Volume or Weight: How do the Measurements Measure Up? - CIA Foodies (2024)
It's a popular topic of conversation in the baking community: volume or weight?
Many say ingredients should be measured by weight, no question. It is more accurate and more convenient (less dirty dishes!). But in the U.S., most recipes (ours included) for home cooks and bakers are written using volume measurements like cups and tablespoons. This is because, unlike elsewhere in the world, homes in America generally do not keep a kitchen scale, making grams or ounces unhelpful for those accustomed to measuring with spoons and cups. Of course, with the globalization of food and the ease of finding recipes online, many American recipe developers and brands are finding the opposite problem: many outside the U.S. don't have the tools to make our recipes.
Here at the CIA, we see value in both options, and in our kitchens, you will see our chefs and students using a combination of volume and weight measures, since both have their benefits. One is not better than another, but one may be better for YOU.
Of course, we wouldn't want your preference to stand in the way of following a great recipe. Ideally, your kitchen would be stocked with a reliable kitchen scale and a set of both dry and wet volume measuring tools. But if that isn't the case, here are a few common baking ingredients and their equivalents for helpful recipe conversions.
An ounce (oz) is a standard unit of weight, and a fluid ounce (fl oz) measures volume. Let's look at an example to show the difference between ounces and fluid ounces. Water is a reference point because 8 fluid ounces (volume) equals 8 ounces (weight).
Professionals seldom measure their ingredients by volume (cups). They usually prefer measuring by weight, and there are many reasons for this. Baking is not like cooking where you can add a little extra of this ingredient or leave out that ingredient.
“You will obtain better accuracy when measuring by weight… Also, it is easier to precisely measure weight than volume. Because much of cooking is about controlling chemical reactions based on the ratio of ingredients (say, flour and water), changes in the ratio will alter your results, especially in baking.”
volume so that you can visually understand the difference. One cup measures 8 fluid ounces, but not 8 ounces by weight. When a recipe calls for an ingredient in ounces, it's time to pull out the kitchen scale – not the measuring cup.
One cup of water weighs approximately 0.52 pounds (lb) or about 236.6 grams. Keep in mind that the weight of water can vary slightly with temperature, but this is a close approximation.
The most accurate way to measure flour is to use a digital scale. Weighing flour is better than measuring it by volume, because when you weigh it, you avoid all the problems associated with its density, or lack thereof.
For best results, we recommend weighing your ingredients with a digital scale. A cup of all-purpose flour weighs 4 1/4 ounces or 120 grams. This chart is a quick reference for volume, ounces, and grams equivalencies for common ingredients.
However, once you start measuring dry ingredients, which often have varying densities, the two numbers will not match. 1 cup of water weighs 236 grams.1 cup of flour weighs 125 grams. The volume is the same, but the weight is different (remember: lead and feathers).
Volumetric weight calculations are made by multiplying the width, height and length of a parcel to get the cubic size. Be sure to use the longest point of each side. Then, divide the cubic size by what's known as the DIM divisor to determine the volumetric weight.
In math, volume is the amount of space in a certain 3D object. For instance, a fish tank has 3 feet in length, 1 foot in width and two feet in height. To find the volume, you multiply length times width times height, which is 3x1x2, which equals six. So the volume of the fish tank is 6 cubic feet.
For best results, we recommend weighing your ingredients with a digital scale. A cup of all-purpose flour weighs 4 1/4 ounces or 120 grams. This chart is a quick reference for volume, ounces, and grams equivalencies for common ingredients.
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