American cup measurements?

mavisangelica

Tesco do a nice little measuring jug which is marked in cups as well as ml (and I think other measures.) It is only 1 cup size so not very big so is ideal for scooping the flour straight out of my container when I make bread.

sammiell

Lakeland have american measuring cups i bought some just before xmas bright coloured ones with the teaspoon etc measure free i asked the assistant and she said they were american measures

PipneyJane

cutestkids wrote: »

Just to clarify if you are going to be using the cups for baking then as long as you use the cups from the same set you will not notice any difference to the end result the difference between the the American cup size and the Uk is so small the the cake or whatever will turn out the same size.

Agreed. The only time you may have a problem is over tablespoon measurements because the American tablespoon is 3 teaspoons (i.e. 15ml), whereas the old Imperial tablespoon was 20ml or 4 teaspoons. I think the modern British/European tablespoon is 15ml. (The Australian one is still 20ml, which is why I'm aware of the problem. Annoyingly, most of my Australian cookbooks use a mixture of weight and volume measures but fortunately their cup is the same as the British one.)

Silly story for you all. Once upon a time, I was so desperate to get my hands on a set of cup measures that I phoned Bloomingdales in New York and ordered a set from there. I had an American cookbook that I wanted to cook from, so an American set seemed logical. This was in the mid-1990's, at a time when it was virtually impossible to get a set of cup measures here. I'd been through all the kitchenware departments in Oxford Street, and even John Lewis wasn't selling them. Even with postage and including the cost of the phone call, I think the metal set I bought cost less than £15. (Incidentally, wonderful customer service. They priced up the postage while I was on the phone and didn't keep me hanging on for ages.)

PipneyJane

Triggles wrote: »

I'm originally from the states, but have been living here in the UK for years. I've been using a UK-bought set of cup measures for ages with all my baking recipes from the states and haven't encountered any major problems. But just a couple things to note :

- no such thing as self-rising flour in the states, but most recipes I've brought with me I have used SR flour with no problem. I have also used plain flour with no problem. They seem to be relatively forgiving in that way.

- baking powder is "double acting" in the states (most brands) IIRC. I was given the tip when I moved here to double the amount of baking powder in recipes from the states to make up for that, and I have done that with good results. (note this is for baking POWDER not baking soda!)

- brown sugar should be packed into a cup for the measure, not just poured in as you would for a scale measure

- flour should NOT be packed in, but scooped in gently and leveled off with a knife (or something flat)

Ah, my home ec teacher should be happy I do remember at least SOME things from class.:rotfl:

I'm not the original poster, but I wanted to say thanks to you for posting this.

The only problem measure I have is with butter. How do you cope without butter being measured off in tablespoons on the wrapper? How do you convert it? When I was in the States in 2006, I asked in Williams-Sonoma if they had a widget I could use to measure butter in tablespoons but they looked at me as if I'd grown two heads.

elaine12022

I got a measuring 'cup' from Wilkinsons a few months ago, it has both ~English & American cups in it, as well as measurements for dry goods, and other things. It can't have been very expensive as I wouldn't have bought it otherwise!

squeaky

Actually, we have a long running thread on cups ... Cup Measures?

So I'll merge this one with it shortly.

cutestkids

PipneyJane wrote: »

I'm not the original poster, but I wanted to say thanks to you for posting this.

The only problem measure I have is with butter. How do you cope without butter being measured off in tablespoons on the wrapper? How do you convert it? When I was in the States in 2006, I asked in Williams-Sonoma if they had a widget I could use to measure butter in tablespoons but they looked at me as if I'd grown two heads.

Hi

When using butter in an American recipie they refer to it often in sticks, 1 stick of butter in America is about 113 grams so if a recipe calls for 1 stick of butter that would be just under half of a block of butter here.

A table spoon of butter is just over 14 gramms.

If you make sure that the butter is soft it is easy to scoop it with a tablespoon just make sure it is packed into the spoon and scrape the excess off with a knife, when I say table spoon it is the 15ml size which is standard on any set of measuring spoons in this country.

A site that I sometimes use for converting is http://www.traditionaloven.com/conversions_of_measures/butter_converter.html

You can get the conversion for most things from as small as a teaspoon and convert to grams, ounces, cups, metric etc.

As I said before I have been using American recipies all my life for baking, I actually convert British recipies when I can as they tend to be such a faff.

Baking the American way is much easier and the recipies are very forgiving, it is not as precise as British baking but it tastes just as good:rotfl:

tomwakefield

BUMP!

I've got a recipe asking for 1/3 cup fresh mint. Anyone know what this is in either weight or teaspoons/tablespoons?

nuatha

tomwakefield wrote: »

BUMP!

I've got a recipe asking for 1/3 cup fresh mint. Anyone know what this is in either weight or teaspoons/tablespoons?

My notes say 1/3 cup herbs would be 16 teaspoons which is 5 and 1/3 tablespoons or 80ml volume in a jug. (and if using dried use 1/3 of the amount of fresh).
Apologies I haven't made a note of weights for herbs, I'll try and remember next time I'm playing with herbs in the kitchen.

Hope this helps