Measure foods to Improve Your Cooking

measure food

It seems that schools don’t teach cooking or anything that the girls need to know to make a home anymore, not even the most simple things.  For example how to measure food.  All the cuts that the schools have made has made it impossible for girls or even the young men to learn how to take care of themselves.
You always hear about the overweight people in our country, well if people  don’t know how to cook they use the easy way out. Fast food and snacks are always on the menu.  Opening a box or a can is easier than cooking from scratch.

So, I know that there are a lot of people out there that don’t know some of the things that make cooking easier and fun. If you get real technical there are slight differences between measuring wet and dry ingredients.  They even have measuring cups and spoons for both.

If you’re just starting out and trying to figure out how to make a cake or cookies, and you don’t have all the equipment you need to measure food, you need to learn how to get by with what you have. I know that experienced cooks can eye their measurments and things turn out great, but you still need to learn how to start.

The measurements that are listed below are based on standard US measurements.  In many parts of the world the way they measure food is different.  For instance they may use the British Imperial measurements.  The following list should work for most of the measurements that you will need to follow most US recipes.

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The following list should help you get started. These are liquid measures and volume equivalents.

  • A few grains          = less than 1/8 teaspoon
  • 60 drops               = 1 teaspoon
  • 1 teaspoon            = 1/3 tablespoon
  • 1 tablespoon         = 3 teaspoon
  • 2 tablespoons        = 1 fluid ounce
  • 4 tablespoons        = 1/4 cup
  • 5 1/3 tablespoons  = 1/3 cup
  • 8 tablespoons        = 1/2 cup
  • 16 tablespoon        = 1 cup or 8 ounces
  • 8 tablespoons        = 1 tea cup or 4 ounces
  • 1/4 cup                 = 4 tablespoon
  • 3/8 cup                 = 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons
  • 5/8 cup                 = 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoon
  • 7/8 cup                 = 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoon
  • 1 cup                    = 1/2 pint or 8 fluid ounces
  • 2 cups                  = 1 pint
  • 1 gill, liquid           = 1/2 cup or 4 fluid ounces
  • 1 pint, liquid          = 4 gills or 16 fluid ounces
  • 1 quart, liquid       = 2 pints
  • 1 gallon, liquid      = 4 quarts

The above list should help some of the new cooks that read our blog to measure food and follow recipes more successfully.

Preparedness Mom

 

 

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5 thoughts on “Measure foods to Improve Your Cooking”

  1. Also helpful sometimes are metric conversions of kitchen units:

    1/5 teaspoon=1 ml (ml, milliliter, one thousandth of a liter)
    1 teaspoon = 5 ml
    1 tablespoon =15 ml
    1 fluid oz. = 30 ml
    1/5 cup = 50 ml
    1 cup = 240 ml
    2 cups (1 pint)= 470 ml
    4 cups (1 quart)=.95 liter
    4 quarts (1 gal.) =3.8 liters
    1 oz. =28 grams
    1 pound = 454 grams

    Metric to US Conversions
    1 milliliter = 1/5 teaspoon
    5 ml = 1 teaspoon
    15 ml = 1 tablespoon
    30 ml = 1 fluid oz.
    100 ml = 3.4 fluid oz.
    240 ml = 1 cup
    1 liter = 34 fluid oz.
    1 liter =4.2 cups
    1 liter = 2.1 pints
    1 liter = 1.06 quarts
    1 liter = .26 gallon
    1 gram =.035 ounce
    100 grams = 3.5 ounces
    500 grams = 1.10 pounds
    1 kilogram = 2.205 pounds
    1 kilogram = 35 oz.

  2. gonewiththewind

    Two points: Budget cuts are NOT why they don’t teach home making in schools. The schools cost more then ever and they have numerous classes that have nothing to do with traditional education.

    Fast foods do not cause obesity or overweight. Mostly this is the result of your genes “being all they can be”. Fast foods are a convenient whipping boy but not guilty.

    1. This comment has no valid scientific backing.

      People’s genes did not change magically in the last 40 years. Western people are less physically active than they have ever been. Most people are far more prone to fast and easy food- which has massive amounts of sugar and large “value” portion sizes.

      People eat more calories than they need- and most of those are garbage calories- complex carbs and sugars.

  3. I agree with Common Sense!

    When in Italy five years ago we would either walk or ride a bicycle everywhere to any destination within 20km. Fuel cost the equivalent of $7/gallon so we only drove when necessary for trips exceeding 50 km. For distances exceeding 100 km a train was most cost effective.

    I was there for six weeks and lost 16 pounds!

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