Converting Ingredient Volumes to Weight

[Ground Chuck]

Good Morning, Everyone!

I've been interested in the ease of weighing my ingredients using a scale as oppose to cups and tablespoons that I'm accustomed too. I tried this with a couple ingredients last night, and the convenience of not having to wash a dish (paper bowl and plastic fork) really had me feeling good! However, I've got myself down a Google rabbit-hole right now, and find myself confused why different sites have different measurements.

Take something like Baking Soda for example:

Aqua-Calc (https://www.aqua-calc.com/calculate/...lume-to-weight) lists 1 teaspoon = 4.6 grams
but,
King Arthur (https://www.kingarthurflour.com/lear...t-chart#flours), using math to convert 1/2 teaspoon to a full teaspoon, "lists" 1 teaspoon = 6 grams

I'm finding other discrepancies as well. How do you folks know who to trust with your weights? I'd imagine this is more important in baking rather than cooking, but as a numbers guy I prefer these numbers to match! I'm trying to build my own cheat sheet, so I'm hoping to put accurate data into it!

Hope I put this in the right thread, and sorry if this is a repeat. I found one other similar thing from around 2016 with not much traction.

Thanks in advance!

[smokin fool]

Out on limb here but my only answer would be how finely the product is ground may account for the discrepancy.
A courser grind verses a finer grind would be a change in volume as a result weight would be different.
....at least in my way of thinking....

[rickgregory]

smokin fool is right. The example I use is Morton's kosher salt vs Diamond Crystal. They're processed differently with the shapes being different and the end result is that you get more salt per volume with Morton's. Almost 2x as much. Which means that a teaspoon of Mortons will make a dish almost 2x as salty as a teaspoon of Diamond Crystal.

This is actually a reason to use weight vs volume for powered or ground solids. It won't matter for liquids but for baking powder, flour, baking soda, salt, etc it can. If you have a brand of, say, baking soda that you use all the time then what I'd do is go to the manufacturer's site and see if they have a conversion for their specific product.

Alternatively, DIY it. Grab the baking powder you use all the time, measure a level teaspoon, a tables spoon etc pour it onto the zeroed out scale and weigh it. After all you don't really care about every brand, just what you use.

[Ground Chuck]

Great advice, thank you!

[smokin fool]

Wait'll I tell the wife I was right about something!!!!

[PBCDad]

Following this thread because I've had struggles with the conversion as well, though my problem is slightly different. Whenever I have a recipe with liquid ingredients, I have a hard time finding corresponding weights since there is no weight listed on the container - only volumes (servings in mL). Usually I have to approximate based on an estimate of density - milk is just about the same as water, but oil? It can be frustrating. Does anyone have a good source for that?

[rickgregory]

For water it's dead easy. 1ml weighs 1 gram. For oils I'd probably weigh them myself on my scale.

There's no real reason to worry as much about using weights here, though, since a few grams one way or the other will not affect the outcome. Hell, I rarely measure precisely when cooking normally. I"m sure there are exceptions in some recipes but for common cooking (excluding baking obviously) a few grams just doesn't matter to the result.

[Ground Chuck]

Should we be switching the scale from grams to ml for liquids?! I was expecting an easy conversion for a cup of water, but I'm finding 236.6 grams, lol. I'm showing 140 grams in a cup of milk, which seems easy enough.

[rickgregory]

1ml water weighs 1 gram. 1 cup of water is 236.59 ml so that is correct.

The milk seems... off unless the volume of milk solids is really that much less dense than water. Interesting....

See my above comment though - for normal cooking, this precision doesn't really matter as it won't affect the final result in any noticeable way. If you put into a (non-baking) recipe 140grams of water vs 1/2 cup it just won't matter to the result. Obviously if you want to do all this, go for it.

[RonB]

Another variation in weight can be induced by the method that you use to fill the measuring device. Using a cup, (for example), if you dredge flour out of the bag and level it, it will weigh more than if you sift flour into the same cup due to compaction.

I have always used the KA conversion chart without problems. Making your own chart for commonly used items is a great idea, but remember to measure the same way each time.

[FireMan]

Wow, you are inducing a measuring device then dredging out of a bag & leveling it? That is to much fer me to handle!🕶

[rickgregory]

And for flour, ambient moisture can affect things. That's basically the argument for going by weight in a nutshell - your amount will be consistent from time to time.

It won't matter for liquids, but solid powdered items are affected by three things - shape of the powder 'crystal' and its regularity (i.e. is the powder uniform in size or does it vary - think of using an inexpensive spice grinder where you get some powder, some coarse grind and some large bits), moisture, and compaction.

[FireMan]

And then rick has to throw in ambient moisture in a nutshell. Where will it all end. 🕶

[Polarbear777]

I wish salt was always listed by mass. It’s the one critical variable that makes a huge difference in almost everything and there’s too many shapes and densities. Volume is almost useless.

[FireMan]

My thoughts exactly, almost useless. 🕶

[scottranda]

I’ll only trust a bread recipe if it’s done in grams

[FireMan]

Then you go and spoil everything and use no big words! 🕶

[scottranda]

FireMan to balance out the occasional big word, my favorite movie is Dumb and Dumber!