It never ceases to amaze me after all these years that hardly any "English" (and of course American/Australian/NZ. ) kitchen has scales.
How often have I read on here after giving advice - "but I do not have scales"? Cheapest investment into good cooking you ever made. Something like 15 or 20 dollars.
If you really feel the need to follow a recipe then weight is so much easier than hollow volumes.
Never mind that there are 200ml cups and 250ml cups and 225 ml cups depending on which Commonwealth country the original recipe came from.
Who on earth is going to scrape cold butter into a cup and pat it down? Just weigh it!
nauru,
Jul 27, 8:05am
I've always had a set of kitchen scales. My present digital ones do both metric & imperial weights so I find them great when using some of my old family recipes. I never used cup measurements until I came to live in NZ. I remember Mum used to have the old fashioned cast iron scales with the weights and brass dishes on them.
samanya,
Jul 27, 8:38am
Me too, as did my mother & her mother before her, although theirs might have had weights & if was fine balancing act!. " My present digital ones do both metric & imperial weights so I find them great when using some of my old family recipes" ,me too, & how handy is that?! To suggest that NZ housewives/bakers/cooks/etc haven't had these as an essential kitchen appliance, is not true.
thewomble1,
Jul 27, 11:24am
dry or soaked raisins?
slimgym,
Jul 27, 2:39pm
Ive had the uncooked fudge cake recipe for years, daughter went to make it, the recipe states a small cup of sugar, whats a small cup a sugar she asked, a small cup of sugar I said. Made the recipe for years I never ever thought about it. haha I am going to have to go though all my recipes before I die and they get pasted down to her
kay141,
Jul 27, 8:05pm
Ooh, let's drag up a year old thread and then we can post to show off our superior knowledge and do a put down at the same time.
pickles7,
Jul 27, 11:13pm
Why don't you count them . kay141. Like you only need to count 1 Tablespoon full, then do a bit of basic math. That would definitely put you in the drivers seat.
kay141,
Jul 27, 11:26pm
Count what?
beaker59,
Jul 28, 1:23am
Odd measurements like that are usually because of Scaling, so at some point someone doubled the recipe or made it half as much bigger and just multiplied accordingly. Generally if I did that I would rework the measurements into more practical measurements but some don't. Most food writers will actually make the new size and test while also checking for simpler measurement methods, but its surprising how often odd ones slip through. I work in industry and formulation development is my trade I see it as a mark of my skill to simplify down formulations to the least complicated, easiest to make form. Why add 998.765Kg when a ton will do. In my current job in Western Australia I am working in thousands of tons so have to be very aware of this when scaling from a 500gram lab batch.
wasgonna,
Jul 29, 4:13am
7 1/2 (seven and a half) tablespoons of raisins.
Can anyone translate that into either grams or cups or part there of, please.
niffer13,
Jul 29, 4:28am
I'd throw in a handful;. Is it as salad. cake or?
245sam,
Jul 29, 4:34am
wasgonna, based on 1 standard NZ measuring tbsp = 15ml, 8 tbsp is 1 tsp (5ml) short of ½ cup, so for 7½ tbsp raisins I would use a loosely packed ½ cup raisins. What are you making? surely the measurement can't be meant/doesn't need to be any more precise than that because IMO it depends on how firmly packed each tbsp (not forgetting the ½ tbsp! ) is and also on the size and softness of the raisins.
Hope that helps. :-))
wasgonna,
Jul 29, 4:44am
Hi all. Fruit loaf in the breadmaker. Found this recipe on line as the Panasonic book doesn't have one, surprisingly.
I'll probably go nuts with raisins, currants and maybe a few chopped walnuts, but just wondered what the measure of tablespoons would be.
buzzy110,
Jul 29, 5:03am
Lol wasgonna. I agree, It is the dumbest measure ever. It is even dumber than recipes that use cup measurements for butter and other solid fats. A weight would be much more practical.
sarahb5,
Jul 29, 9:01am
My fruit bread recipe says 1/2 cup - I use 100g of what dried fruit is the cupboard - cranberries, apricot and mixed peel works well
Sounds like its a recipe thats been converted from weight measures which are more often used in Europe to volume measures such as more often used in this country - I often find strange measures in Nigella's recipes reproduced on American or Australian sites
lilyfield,
Jul 29, 10:05am
For this reason I never use cup measure recipes. Prefer my scales.
holly-rocks,
Jul 29, 8:57pm
How random, its probably not much help but I would just wing it and throw in whatever i feel like at the time.
sampa,
Jul 29, 9:06pm
It could be worse. they could have said "And now add 287 raisins" and you get to 233 and the phone rings.
wheelz,
Jul 30, 12:01am
i doubt you would need to be precise with raisins. if it was me id measure 8 tbsp of raisins into a measuring cup, note it into the recipe for next time.
wasgonna,
Jul 30, 12:07am
But, but, is that level tbsp or raised. Sorry just kidding.
buzzy110,
Feb 8, 7:59am
Oh definitely level because raisins are so easy to level out in the tablespoon - not. But should they be loose or packed?
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