Changing from volume to weight

[JustJoel]

I have recently started to weigh my ingredients instead of measuring them, for baking anyway. I’m also struggling through the math of cooking by ratio; I’m not a math guy, and the simplest arithmetic can drive me nuts!

I just stumbled on this website. It has a volume to weight conversion doohickey; you can enter the volume of your ingredient, choose the ingredient, and it will tell the weight of the volume. My descriptive skills have waned in the last few months. It would probably be better if you just visit the site, if you haven’t already!

Flour volume vs weight conversions | Grams | Ounces | Cups | Pounds | Kilograms | Quarts

 

[Andy M.]

Nice site.

If you check out the nutrition label on a bag of flour or other food product, it gives you the conversion. It'll say something like: Serving Size ¼ Cup (30 grams).

 

[caseydog]

I think the best strategy is to be able to use a recipe whether it uses quantity or weight. I never try to convert one to the other, but I have the tools I need to execute a recipe that uses either method for measuring amounts of ingredients.

Don't make cooking or baking any harder than it needs to be.

CD

 

[GotGarlic]

I think the best strategy is to be able to use a recipe whether it uses quantity or weight. I never try to convert one to the other, but I have the tools I need to execute a recipe that uses either method for measuring amounts of ingredients.

Don't make cooking or baking any harder than it needs to be.

+1..

 

[CWS4322]

You don't need to be a whiz in math to use baker's percentages. Basically, baker's percentages indicate quantities of each ingredient needed if you have 100 lb of flour. Most of us don't. The percentage of each ingredient is its total weight divided by the weight of the flour. Always weigh your flour(s) first. That is your 100℅. Weight of ingredient over weight of flour x 100℅ = ℅ of ingredient. I taught a 10-yr old how to make bread using baker's percentages. Once you have the weight of the flour, everything else should fall into place.

 

[giggler]

you cannot convert from volume to weight. they are not related in math . so you have choose one or the other.

1 cup of molten iron, has no relation to 1 cup of 16 fluid ounzes of water.

and try to consider 1 table spoon of something?

I know nothing about bakeing, and do not own a kitchen scale.

Eric, Austin Tx.

 

[Andy M.]

you cannot convert from volume to weight. they are not related in math . so you have choose one or the other.

1 cup of molten iron, has no relation to 1 cup of 16 fluid ounzes of water.

and try to consider 1 table spoon of something?

I know nothing about bakeing, and do not own a kitchen scale.

Eric, Austin Tx.

Every single food ingredient that has volume also has a corresponding weight. There is no universal conversion factor for all ingredients but there are individual ones.

For example, professional and home bakers have been using weight to measure flour rather than volume for some time.

 

[GotGarlic]

you cannot convert from volume to weight. they are not related in math . so you have choose one or the other.

1 cup of molten iron, has no relation to 1 cup of 16 fluid ounzes of water.

and try to consider 1 table spoon of something?

I know nothing about bakeing, and do not own a kitchen scale.

There is no single formula to convert ingredients from volume to weight, but that doesn't mean there's no way to determine the weight of a given volume of something. The website Joel linked to uses the known weight per volume unit of different types of flour and uses that to do the conversion.

I use recipe software called Living Cookbook. It can display measurements in weights or volumes, which it gets from a nutrition database provided by the USDA. It's updated every year.

http://www.livingcookbook.com

 

[GotGarlic]

Sorry, Andy, didn't mean to essentially repeat what you said

 

[Andy M.]

Sorry, Andy, didn't mean to essentially repeat what you said

No problem.

 

[taxlady]

Andy, GG, great minds and all that.

 

[taxlady]

Thanks for the link JustJoel. I like that it goes both ways. I use mostly recipes based on weight. I'm lost if I'm at a friend's house and they don't have a scale. Well, maybe not lost, just stuck with a lot of Googling and converting. This makes it much easier.

 

[CWS4322]

I have a recipe for krumkakar where you weigh the eggs first (in the shell). Flour and sugar are to be the same weight as the eggs. When using baker's percentages, you still weigh your liquids and figure out the percentage of liquid to flour, not total dry ingredient weight.

 

[JustJoel]

I have a recipe for krumkakar where you weigh the eggs first (in the shell). Flour and sugar are to be the same weight as the eggs. When using baker's percentages, you still weigh your liquids and figure out the percentage of liquid to flour, not total dry ingredient weight.

The ratios are such simple, elegant, and fundamental elements of cooking, especially baking, which I am coming to learn. But ratios are math, or at least arithmetic, and I wasn’t in the math line when God was handing out talents (there are a lot of other lines I was absent from, too). I will come to understand them, but it’s gonna take a lot of re-reading and head scratching, and possibly a lot of inedible loaves of bread!

 

[taxlady]

The ratios are such simple, elegant, and fundamental elements of cooking, especially baking, which I am coming to learn. But ratios are math, or at least arithmetic, and I wasn’t in the math line when God was handing out talents (there are a lot of other lines I was absent from, too). I will come to understand them, but it’s gonna take a lot of re-reading and head scratching, and possibly a lot of inedible loaves of bread!

I hope you are using metric weight. It cuts way down on the amount of arithmetic. I'm really good at math and I would use a calculator for this.

Here's an example. If it says 600 grams of flour and the water is 35%. Multiply the 600 grams by 35 and divide by 100 or multiply the 600 by 0.35. The result is 210 grams of water for the 600 grams of flour.

BTW, I usually don't weigh water because 1 gram of water = 1 millilitre of water.

 

[taxlady]

I have a recipe for krumkakar where you weigh the eggs first (in the shell). Flour and sugar are to be the same weight as the eggs. When using baker's percentages, you still weigh your liquids and figure out the percentage of liquid to flour, not total dry ingredient weight.

Sort of like pound cake: 1 pound each of eggs, butter, sugar, and flour. I like the Swedish method of measuring the eggs first, especially when it needs to be exact.

 

[JustJoel]

I hope you are using metric weight. It cuts way down on the amount of arithmetic. I'm really good at math and I would use a calculator for this.

Here's an example. If it says 600 grams of flour and the water is 35%. Multiply the 600 grams by 35 and divide by 100 or multiply the 600 by 0.35. The result is 210 grams of water for the 600 grams of flour.

BTW, I usually don't weigh water because 1 gram of water = 1 millilitre of water.

That’s the clearest instruction for calculating recipe ratios I’ve received (not that everyone else gave good advice, too). You have a gift for concise, understandable explanation. I hope you’re a teacher! Thanks.

 

[taxlady]

That’s the clearest instruction for calculating recipe ratios I’ve received (not that everyone else gave good advice, too). You have a gift for concise, understandable explanation. I hope you’re a teacher! Thanks.

Thank you. I taught several income tax courses for H&R Block.

 

[RPCookin]

BTW, I usually don't weigh water because 1 gram of water = 1 millilitre of water.

I still weigh the water when baking, just because it is ultimately still more accurate than measuring volume. Most people can't read a measuring cup that accurately. I know that adding 1 gram of water to the scale is more precise than trying to add 1 ml to a measuring cup.

Then too, as ATK found out in testing, it can be challenging to find a measuring cup with accurate graduations.

 

[taxlady]

I still weigh the water when baking, just because it is ultimately still more accurate than measuring volume. Most people can't read a measuring cup that accurately. I know that adding 1 gram of water to the scale is more precise than trying to add 1 ml to a measuring cup.

Then too, as ATK found out in testing, it can be challenging to find a measuring cup with accurate graduations.

That's why I wrote "usually". But, most non baking recipes don't call for that kind of accuracy in them.

But, you just gave me an idea. I can check the accuracy of my liquid measuring cups by weighing some water in them.