American cup measurements?

Kim_Possible

Hi
Thanks for the replies.
I have a set of measuring cups. For flour do you fill to top and level off? The sift?
How do u measure butter using cups?.... Do you have to level butter to top if cup?

patchwork_cat

Except the chances of these cup measures being US cups is slim! US cups are NOT the same as UK cups. US cups are 0.83 of a UK cup.

angeltreats

As long as you're using the same cup for all the measurements it won't matter. I have quite a few US baking books and a set of cup measures from Sainsburys, the results are always perfect.

angeltreats

Kim_Possible wrote: »

Hi
Thanks for the replies.
I have a set of measuring cups. For flour do you fill to top and level off? The sift?
How do u measure butter using cups?.... Do you have to level butter to top if cup?

You can use displacement. Say you want half a cup of butter, then fill the cup halfway with water and add butter till the water comes to the top. But a cup of butter is 8 ounces, and if a recipe says a stick of butter, that's 4 oz.

And yes, for flour, sugar or whatever just fill the cup to the top and level it off.

snowleopard61

I'm sure someone has asked this question before (probably all too many times ) but I can't find anything.

Does anyone know either what an American cup (as specified in American recipes) is in 'English', or at least in metric? Or better still, is it possible easily and cheaply to buy an American cup for measuring purposes in the UK?

I have a feeling I once rang the Good Housekeeping office for this information and they were very helpful but the reply was so complex I just thanked them profusely but never made use of it, then lost the note I made ...:o

cutestkids

Hi

You can buy a set of cup measures in any supermarket or places like Wilkos, Poundland etc.

they are usually in a set of 1cup. half cup. quarter cup and third cup.

duchy

Yes you can buy american cups over here -check out Amazon I'm sure I've seen them there.
My set I picked up in a Walmart whilst on holiday -there's several in the set from memory it's 1/4 1/2 1 cup 1.5 cups and 2 cups-cost was about $1.50 so might be asking anyone you know who is about to go to the US on holiday.

Not sure how Good Housekeeping made it so complex though

snowleopard61

Thank you both very much! I don't have a Wilkinson's nearby but always go in if I'm anywhere near one, and do have a Poundland, so can easily look there.

It probably just seemed complex to me because they gave me equivalent measurements and I'm so carp with anything remotely mathematical.:o I suppose I'd just been expecting them to say what size of cup Americans were talking about!

Kevie192

A cup is a measure of volume and in the UK we measure by weight. Therefore, if you convert from cups to grams or ounces you'll need to convert each ingredient invidually - there are websites that will help and have been quoted on here numerous times.

It's much easier to get a set of measuring cups BUT beware that UK cups and US cups are different sizes and most the ones you get in the UK will be the UK version. The difference is small (236.6ml vs 250ml) so is mostly too small to worry about in most recipes but it is worth knowing about!

HTH

Kevin

cutestkids

Hi

If you have any of the four main supermarkets near you you will get them in the homeware dept, we only have a very small Morrisons with no weperate homeware dept but they sell them

The thing about American recipies is that everything is done on volume so the actual weight measurement is not that important, more that you use the cups from the same set for one recipie,

I also find most American recipies for baking much less complex and uch more forgiving of little mistakes than the UK equivilant.:)