead me to assume that the only discussion was about the relationship between weight and volume. I became flummoxed that one cup may not be equal to 8 fluid ounces. Actually, I am still confused, no offence intended.

Tim

Kathy,

Thank you very much for the list, it will be extremely helpful, especially with peanut butter etc. So many times I want to weigh something as it is a PIA to measure...



Sunny

Sure wish something like that was integrated into MacGourmet; even if it just looked at the ingredient and provided me a candidate pick list, so I could convert a volume recipe into a weigh recipe.

As a aside, when I looked for very sensitive scales (0.1 or 0.01 gram sensitivity) there was an amazing number of them, almost all pocket sized, many disguised as something else. Once was even in a mouse (computer kind) with 'storage'. Whatever could drive such a variety and availability of super sensitive portable scales?

Ok...somebody please help me here...I looked at the chart, I read the commentary, I pondered the chart, I pondered the commentary, like Mary, my head exploded, I went to lunch hoping for clarity, I revisited the chart and I still don't get it.

I am fully onboard from Flours, Cereals thru Miscellaneous...then comes the fluid ounces portion of the chart...I do not get it. Splain this to me Lucy?

Fluid oz = quantity not related in any way to weight, correct? Or 1.80468754 cubic inches

1 cup of ketchup is 10 fl oz? 1 cup of Heavy Cream is 8.4 fl oz. Yet 8 fl oz of anything is a cup...no?

Right now I'm feeling thicker than molasses (that weighs 11.6 oz dry weight) Does a pound of feathers weigh more than a pound of lead?

This will either help or confuse us more.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ounce

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluid_ounce

Nice to meet you, Tim.

Sorry to be so sensitive, but you guys can be a bit overwhelming.

Moving forward:

In order to be comfortable with the liquid section of my table, you have to clear all engineering concepts from your mind. Perhaps I should have labeled the columns differently, but since it was just for me, and I understood it, it worked.

In dry measurement, cups are a measurement of volume and ounces are a weight measurement. We can look on a chart to get the equivalent weight for a particular volume of a specific item.

In wet measurement, both cups and fluid ounces are volume measurements. 8 fluid ounces does not always weigh 8 av ounces. It depends upon the density, specific gravity, suspension of solids, whatever (college chem & physics were many years ago.). 8 fluid ounces of oil weighs less than 8 fluid ounces of vinegar or we wouldn't need emulsifiers in vinaigrette.

This chart does not care about engineering. Neither does my scale. My scale can only measure weight, not volume. So when I want 8 fluid ounces of something other than water, say ketchup, I set the scale to 'fluid ounces' and add ketchup until the scale reads 10. I don't really know 10 *whats* it's measuring, but when it weighs 10, I will have 8 fluid ounces (volume) of ketchup.

We all tend to fall into a trap of 'an ounces weighs and ounce', or a pound of feathers should weigh the same as a pound of lead, but what we're trying to reach is volume. That's why scales have fluid ounce/ml settings - so they can take care of the thought process and all a home cook has to do is look it up on a chart and weigh it.

Aha! - it's your scale that is driving this...

It is calibrated to measure a volume of water by its weight and in order to measure volumes of other liquids by weight you have to make a conversion.

The rest of us were trying to see how to use this on a scale that doesn't have this capability. In our case we'd just weigh the appropriate number of ounces or grams of liquid (probably pretty close to what's on your chart for fl. oz. or ml).

And if I need a cup of ketchup I'm still safe using my measuring cup (dry or wet will work, don'y ya know... )

Sorry for all of us being perplexed. It is a useful document (although I'd probably forgo setting the scale to "cups" when measuring liquids other than water if I were you).

Whew...

Brings me to another question...if a scale is switched from dry oz to fl oz will 3lb 0oz of sugar simply be represented as 48 fl oz.

Yes, my scale allows me to switch between oz/gram and fl.oz/ml. You probably don't have to make the switch. If you want 8 fluid ounces of ketchup, just weigh out 10 av ounces.