![]() ![]() I’m trying to be better about writing my recipes using just cups and grams for this very reason, though you may still see ounces on older recipes or for things that are sold by the ounce, like bars of chocolate or cans of pumpkin. Instead, focus on cup/tablespoon measurements for volume, and grams for weight. My advice? When you’re baking, forget ounces entirely. So, are you less confused yet? More confused? I don’t blame you (lol). Basically, what you see here is 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of water.īut if you put these two containers on a scale, the flour on the left would only weigh 4 1/4 ounces, while the water would weigh 8 ounces. On the left is 8 ounces of flour by volume and on the right is 8 ounces of water by volume. Visually it looks like you have a lot more flour than water, but they weigh the exact same amount. Weigh out 8 ounces of flour and 8 ounces of water on a scale and this is what you get. If you weighed the two containers, the one on the right would only weigh approximately 4 1/4 ounces. On the left is 8 ounces of flour by weight, and on the right is 8 ounces of flour by volume (aka 1 cup). Here are some visual comparisons to help illustrate this concept (keep in mind that you shouldn’t be measuring flour in a liquid measuring cup like this, I only did so here so I could illustrate the differences between ounces by weight and ounces by volume).īoth of these containers are holding 8 ounces. I mean, who do we need to petition to have fluid ounces changed to be called something totally different (flounces? frams? vols?) or, better yet, finally just switch to metric like the rest of the world? ![]() Weigh out 8 ounces of flour by weight and you’re going to have about 14 fluid ounces by volume. Not that you’d ever measure flour with fluid ounces (which are only designed to measure-you guessed it-fluids), but, if you did, you’d find that 8 fluid ounces of flour only weighs about 4 1/4 ounces. Ounces by weight and ounces by volume are ONLY comparable when you are measuring water or other liquids with a similar density.įor example, 8 ounces of water by weight will equal 8 fluid ounces by volume.įlour, on the other hand, is a totally different ballgame and a confusing one to boot. ![]() The fact that they are both called ounces, and not always differentiated by saying ounce/fluid ounce is one reason why they are so problematic. Fluid ounces refers to volume (like milliliters) whereas regular ounces refer to weight (like grams). Most of the confusion regarding weight and volume measurements occurs when talking about ounces: an imperial unit of measurement which can be used to indicate both weight AND volume. So a pound of flour is going to take up more space, or volume, than an equivalent pound of water. When we’re talking about baking, the differences might not be quite as apparent as feathers and lead, but the same is true of flour and water: one is much less dense than the other (in this case the flour is the feathers and the water is the lead). Trick question: they both weigh a pound! BUT the lead is going to have a much smaller volume since it is more dense than the feathers, so it will look like a smaller amount of material. You’ve heard the old riddle: Which weighs more: a pound of feathers or a pound of lead? So, that makes sense, right? Volume and weight are measuring two entirely different things. ![]() Grams of salt, pounds of sugar, kilograms of apples… these are measurements of weight. Weight is a measurement of an object’s heaviness. Things like cups of flour, gallons of milk, cubic feet of helium… these are all volume measurements. Volume is a measure of the amount of space something takes up. Now before you start arguing, let me explain! Weight versus Volume We also had it drilled into our brains that a cup is 8 ounces and a pint is a pound the world round (a pint being two cups or 16 fluid ounces).īut I’m here to say that a pint is NOT always a pound and a cup is NOT always 8 ounces- it depends on what you’re measuring. I figured I’d do a bit more in-depth explanation in a post, to hopefully clear up any confusion.Īmerican bakers grew up using cups, where a cup of water is equal to a cup of flour and so forth. I’ve received a few questions lately on some of my more popular cake recipes that seem to imply some confusion about weight versus volume measurements, specifically when it comes to measuring dry ingredients like flour. When it comes to baking, accuracy in your measurements is critical to a recipe’s success, and the single most accurate way to measure your ingredients is by weight. ![]()
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