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Why do Americans measure everything in cups?
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this post was submitted on 11 Apr 2024
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Unless you're baking cakes from scratch for fun or trying to make aesthetically perfect macarons, I just don't really see a reason to use a scale.
With cup measurements, it's scoop, level, dump. I hate having to fuss around with getting perfect measurements of ingredients; it's the second-most boring part of cooking.
I really subscribe to Adam Ragusea's methodology of "cooking by feel", and just so happens it aligns with how my own culture treats cooking as well.
Most cooking can be done by feel, I dont know why people are dumping on this.
But baking is straight up edible chemistry, people who are more precise always get more consistent results.
I don't see the point of consistent results outside of a commercial setting, but that is an entirely subjective view. I personally find more enjoyment in testing and tweaking and changing things up, even in baking.
If you happened to like one of your test bakings particularly then you couldn't reproduce it as accurately unless your method is consistent enough. So you wouldn't benefit that much if the test was success, I suppose. But I don't really do much baking so I don't know how difficult it is to get it right and how much it matters.
I do jot down the volume measurements that I use any time I bake (approximate, never exact, since I adjust little by little based on how sticky my cookie dough or how wet my pizza dough feels), and using that gives me consistent results already if consistent results are what I want.
There's not enough variation in the ways I scoop my flour or salt or baking powder or sugar that would net me results that are noticeably different to my previous batches.
I just find this method more fun. Perhaps people prefer to skip the step of cooking by feel and adjusting their flour amount based on how wet their dough is, etc., and just prefer to follow exact steps to get to an end result; I myself find the challenge fulfilling.
I agree with the sentiment: a lot of cooking does not require great precision, so a scale is not often necessary. but I think at that point you should be able to dispense with measuring equipment altogether and just go by feel for most things. A lot of cooking for me is throwing an amount into the pan that feels right, and I don't see a need to measure cups of things.
If I'm baking, accuracy is necessary and I will always reach for the scale.
I guess the point I'm making is that measuring in cups represents a kind of midpoint in the precision-convenience trade-off that I just personally don't find very useful.
I see your point!
I go entirely by feel most of the time and only use cup/spoon measurements as a first step when I'm making batters or cookie or pizza doughs before adjusting based on how the dough is turning out. At that point it's less of a measurement tool and more of a scooping tool to me.
So how do you measure, let's say, chicken breast with a cup?
Breasts are often measured in cups
Just maybe don't chew those ones.
Chicken breast is generally measured in "pieces".
If you're measuring a whole chicken breast by weight, what are you going to do if a piece exceeds the weight called for in the recipe? Are you just going to cut off the excess bits? And where would those excess bits go? The bin? The freezer, perhaps, but which recipe would call for "just a sliver of chicken"? Would you rather not just keep that excess weight in and have a bit more chicken in your meal just to avoid all the fuss?
I wouldn't measure chicken at all.
If you're tracking hoe much you eat (which you should do) you'll need to measure how much chicken you're eating.
Also I regularly cut chicken breasts in half so I can have 1.5 pieces to make 2 meals with roughly 190g of chicken each.
I'm gonna be honest, being anal about exactly how much chicken I eat sounds like a miserable time.
Sure, track salt intake and carbs as portions for those are more easily controlled without leaving awkward amounts of food trimmed off, but chicken?
Like you demonstrated, just halve the pieces, in which case weighing the chicken is pointless as it's already roughly where you want it.
Mate. You think taking 15 seconds to place your chicken on a scales is misery? Seriously? Or are you just coming up with justifications to support the way you currently do things?
Again, literally nobody is saying you should trim bits of chicken off, just that you should know how much you're eating so you can track calories and macro nutrients. Which is super easy especially if you're already weighing out carbs or other food.
You're just putting words in my mouth at this point. I'm saying that being anal about precisely measuring my food sounds like a miserable time, nothing about scales or justifications for "how I do things" (which is how everybody here, where I am, does things).
Secondly, the discussion from the beginning was about measuring ingredients for cooking, not for calorie tracking. It's evident that your priority in this is for calorie tracking, which is an entirely different subject and I can see that having a scale to be able to do so would be beneficial, but that is none of my concern. My entire point is about measuring ingredients for cooking, which I just generally don't care getting too precise about.
So to answer your question "How do you measure chicken breast?" more clearly: I don't. I have no need to measure chicken breast. I just eyeball it.
And while I applaud you for trying to be health-conscious and count your calories, I simply just do not care about doing so for myself. You do you, but do not preach it to me, for I have no need for it.
Chicken just isn't gonna need to be that precise. It's not an ingredient that mixes with others in that way. That being said, chicken is an item that most recipes would mention by weight. Nobody is going to actually weigh out the chicken; they'll just go with a close measurement, or use potentially use the packaging it came in for reference.