cooking measurements per country
Åke
know some background information about what cooking measurements are
used in different countries. Now before you say "go read a faq", let
me say that I've got US and UK measurements from faqs (even it if it
would be good to have them confirmed here too since different sites
have different ideas of what they use).
Anyway the real problem is the "metric countries". I live in Sweden
and here we use gram and kilogram for weight, and "spice measurements"
= 1 ml, teaspoon = 5 ml, tablespoon = 15 ml, decilitre and litre for
volume. I know that other countries use other variations of the metric
system and I would like to know what countries use what measurements.
So if anyone knows what measurements some country use, please post it
here.
\Åke
st...@temple.edu
>
> Anyway the real problem is the "metric countries". I live in Sweden
> and here we use gram and kilogram for weight, and "spice measurements"
> = 1 ml, teaspoon = 5 ml, tablespoon = 15 ml, decilitre and litre for
> volume. I know that other countries use other variations of the metric
> system and I would like to know what countries use what measurements.
> So if anyone knows what measurements some country use, please post it
> here.
Have you tried searching Google for this information? The info might not be
all in one place, but I would be surprised if you couldn't find it by doing
a web search.
Nona
>Anyway the real problem is the "metric countries". I live in Sweden
>and here we use gram and kilogram for weight, and "spice measurements"
>= 1 ml, teaspoon = 5 ml, tablespoon = 15 ml, decilitre and litre for
>volume. I know that other countries use other variations of the metric
>system and I would like to know what countries use what measurements.
>So if anyone knows what measurements some country use, please post it
>here.
>
In Japan, also metric, but 1 cup is a bit under 200 cc (smaller than
U.S. equivalent). Spoon sizes are pretty much what you indicated.
Also uses gram and kilogram for weight, but for volume, cups and to be
more precise, cc. For sizes, cm, etc.
Nona (another foodie and hapa)
Åke
> Have you tried searching Google for this information? The info might not be
> all in one place, but I would be surprised if you couldn't find it by doing
> a web search.
I've tried, and US, British and Australian measurements are not that
hard to find, but for other countries I've failed. Perhaps because
it's because the pages are in their local language.
Judith Umbria
"Åke" <ak...@spray.se> wrote in message
news:8b57a097.02120...@posting.google.com...
There's not much different about Italian metric measures, but spoonfuls are
described as "colmo" or "livello." They are ordinary coffee spoons or soup
spoons, too. I spent 2 weeks looking for a cuchiao and a cuchiaino in the
shops before asking a neighbor who had a good chuckle at me. Then there is
the "pizzico" or pinch, often described further to indicate a little one or
a big one.
Nathalie Chiva
> Anyway the real problem is the "metric countries". I live in Sweden
> and here we use gram and kilogram for weight, and "spice measurements"
> = 1 ml, teaspoon = 5 ml, tablespoon = 15 ml, decilitre and litre for
> volume. I know that other countries use other variations of the metric
> system and I would like to know what countries use what measurements.
> So if anyone knows what measurements some country use, please post it
> here.
French, Swiss and Italian measurements are the same you cite (one has to
remember that in Italian "un etto" is 100 gr and in French "une livre" is
500 gr).
Nathalie in Switzerland
Åke
> In Japan, also metric, but 1 cup is a bit under 200 cc (smaller than
> U.S. equivalent). Spoon sizes are pretty much what you indicated.
> Also uses gram and kilogram for weight, but for volume, cups and to be
> more precise, cc. For sizes, cm, etc.
So in Japan you use:
WEIGHT:
gram
kilogram
VOLUME:
cc
teaspoon = 5 cc
tablespoon = 15 cc
cup ~200 cc - Do you have an exact measure?
litre ?
Could you please confirm the sizes above. There are different spoons -
a British teaspoon is not 5 but 6 cc, and a British tablespoon is not
15 but 18 cc. And there are different cups too, US = 237 cc, British =
284 cc, Australian = 250 cc. In short I'd like as exact measurements
as possible.
Sorry for beeing a nag ;-)
Judith Umbria
> Nona <nos...@dayo.com> wrote in message
news:<jqf9vuor3gphgq3sq...@4ax.com>...
>
> > In Japan, also metric, but 1 cup is a bit under 200 cc (smaller than
> > U.S. equivalent). Spoon sizes are pretty much what you indicated.
> litre ?
I forgot that Italian recipes also often say one glass of something and it
means a wineglass, white wine size. Occasionally it will say a "tazza di
caffe`" of something liquid, and that is the little coffee cup espresso
comes in. It is more frequent to have weights, even for liquids, although
you do see dl, cl, ml.
Italian cookery just isn't that precise, period. It describes what you are
supposed to see and suggests an amount that may get you there. I have to
watch my neighbors and see what they put in.
Jo Stoller
ml for everything. You can see from your own statement, and those of
others, that cooks who use local 'teaspoons' and local 'cups' in
metric countries can translate from ml anyway.
Perhaps a better way of looking at the problem is to ask the question:
"If I give recipes using metric units (grams and ml) and avoid
non-metric units (teaspoons, cups etc), who will have problems?"
As I understand it, the answer is:
"Most, but not all, cooks in the USA . Some, but not all, cooks in
Canada"
Åke
> French, Swiss and Italian measurements are the same you cite (one has to
> remember that in Italian "un etto" is 100 gr and in French "une livre" is
> 500 gr).
That's the kind of things I'm after. Perhaps I should explain my
reason for asking a bit more. My idea is to store the quantitys
internally in gram and millilitre, and then depending on the country
of the user, display it in the local units. For example, if one lives
in France one wouldn't see 500 grams, but 1 "une livre" instead. To do
this I would have to have a list of the desired units for each
country. Some use cups, others use decilitre but as long as I have a
complete list of units for each country, it will all be "transparent".
\Åke
Mark Preston
will reach those interested. If it's not enough, contact me directly
for a book of measurements around the world from 1856. Best book on
the subject available. Cut and paste the text and you can search for
metric, or what ever fills your cup.
A Gill of Wine
by
Mark Preston
he of little weight
Copyright, Mark Preston 1997.
By the time I got fairly good at cooking, I was starting to lose
interest in modern cookery theory, or to you, the everyday
cookbook.
As an award winning amateur brewer, I had come across George
Amsinck's:
Practical Brewings : A Series of Fifty Brewings in Extenso:
comprising London and Dublin Stout and Porter, export stock and
running; East India Pale Ales and Burton Ales. London and Scotch
Ales; with observations on plant, water, malt, hops, sugar and
return wort, and other useful information.
This self-published book was priced at ?5 in 1868. That's around
$100 today. It contained recipes in quantities such as someone in
their home might be tempted to recreate.
The only problem was that the author had strange measurements in
his ingredients list. I was baffled as to how to convert:
4 quarters of Pale Devonshire Barley
into American pounds. I could remember that the Imperial gallon
is 160 fluid ounces, a much larger figure, compared with the puny
American gallon at 128 fluid ounces.
I wrote the Master Brewer's Guild in London England, but received
no response. I wrote the Brewer's Guild of the Americas and
received no reply. The same for the Guiness Brewery Museum in
Ireland. I was starting to get desperate and went to the court of
last resort, my reference librarian at the Albuquerque Public
Library. There the omniscient librarian found my answer. Author
Ronald Zupko, had written a book on the subject of weights and
measures. Entitled: A Dictionary of English Weights and Measures;
from Anglo-Saxon times to the nineteenth century. It contained a
history of what a pound weighed and when it weighed it.
Strange to say, over the course of about 1000 years, the pound
has shrunk in weight. Much like a pine two by four, which now
measures one and three-quarters by three and one-half inches,
instead of a fair and square two by four, the pound, a millennium
ago, probably weighed 5 of our current pounds.
Now, on a roll, about fluid volume versus avoirdupois weights, I
drank Zupko's information like a thirsty man. At last, I could
accurately convert his measurements.
This problem of differing standards at differing times leads us
back to what this article is written for. Many Culinary
Historians read antiquarian cookbooks and are likely to be
tripped up at the mere mention of (even the word): gill. The UCLA
Campus Telephone Directory gives this measurement as 4 ounces.
That's 4 fluid ounces, mind you. So the next time you get out an
old recipe, give some thought to whether it's English or American
at it's origin. Fortunately, most recipes are quite forgiving in
measurement, but it's nice to know accurately what your doing.
Having then scratched the surface of the mystery of measurement,
let me say that modern accurate measurement is traced back to The
Boston Cooking School and Mary Johnson Lincoln. It is she, the
mother of modern cooking, who demanded and received in return,
accurate measures. Of everything from flour to sugar to salt to
wine; we owe our understanding of the phrase: "1/4 teaspoon".
As a reference for those who do more than read old cookbooks, I
am supplying my compilation of a variety of usual and unusual
measures. If they aren't consistent, then neither are the
authors. Especially perplexing is the fact that sometimes a
tablespoon is 2 teaspoons and sometimes 3. If anybody knows
anything about this, please inform me of such.
But for now:
Milo Miloradovich, in The Art of Fish Cookery gives the
following:
1 T. of salt is 1 ounce
1 T. of flour is 1/4 ounce
2 T. of butter is 1 ounce
1 teaspoon is 25 drops
The next author, relies on British measure: 1 pint is 20 fl.
ounces, yet 1 pound is 16 ounces.
Eva Willis, writing in Sauce and Sage, says:
1 teacupful is equal to 1/4 pound
4 teaspoonfuls is 1 ounce
and the one never to be missed:
1 stone is 14 pounds.
further:
1 tumblerful is 1/2 pint or 10 fl. ounces
1 breakfastcupful is 1/2 pint or 10 fl. ounces
1 teacupful is 1 gill or 5 fl. ounces
Playwright Leonard Louis Levenson, in The Complete Book of
Pickles and Relishes gives a few useful conversions:
1/3 Cup is 1/2 cup and 1 teaspoon
2/3 Cup is 10 tablespoons and 1 teaspoon
3/4 Cup is 12 tablespoons
7/8 Cup is 14 tablespoons
In Ice Cream Soda Fountain Recipes, written by a certain Mr.
Howard Johnson says: "it is at times useful to that
a wineglass holds 2 ounces,
a tablespoon, 1/2 ounce,
a dessert spoon, 1/4 ounce,
a teaspoon, 1/8 ounce or dram.
Also that a teacupful of sugar weighs 1/2 lb.
And 3 tablespoonfuls, 1/4 lb.
16 fluid ounces equals 1 pint,
2 pints equals 1 quart,
4 quarts equals 1 gallon"
Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary (1981 edition) defines
standards of measure as:
1 ounce is 16 drams, or 437.5 grains. 1 dram is 27.343 grains and
1 grain is .036 drams. 1 scruple is 1.3 grams. 1 grain is .06
grams.
This would be helpful, except that Webster has now mixed liquid
and dry measure and to further compound the confusion, had mixed
Troy with Avoirdupois. By the time I realized this, I was reduced
to eating hamburger at McDonald's, lest I mismeasure some key
ingredient and tempt the hand of fate to forevermore run against
my recipes.
So, with more cookbooks in hand, I derived the following:
Dry Measure
1 gram (a Metric measure) is 15.432 grains (an American/English
measure)
28.35 grams is 1 ounce
29.57 fluid grams is 1 fluid ounce
Of course, that only true at 60 degrees Fahrenheit, but who's
counting?
Just in case you are buying in quantity:
175 pounds Troy is 144 pounds Avoirdupois
Elizabeth David, in Elizabeth David Classics, states:
1 dessertspoon is 2 teaspoons
1 liqueur glass is 1 1/2 fl. ounces
coffeecup is 4 to 5 fl. ounces
teacup is 6 fl. ounces
and a breakfastcup is "almost" 8 fl. ounces.
Interestingly, the amount of protein in wheat flour is
calculatable as follows:
4 ounces of cake flour, the protein content is 8 grams
4 ounces of all-purpose the protein content is 9 to 12 grams
4 ounces of unbleached the protein content is 10 to 14 grams
4 ounces of bread flour the protein content is 13 to 15 grams
this can be useful when you don't have all the ingredients on
hand.
APOTHECARIES' WEIGHT
20 grains is 1 scruple
1 scruple is 1 dram
8 drams is 1 ounce
12 ounces is 1 pound
AVOIRDUPOIS WEIGHT
27 11/32 grains is 1 dram
15 drams is 1 ounce
25 pounds is 1 quarter 4 quarters is 1 hundred weight (cwt.)
TROY WEIGHT
a Pennyweight is 1.555 grams
24 grains is 1 pennyweight (pwt.)
20 pwt. is 1 ounce
Long Measure
5 1/2 yards is 1 rod
40 rods is 1 furlong
8 furlongs equals 1 mile (statute)
3 miles is 1 league (nautical)
1 hand is 4 inches (horse trading)
1 link (surveyor's measure) is 7.92 inches
1 span is 9 inches or 22.86 centimeters
Mariner's Measures
6 feet is 1 fathom
120 fathoms is 1 cable length
7.5 cable lengths is 1 mile
6076.1 feet is 1 nautical mile
Our Central Intelligence Agency has some ideas about
measurements. For them:
1 barrel of beer is 31 gallons or 117.35 liters
1 barrel of proof spirits is 40 gallons or 151.4 liters
the Avoirdupois dram is 1.772 grams or .0625 ounces
Troy dram is 3.886 grams or .125 Troy ounces
the Avoirdupois dram (liquid) is 3.696 fl. milliters or .125 fl.
ounces
The US Minim is .061 milliters or .002 fl. ounces or 1/16 of a
dram.
Lastly, from Bradbury's Unofficial Formulary and Memory Work of
Pharmacy comes:
Teaspoonful is about 1 fluid dram/drachm
Dessertspoonful is 2 fluid dram/drachm
Tablespoonful is 4 fluid dram/drachm
Wineglassful is about 4 fl. ounces
Breakfast-cupful is 4 fl. ounces
Tumblerful is about 8 fl. ounces
Thimbleful is about 3/4 fl. dram/drachm
Pinch (of leaves or flowers) is 1 dram/drachm (Troy)
Handful (of leaves or flowers) is 120 dram/drachm (Troy)
I admit that there are inconsistencies, but with a little
experimentation on your part, I'm sure you will soon be measuring
with the masters.
Short Bibliography
George Amsinck
Practical Brewings : A Series of Fifty Brewings in Extenso:
comprising London and Dublin Stout and Porter, export stock and
running; East India Pale Ales and Burton Ales. London and Scotch
Ales; with observations on plant, water, malt, hops, sugar and
return wort, and other useful information.
London : The Author, 1868
Ronald Zupko
A Dictionary of English Weights and Measures; from Anglo-Saxon
times to the nineteenth century.
Madison : Univ. of Wisconsin Press, 1968.
Milo Miloradovich
The Art of Fish Cookery
Garden City : Doubleday, 1949
Eva Willis
Sauce and Sage
London : Frederick Warne and Co., Ltd., 1933)
Leonard Louis Levinson
The Complete Book of Pickles and Relishes
New York : Hawthorne Books, Inc., 1965
Clyde H. Campbell
The Campbell's Book
New York : Canning Age, 1929
Robert Bradbury, MD
Bradbury's Unofficial Formulary and Memory Work of Pharmacy
Chicago : Bradbury Publishing Co., 1890
Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary (1981 edition)
Elizabeth David
Elizabeth David Classics
New York : Knopf, 1980
Howard Johnson
Howard Johnson's Presents Old Time Ice Cream Soda Fountain
Recipes
New York : Winter House Ltd., 1971
Information obtained from the CIA is from an Internet Website and
has no bibliographical data.
--
Jean B.
>
> "Åke" <ak...@spray.se> wrote in message
> news:8b57a097.0212...@posting.google.com...
> > Nona <nos...@dayo.com> wrote in message
> news:<jqf9vuor3gphgq3sq...@4ax.com>...
> >
> > > In Japan, also metric, but 1 cup is a bit under 200 cc (smaller than
> > > U.S. equivalent). Spoon sizes are pretty much what you indicated.
> Do you have an exact measure?
> > litre ?
> > Sorry for beeing a nag ;-)
>
> I forgot that Italian recipes also often say one glass of something and it
> means a wineglass, white wine size. Occasionally it will say a "tazza di
> caffe`" of something liquid, and that is the little coffee cup espresso
> comes in.
Jean B.
Victor Sack
[lots of interesting stuff snipped]
> Playwright Leonard Louis Levenson, in The Complete Book of
> Pickles and Relishes gives a few useful conversions:
>
> 1/3 Cup is 1/2 cup and 1 teaspoon
Eh? Is there a difference between "Cup" and "cup", then?
Victor
Åke
> Perhaps a better way of looking at the problem is to ask the question:
> "If I give recipes using metric units (grams and ml) and avoid
> non-metric units (teaspoons, cups etc), who will have problems?"
I think a program should be as userfriendly as possible, and having to
translate from ml to the measurements one is used to from local
cookbooks isn't optimal in my view - even though it's not that hard.
(Even a computer program can do it :-)
\Åke
Nathalie Chiva
> Italian cookery just isn't that precise, period. It describes what you are
> supposed to see and suggests an amount that may get you there. I have to
> watch my neighbors and see what they put in.
Right. And let's not forget the infamous "q.b." in Italian recipes, "quanto
basta", which means "As much as needed". Not very helpful when you don't know
how to make the dish already...
Nathalie in Switzerland
Judith Umbria
"Jean B." <jb...@rcn.com> wrote in message news:3DF65EDE...@rcn.com...
you bought. Some are a bit bigger, some smaller. They basically tell you
that you want to end up with a "paste" or "crumbs" or "liquid like cream"
and expect you to adjust the amount. This I have garnered from cookery
magazines and cookbooks. After all, if the polenta packet says "4 cuchiai
colmi" which means soupspoon heaped, how precise can heaped be? A little
more than level? As much as the spoon will hold? It simply is not precise.
Nona
> gram
> kilogram
>
> VOLUME:
> cc
> teaspoon = 5 cc
> tablespoon = 15 cc
> cup ~200 cc - Do you have an exact measure?
> litre ?
>
> Could you please confirm the sizes above. There are different spoons -
> a British teaspoon is not 5 but 6 cc, and a British tablespoon is not
> 15 but 18 cc. And there are different cups too, US = 237 cc, British =
> 284 cc, Australian = 250 cc. In short I'd like as exact measurements
> as possible.
>
1 C is 195 cc. Correct on all others. Also use litre on bottles etc.
Nona
Jo Stoller
>I think a program should be as userfriendly as possible,
I agree.
>and having to translate from ml to the measurements one is used
>to from local cookbooks isn't optimal in my view
Ah. I think I understand what you are trying to do now. If I may say
so, you could be working on an unsafe assumption.
You appear to be assuming that colloquial units are more user friendly
than metric units. For the UK you should assume the opposite.
Presumably 'user friendly' is based on the number of people who
understand what the unit means. More people in the UK now understand
metric units (ml, gram, etc) than understand colloquial units used by
their parents and grandparents (teaspoons, cups, pinches etc).
Åke
> You appear to be assuming that colloquial units are more user friendly
> than metric units. For the UK you should assume the opposite.
> Presumably 'user friendly' is based on the number of people who
> understand what the unit means. More people in the UK now understand
> metric units (ml, gram, etc) than understand colloquial units used by
> their parents and grandparents (teaspoons, cups, pinches etc).
Hm, that just complicates it a bit. My idea is that you should get the
units you want and are used to. I thought that if I knew the country,
I would know what people expects. I didn't consider that the UK is in
the middle of a "unit transformation". Well I'll just put the "pure
metric" as a default for the UK and let the user set an option of old
style units if they wish to. (I still have to care for the US set of
units since they're not converting to metric).
So the "new" UK uses gram and kilogram for weight, and millilitre and
litre for volume - nothing in between like decilitre or such?
Pat Norton
>Well I'll just put the "pure metric" as a default for the UK
>and let the user set an option of old style units
Thanks. That is the best idea for the UK.
>So the "new" UK uses gram and kilogram for weight, and
>millilitre and litre for volume
Correct.
>nothing in between like decilitre or such?
Correct. These inbetween units are not used in UK recipes.
cellular qwerty
The mere existence of an alternative name does not mean that it is
better for widespread use in recipes than metric units.
For example a 'livre' does exist in France but I would be very
surprised if a recipe that said '0.4 livre' was regarded as better
than one that said '200 g'.
Åke
> The mere existence of an alternative name does not mean that it is
> better for widespread use in recipes than metric units.
>
> For example a 'livre' does exist in France but I would be very
> surprised if a recipe that said '0.4 livre' was regarded as better
> than one that said '200 g'.
Well I don't know how "livre" is used in practice in France, but I
know about Swedish measurements. We use decilitre, and a recipe that
said 0.5 litre (or for that matter 500 ml) would look odd since 5
decilitre simply is more common here.
Harry Demidavicius
Livre is French for Pound [lbs]. It was not a typo for "litre".
Harry