The argument for cooking with volume measurements, rather than weight
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- Опубликовано: 7 фев 2021
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My old video about why the U.S. hasn't fully adopted metric: • Why Americans don't us...
Helen Rennie's video about how kitchen scales are inaccurate with small quantities: • When Scales Lie (Weigh...
Kenji's article about why he uses volume for small quantities: www.seriouseats.com/2015/11/w...
Dr. Stephen Mihm at the University of Georgia: history.uga.edu/directory/peo... 
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Well I use a universal system of measurements known as " That looks about right ".
don't forget the specific unit of TLAR: 'a squeeze'
Personally I’m a fan of the “it’s probably close enough” system but to each their own I suppose
And as the French say:"le glug"
@@consoleking9670 lmao. Imagine me using that in front of my mom.
Acha shaikh sahab 😂
"marketed as jewelers scales regardless of what it is used to measure"
drug dealers: he means us!
adam measuring brownie skin: i meant me
But what is the street value of a quid of brownie skin?
@@olegsagaydak1898 1 great british pound
lmaoooo
@@arielshatz6876 Not really that great tbh
Lol
"You totally can measure out 100ml of flour, even though nobody does that"
Some Nordic countries would beg to differ with their decilitre cups.
I was actually here sitting like: "Hey, I sometimes measure out my flour with dl, what is this?" then I see this comment
I do that all the time.
Livets in Sweden and mostly measure by volume and I'm not alone moste recepies have most of thier measurements in volume. When measuring flour i use a 2 liter jug with dl markings and since when baking the amount of flour that is needed vary it is mostly precise enough.
Had the same thiought as a Dane, but hadn't realized that it's a Nordic thig specifically
Yeah deciliters (and to a lesser extent, hectograms) are a very nordic thing for some reason. Deciliter cups are very convenient though.
the cup measurement particularly annoys me when it comes to measuring sticky things like honey and molasses. For me, it's much easier to squeeze/pour them into the mixture directly and I just put a scale under the mixing bowl. This aside, I guess it's just me, I'd like to play safe when cooking cause I don't have the sense of "glug"🤣
An adjustable measuring cup is great for sticky stuff, if you do a lot of baking! I bought one years ago and now I use it for honey, molasses, yogurt, oil, applesauce, pretty much any ingredient that's not dry, and it's a much tidier experience.
You can mesure honey, molasses, etc, in a oiled cup, or even better, in a graduated cup already but partly filled with a liquid. It works like a charm!
@@elizar.7037 Just googled the adjustable measuring cup and it looks great! Definitely saving a lot of time of googling how heavy are the honey and other sticky things for the cup measurement recipe😆
I agree that using cups while measuring sticky things is especially annoying. I find measuring butter in teaspoons and tablespoons very troublesome. The butter packages in my country come in 500 or 250 gr bricks and have a gram scale printed on them so you just easily cut of the desired amount of grams. Sticking butter evenly into measuring spoons makes no sense to me. When using US recipes I always have to convert sticks/spoons of butter to grams to be able to follow it. But volume is fine for measuring dry and non-sticky liquids.
Mucho texto
Praise this man for giving grad students so many ideas for papers
He was a professor. It's in his nature.
I know right
@@felixfourcolor seriously? I thought he was a journalist
@@dudebro1249 journalism prof
@@dudebro1249 bro the mans done everything 😭 when i saw him on the mariah carey christmas video i wasn’t even surprised
Knowing what I know about RUclips comments sections, this was a very brave video to make.
Yo yoooo wadup it's our boi VOXAY JOHNNAY
Experience ah.
Don't popular RUclipsrs have a tick next their names. I thought that was a fan channel 😂
@@nishadgore6285 isn’t that Instagram you’re thinking of
Love this guys geography videos, they’re the BEST
My favorite solution for not dirtying dishes when I weigh is to use negative weights. If you want to add 30g of butter, for example, place your butter dish on the scale; zero the scale, then remove butter until it shows -30g.
Here in the states our butter comes in sticks, with tbsp marked on them. So if we need to add 2tbps, you just cut to that line. One stick is a half cup. I like this way, but its also what I'm used to. Living in Europe for some months made this difficult for me haha.
I find using mass in grams to be imprecise, switched to nanograms and never looked back.
decided to skip milligrams altogether huh
bold of you
Rookie move. I threatened companies to package the ingredients I need as it is required.
Boy that talk with Nestlé sure was a gun one
Weak af, I only use eV to measure stuff
Gonna need about 10^35 eV worth of flour for this recipe, assuming we're in an inertial reference frame...
I've been using picograms as far back as I remember. Sometimes I even find it necessary to cut flour particles into just the right pieces just to keep the precision.
I grew up in a household where the measurement "a cup" meant pick a cup from the cupboard and pray
Are you Spanish? 🤣
A cup of this, a pinch of that, a dab of vinegar, a little bit of cheese. My grandmother never cooked a dish exactly the same.
Luckily that's not as innacurate as it sounds. Most coffee mugs or tea cups hold 8 ounces, or one cup, and most taller glasses are basically right at 2 cups.
@@unoriginalusername4416 How many grams is an "ounce", though?
@@masansr hey google. What is.....
@@masansr 28.33 g approx
Life lesson: season the weighing scale, not the measuring jug
First good one I've seen in a while
I came to the comment section for this!
Don't forget the white wine.
A centuries lesson
This was funny 2 years ago.
I'm an Australian and the cup thing drives me nuts. A cup of broccoli depends on how small I cut the trees. One health guru talks of cups of leafy greens. How tightly packed make a whole lot of difference. It really depends on what you are weighing.
But you can't be wrong when measuring stuff like this. Amounts are the most necessary for mixtures, liquid, powdered solids. Just put as much broccoli as you want to eat...
Similarly I was taken aback by "three quarters of a cup of diced onion". Like, yeah, let me grab my jar of diced onions and measure out three quarters of a cup.
@@dzinypinydoroviny Jar of diced onions?? Just cut up fresh however much you want in the dish. It's easy enough to visualize three quarters of a cup, so use that as reference and adjust to your taste.
This is what he is referring to towards the end when talking about robotic thinking, and being too precise. Will a half cup in either direction ruin the dish? How much broccoli do YOU want in your dish? I see where you're coming from in a counting calories or dietary perspective though.
youre proving adam right about robotic thinking. if a recipe says a cup of broccoli, its just giving an idea of what the broccoli to non-broccoli ratio is: *the person making the recipe didnt know either, thats the point*
just use as much broccoli as you want, learn to cook
Adam, not everyone had the benefit of having grown up with a family member who is a good cook (or maybe didn't have time to cook), who taught us how to cook, where how things feel or look IS an intuitive thing. I did, you obviously did....someone who was parented by someone who literally never cooked anything that wasn't out of a box or package, this "eyeball it", "see how it looks", "until it feels right" nonsense is absolute gibberish to them.
I've dated a couple of guys--and had several friends--who stared at me like I was a mad scientist on a tear when I was cooking. One time, making chicken soup, came up to me (while I had a chicken carcass in my hands and a stockpot of water next to me) and asked "what are you *doing*?!" Me: "....cooking...?" "With *what*?!" Me: *glancing at the chicken in my hands, the sliced vegetables, the various kitchen accoutrements and the fact that I was *standing in the kitchen* for crying out loud: "...food...?" They were completely flabbergasted...apparently at the fact that you can make chicken soup at home...maybe...? Another time, I was making something that called for premixed taco seasoning, and after rummaging about the kitchen, sort of muttered under my breath "well, shit...I don't have any taco seasoning...eh, well..whatever"...and proceeded to go digging through the spice cabinet. Guy grabs his keys, and says "okay, let's go!" By this point, having completely forgotten the entire "conversation" I'd had with myself, turned in complete confusion to him and said "...where are you going...?" Him: "to the store" Me: "WHY???" Him: "because you need taco seasoning". I made a dismissive hand gesture, said "naw, it's fine, I'll just make some" and as God is my witness he said to me "You can't make taco seasoning!"
I legit do not know what these people think humanity ate before the dawn of the Industrial Revolution or where food actually comes from. Beyond sandwiches, boxes and cans, they are LOST.
So...cut our sisters, brothers, and others trying to dip their feet into a completely foreign and potentially very scary pool some slack. When you have no basis of expertise in the kitchen, cooking something can turn out to be a disaster. They're trying. ;)
"...scales that are often marketed as 'jeweler's scales,' regardless of what substances people actually weigh on them..."
That explains all of Adam's brownie recipes lately.
People around me call my fine balance a "dealer's scale".
Cocahina
In the Netherlands we use our cocaine scales.
😂🤣
Lets leave the likes on this comment at 420
Even as a metric user, I'm mostly fine with recipes that use volume measurements, but the only one I actually hate is a "stick of butter". Since a butter doesn't come in sticks here, it's super hard to convert - a stick is a volume measurement, but if I need cold butter, I can't just melt it down to measure the volume.
Omg yes, via exposure i know how to make it work but grams is so much better with sticky substances, butter and easily compressible dry ingredients
a US stick is 113gr and that's half a cup, had to look it up because imperial is dumb as shit
"a stick of butter" works great in the US because it's a standard size, even tablespoons of butter are easy because they're marked on the package.
Then I moved to Europe and had to look up weight conversions to make my recipes work with foreign butter packages... Cause yeah, you can't just pour the cold butter in a measuring cup. Every time: google, how much does this much butter weigh? Ok, now google, how much is that in grams? I still have my cups-and-spoons measuring tools, so the rest of the recipe doesn't need translation, but it just doesn't work with butter XD
"tablespoons of butter" is even worse
A stick of butter is 1/2 cup, 4 oz by weight or volume, or if you must have it 113g.
I swear, some days Adam just wakes up and is like "I want to watch the RUclips world burn."
Volume basically means you need to know the ingredients you're working with and can't judge it by unknown factors, what kind of flour, how dense is it, etc.
With weight, it doesn't matter how much air is in the flour because air weighs nothing on a scale, it will always be the same amount.
Yes!!!!
That's only partially right. Flour also takes in water from the air when it's humid, so it won't always be the exact same amount.
Trapped air does interfere with measurements (it's very little, though)
There are more factors to that though, and with volume, it’s still easier to just constantly add more to whatever based on how the food is doing
Move to a place like Arizona with 5% humidity and discover that your recipes now call for too much flour if you measure it by weight.
I only use real metric. I measure flour in mole and temperature in Kelvin.
You would be off, as "mole" is in the kitchen only a viable measure of sauce.
@@ParaspriteHugger you can have a mol of anything, its a unit of measure similar to a dozen; that is to say it is a count.
OP, great comment, as a chemistry major, it certainly got a laugh out of me :)
@@anthonywoodward2027 but I don't know the average molar weight of my flour! For sugar it would be easy enough, but polysaccharides?
flour is going to be a nightmayor or oil or yeast or eggs or milk .............now salt and water would be ok ( oh wait my tap water is chlorinated check that still bad )
That's SI lol
Anyone else seeing some weird flickering on some of the scenes and transitions?
Edit: also some glitching around 11:20
Last video I asked if it was the ad website fucking up. This time it's really obvious.
You are not alone. It is in the video
It's just the simulation slowly crackling and glitching because It has to simulate too many people sitting in their underwear at home due to the new Covid-19 Seasonal Expansion. It should have only lasted 2-3 Months but as usual there were many griefers and trolls so it got kinda extended. Nothing to worry about tho, we are working on several bug fixes so the system wont overload and glitch.
Sincerely yours
-Pfizer-BioNTech
It's an Arg
3:45 was the first place I noticed it. There are some single-frame cuts to previous shots
“Do what feels right” only works if you can build on your previous experiences.
Exactly. I can do this now after I feel like I'm confident enough that I'd call myself an intermediate cook, but if you have no frame of reference then you don't know what "feels" right.
Give yourself space to experiment.
While your statement is true, I have never been able to get good bread by following the exact recipe. The only way to learn bread baking is by doing it until you learn what feels right.
Correct!
Do it wrong however many times with something that won't kill you if done incorrectly. That way you can learn what the correct execution is.
Failing is also an experience! I have cooked my share of inedible things while learning and sometimes even after cooking for a few decades. Failure is a teachable moment, it teaches you what not to do.
When adding to a mixing bowl, you don't need to remove the bowl. Get some scales that go below zero. Zero the flour on the scales and then measure what comes out.
If your scales don't go below zero, place on scales and do a bit of subtraction.
holy shit thats actually kind of brilliant
it might take a few seconds longer as you gotta wait for the scale to settle on a weight every time you put your flour container back on, but its such an elegant solution nonetheless
that's also called taking the tare weight, just in case you wanted a term for what this process is, and it's invaluable in the sciences since you can't even be sure that the top of the scale weighs the same on a given day for smaller measurements
boom, cup and spoon enjoyers roasted
Idk, I find measuring by weight in baking much faster than using measurements as flour compacts differently and I don’t need to perfectly level each cup of flour.
Baking is so so much easier weighing. I get more consistent results, and less waste weighing out the ingredients.
I'm glad RUclipsrs are starting to out more recipes with weight measurements.
This. As soon as I got a kitchen scale, saw that the flour bag said 1/4 cup = 30g, I was sold on weighing my flour instead of using cups to measure it.
Also, to get correct ratios, if you bake anything using eggs, you kinda have to scale the other ingredient amounts to the amount of eggs - "two eggs" might be anywhere from 100 to 140 grams or so of egg, depending on their size (and no, I am not going to go out and buy a specific size of egg specifically for a recipe), and measuring out 226 g of flour is just as easy as measuring out 240 g of flour, while measuring 1.88 cups of flour is a lot harder than measuring out 2 cups of flour.
Awaiting the Ethan Chlebowski rebuttal in about a week or two from now. “Why I measure with weight and not by volume”
I personally need one single argument, which Adam has pointed out - different product treatment (like a finer grind vs a coarser grind) can completely throw off volumetric measurement. Weight stays the same (though if I'm ever in space I'll have to remember to bring a measuring cup).
Though this is more of a "philosophical" stance since I eyeball the fuck out of my food. And if I do measure, I generally don't care about a few grams one way or another. I like having the option of high precision even if I rarely use it.
Huh.. I guess I get the gun owner argument now...
Ethan has made a video on cooking with scales.
Hahaha Ethan likes to ride coat tails IMO so sounds about right.
He would be absolutely right.
ETHAN WE SEE YOU READIN THIS HERE -- YOOO YOUR CHICKEN KARAHI RECIPE WAS STRAIGHT FIRE
On point 5 (I think), the problem with this is that it takes a level of experience to know what something _should_ look like. As somebody who was never really taught how to cook and yet now has to feed myself, I am going to tend to cook according to the recipe because the verbiage means nothing to me.
(I still cook by volume though, but that's again an inexperience thing and buying a pyrex cup was easier than buying a scale)
You definitely learn it. My grandfather had some basic cooking skills when he was out on his own, but he really learned after he and my grandmother got married because he was a teacher so he got off work much earlier than she did. He picked up some cookbooks and learned some techniques while following instructions. I, and my mom and aunt, remember him cooking from scratch and eyeballing most of our lives.
@Apsoy Pike You also need to add 20, yes 20, eggs to that outfit.
Exactly! Recipes with weights very much needed for someone who's not experienced with cooking, since they don't know how things should look like if cooking done right. Experienced cooks doesn't need to be precise for that matter, they can just go on until they see desired result. And that's why weight is better: cups, tablespoons and such tend to be quite different in volume, if you don't have special measuring scoops like Adam. I have two different tea spoons, and one is two times bigger than the second.
When cooking at home, the difference in a cup of flour and whatever an equivalent weight of flour should is going to be negligible. When cooking for scale, or when creating recipes that need to be replicated the exact same way by 15 different chefs at your establishment so the customer always gets the thing they are expecting, then being incredibly precise makes a lot more sense.
I often measure by weight if it is easy to do. Place the big mixing bowl on the scale, zero it, and just hit zero again after adding each ingredient in. I also measure by volume when it is easy to do. Sauce in a hot pan on the stove needs a tablespoon of sugar? It is way easier to just scoop that in by volume than to try to meticulously measure however many grams of sugar that is supposed to be, and the difference between the tablespoon and the weighed sugar is going to be imperceptible.
What completely sold me on using weight over volume is the simplicity of ratios, especially when baking. I don't have to look up a recipe for a basic cake, basic short bread, or even macarons anymore to make sure I'm remembering the amounts of each ingredient properly.
That's fair enough, I find the same thing with volume, the ratios are just simpler to remember.
I have never used weight (whenever I get a recipe that has weight, I google it to find out what the volume is because I don't have a kitchen scale). But I only use measurements the first time I make a recipe. After that, I just take my flour and pour it straight into the bowl so it fills the approximate amount that I need it, I add milk or water till it feels right, I salt it according to what seems would work for the amount of food. All I need is the general list of ingredients (I do lots of substitutions because of food allergies so my dishes end up nothing like the original anyway.)
But if I'm watching a cooking video and they are only using weight, I will ignore what they are saying and just watch what they are doing so I can see what that amount of the ingredient looks like. I'm sure that, if you exclusively use weight, you can soon see how much something weighs just by looking at it and you don't actually have to use a scale, but I'm not going to buy a scale just so I can learn that technique.
Besides, I have hyperosmia (a very good sense of smell) and if my husband has a dish that he loves, I can usually just smell it and replicate it, even if I can't eat it.
The same argument can be made for volume; ratios aren't exclusive to weight.
The kinds of ratios I'm talking about is if you go by weight, a basic cake recipe is equal parts egg, butter, sugar, and flour. Want a basic short bread cookie? 3 parts flour, 2 parts butter, 1 part sugar. Some other things are a little more complex, but still drastically more simple if going by weight rather than volume. If you go by volume the ratios are all over the place.
"I like myself. I know myself... I fear the unknown." is going to be a great out-of-context clip.
Adam Ragusea clip or H.P. Lovecraft quote?
it's poetry regardless of context
Chinese moms and Boris would tell you: food tastes best when you have no idea how much ingredient you had put in.
And Boris, love it.
Cheeki Breeki
its always something that sounds like "just put how much you think is right" ".... but mom, now much is right?"
As boris would say "Just remember to add bay leaf, or maybe two?"
*hardbass plays in the distance*
"Volume can be more accurate than weight sometimes but inaccuracy can make you think for yourself".
it's fun to watch multiple cooking channel like Adam, Ethan, Andrew (Babish), chef John and Kenji. The conflict between all of them give me liberty to take what from who, there is no objectively right way to cook but there are subjective ways to cook. All of these channels give me knowledge on one thing in multiple prospective. I can use the one i like the most and i can keep the one i like the least just in case i need them later.
My grandma always measured everything by weight and i pick up that habit to, it never occured to me why she did that until i asked her what she did for a living when she was my age. She was the proud owner of a bakery, and she always measured things by weight because that way the bread always came the way she wanted, and when account minor differences on a comercial level between what you get in volume and what you get in grams, differences add up quickly.
These days i do things by weight mostly out force of habit.
0:29 missed opportunity to say “5, maybe 6, depending on how you measure it.”
Damn boi
It is quite common for recipes to have volume measurements in Finland too, and at least some other European countries. The unit most commonly used is not ml, but dl.
Whereas I'd guess that most people in Ireland have no idea what a dl is. Funny how different countries can be.
@@qwertyTRiG Some European countries also measure volumes of beverages in cl instead of ml, which also surprised me. But I guess with metric, it's all sort of the same.
The "saving dishes" thing is the exact opposite of my experience.
When I tried to cook some egg tarts for example, I looked up a recipe of cups and tsps. The recipe called for, among other things, water, milk, butter, flour, and cream. All measured in some fraction of a cup.
Water is fine because it flows from the pipes and I can use a "dirtied" cup for that. How am I to handle the rest thou?
I only had 1 set of measuring devices, so in the end I had to repeatedly wash and dry my cups and spoons to make all the measurements. It's either that or pour from the container into the measuring device and risk spilling a whole bunch, which I decided was not worth while and also nullified the only potential advantage of "need something to scoop with anyways".
The tarts turned out great, and so the second time I made those tarts I took note of how much things weight. The third time I simply prepared 2 bowls (one for the crust and other for the filling) and chucked ingredients in, zero the scale, repeat. It was much easier.
Start with the dry stuff. If you have to, wipe it out with a cloth (I typically have a cloth I keep with me for general wiping of things). The wet stuff you will pour into the measuring cup, so it’s ok if it mixes. The milk, cream, and water are all going in the same place, so just leave the residue. Hell, you could use a larger cup and just add all the ingredients to the cup as you go.
@@crackpotfox For stuff going to the same place, I could just put the cup on a scale and do the same thing with the upside of zeroing the scale rather than adding in my head for each ingredient.
For the dry stuff I suppose you could just wipe with a cloth, but I don't like washing fabric bc it's work and if you don't do it well there's this smell I personally really despise. Instead I just pour from smaller bags and larger ones I leave a normal spoon in. As I type this out I realize I can just leave a measuring spoon in each bag instead but I suppose that'll cost a few more dollars.
I guess my personally inconvenience is partially cause by me buying a scale rather than a measuring cup that can hold multiple things (instead I only have a set of measuring spoons that goes up to 1 cup), but on balance I still think the scale is more convenient.
Regarding the "dirty dishes" reasoning: You can weigh the whole container, with everything in it, and take out as much as you need. Scales shows negative numbers as well. So even if the mixer is on, you can use a spoon to tage out the flour and add as you need... no dirty dishes.
Meanwhile when you use cups and tablespoons youve got a load of new dishes. Yeah adam's argument is just bad in this video imo.
+
@@thisisit6758 Did you watch the whole thing? He points out that he just uses one cup and one spoon if he can when he cooks and if he needs something like half a cup, he just fills the cup halfway. There is a great video by Internet Shaquille called "how to measure ingredients by eye" that goes over some good ways to do this if you're bad at eyeballing.
I don't see in what world a cup and spoon is "loads of dishes" and I would certainly rather wash a cup in spoon than a large mixing bowl, but both would take all of 20 seconds so who even cares?
Typical Adam. He has strong opinion on something and then tries to find a theory that goes along well with it.
@@thisisit6758 Tbh most of Adam's arguments about how home methods are totally fine and better than professional methods are straight garbage, like how "you don't need knife skills" because it won't save you that much time (practicing knife skills wastes no time either since you can do it whenever you cook, and saving a few minutes every day most definitely adds up over the long run, not to mention it makes cooking for a large party a lot more tolerable), or yelling at people for wanting their macarons to look nice (if I'm making macarons, it's *because* I want to eat something pretty you dumbass).
I call it his "anti-snob" series. Their sole purpose is to let the viewers feel better about themselves, reassure them they don't have to change the way they've always done things and psychologically strike back at imaginary snobs who look down at them.
The other thing about baking recipes and weight is whether or not the recipe writer assumes their audience will be using a mixer or hand kneading. For hand-kneaded recipes, the amount of flour is typically too small because of the assumption that you will put the dough on a floured surface to knead and will incorporate more flour into the dough in the process.
Edit: If you ever want to have a fun time, check out recipes on the Chinese sites like Xinshipu, Meishij, or Xiachufang. Half of the ingredients have the quantity listed as "appropriate amount" (适量), so you'll see recipes that go something like:
Pork: 500g
Soy sauce: 1 spoonful
Shaoxing wine: Appropriate Amount
Sugar: Appropriate Amount
Garlic: Appropriate Amount
Ginger: Appropriate Amount
Salt: Appropriate Amount
White Pepper: Appropriate Amount
Green Onion: Appropriate Amount
In Italy we do the same. We use grams, but it's always multiples of 100 grams, and all condiments and small-amount ingredients are listed as q.b. which stands for "quanto basta", or literally "however much is enough". In fact, we rarely use the word "gram" when cooking, instead using "etto" or "etti" which is one hectogram, or 100grams.
Lol that must be a pain if you can’t cook
@@chuckclare4306 TBH, it really resonates with Adam's comment about forcing you to develop a taste. Following the recipe is guaranteed to give something edible, but if you'd like it tasty, you've gotta improvise with spices. It actually made me use significantly less salt and oil in seasonings.
@@riccardoorlando2262 yeah I tend to not use measurements either and go off taste and what I like, but for beginners it can be really confusing
Sounds like how I usually cook. Like who actually measures spices?
Thin ice buddy, thin ice. But love ya either way!
noice a comment from a verified user
Flour has so much variability because of the air in it. I think flour measurement would be more consistent by weight than volume. The reason we used to be told to sift flour before measuring it was to try to make its ratio of flour to air more consistent. You take the air out of the equation if you measure flour by weight. The same logic applies to why we are told to measure “packed” brown sugar. We pack it to push the excess air out. Measuring by weight eliminates the air.
European recepes that give measurements by weight actually tend to tell you to sift the flour too.
I don't usually bother, but it's supposed to prevent clumps and make mixing things consistently easyer.
@@katrijndekeersmaecker1904, sifting also removes contaminates from the flour. This obviously depends on the quality of flour you are using (which has improved substantially over time).
If you're weighing things as they go into the bowl/pot, you don't have to clean the scales; if you weigh with volume, you do have to clean a measuring cup/spoon/whatever. As long as the scales is easily accessible in the kitchen, I'm gonna pick it every time (or eyeballing with certain ingredients if I'm sure of what I'm doing)
But good arguments, I don't wanna yuck anyone's yum
Yeah, I do way less clean up since switching to weighing even if I'm using something to spoon out ingredients. I only use my dishwasher once or twice a week so if I think I'll need a measuring cup or spoon again then I have to hand wash it. Spoons used to just spoon out ingredients into a scale can just be tossed into the dishwasher, though. And if you plan it right you can use the same spoon for just about every ingredient
That's not universal. There are plenty of times when I can measure a three teaspoons of baking powder, then don't need to wash the spoon for a 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract.
Then other times where I measure out 6 oz of meat on a scale, then need to wash meat residue and juice off the scale before the next ingredient.
Depending on what you're using, 'cleaning' can just be giving a quick wipe with a paper towel tho
You've... never accidentally dumped too much of an ingredient in your bowl???
@@feenyxblue if you can used two bowls, one for measuring and the other for putting all the ingredients after measuring with the scale, then it is not possible to fuck it up
With a scale, I only need to measure within whatever container I have handy (with the tare weight written on the things I use). I don't feel like cleaning my little cups and spoons when I change between measuring different solids and liquids
Yep. Wiping down a measuring spoon every time I need a different spice is painful, but with a scale I can simply dump everything into the same bowl and watch the weight.
With very few exceptions (like measuring rice or water), using a scale is more convenient, more accurate and just all around better. The whole "there is no objectively correct way to cook things" argument is just hilariously bad - sure, you **can** cook a steak in a microwave if you want to and it'll be edible, but I'm not going to pretend it's as good as using a grill in order to prove I'm not "elitist" or whatever.
Yeah. Italian here. I cook many recipes from American people, and I was bored having to convert everything from volume to weight everytime. So I bought a set of measuring cups and spoons and, let me tell you, it's much less convenient than a modern scale, with all the washing!
That's a valid point, but it's disregarding a large part of his thesis, you don't NEED to be so precise that a little extra yeast left over in your spoon is going to mean that your going to miscalculate your sugar. Don't wash your tools in between, either just go with the flow, have a towel to quickly wipe it down, or do your measuring in an order that means the "dirtiest" ingredient (like honey or something that actually leaves behind a serious residue) goes in last. You can even just have one set of tools for dry ingredients and one for wet so that you can avoid any cross contamination.
@@thothrax5621 that is less convenient than dumping everything in one container on a scale. The mental gymnastics to figure out an order alone...
you dont have to clean the cup and spoon before you measure the next item most of the time. lol.
As a former chemistry student it always bugs me if solids are measured by volume, but I agree that it is okay at home in the kitchen. It just hurts the chemistry nerd inside me.
This is such a neat style of content. Informational essays that have the density of a scholarly article, but the appeal and flow of a vlog. I love this channel
I was born into the volume... Moulded by it.
hehehe
Are you a liquid
underrated comment
"I didn't see metric until I was already a man, by then it was nothing to me but blinding!”
For me it's simple. I eyeball when cooking and weigh when baking. In baking, small differences can have a huge impact and you can't adjust as you go. And yes, I am one of those people who bought a "jewelers scale" for their yeast etc.
I feel confident when cooking because I don't think being precise is important. I struggle with baking because precision is important
The amount of yeast doesn’t need to be precise. If you add too much of something just add more stuff
@@sentjojo
I cook most things quite well (tho I can still mess up meats if I don't pay attension), but baking, gehdadaheer.
@@SimonWoodburyForget Based on your comments just now, it doesn't really matter how much years you put in. "they barely save any time at all" for a difference of "10 to 20x more yeast". You also say that it's extremely important. Anyways, I don't bake, and when I do bake, it's some box thing that's hard to mess up.
Switching to weight to make bread has vastly improved my bread in quality and consistency between bakes
I totally agree with point 5,although I am from Europe. I've always been very precise with the things I do, and especially when I started cooking, I hated it, I didn't do it to precisely the right second or gram etc. It was when I started to let loose all those little details I started to be more fluent when cooking, fixing problems or creating new ideas on the spot. Because I've been letting go of the precise measurements I've really started to enjoy myself when cooking, it has become one of my favourite things to do as a hobby.
Leave precision to rocket science. ( :
As a European used to measuring by weight, I bought myself a set of measuring cups and spoons some years ago to make American recipes I found online, and have generally found it about as convenient.
I did get very frustrated by one recipe a few weeks ago though, because it included the directions to use one cup of mashed banana, without even an estimation as to how many bananas that might take.
How do you even measure that? Mash the banana in the cup? Mash a bunch of bananas and scoop? That would be so much easyer to weigh.
The same goes for a cup of diced vegetables of any sort, but I thought the banana took the cake.
The problem with "to taste" is that it is both used with stuff that I can't taste at the current step (e.g. pancake batter) or for food that I never ate before, got curious about, try for the first time and have no clue how the end result is supposed to taste like (e.g. pancakes, yes, I am European and your pancake 101 was the very first pancake I ever tasted). As you have a spoon and a cup, I have two balances in my kitchen: one that goes up to 15 kg with a resolution of 5 g, and one that goes to 1 kg with a resolution of 0,05 g (which is admittedly not something most people around here have). When it comes to the issue of getting many bowls dirty: I usually just do a reverse weighing: put the container on the balance, zero it and scoop out stuff until the balance shows the right amount as a negative.
I personally love to taste pancake batter (or rather crepe batter, I never made pancakes XD), but I'm probably weird ^^
But I agree that seasoning meat by taste especially steacks is hard ^^
@@krankarvolund7771 Yum yum, raw flour and eggs.
@@krankarvolund7771 with the eggs from backyard chicken in my neighborhood that'd be too much of a salmonella risk to me.
@@klte1 Yeah ^^
Well, I won't eat the whole thing, but a little to taste is good ^^
@@ParaspriteHugger how else would you know if its salty enough?
Adam: “Most of these people who believe that there is one objectively superior culture just happen to be born into that culture”
Weebs: “This is where you’re wrong kiddo”
Teaboos and Westaboos also fall under that.
a true weeb is happy they dont live in japan
Japanese culture seems so neat and so fucked up at the same time.
Nothing personal kid...
0:46 Could also call that 1dl of flour, it's pretty common here in Norway for casual recipes
Cool, we us cc (cubic centimeter).
Which is basically ml.
Instead of using one cup and trying to eyeball what half is, wouldn't it be easier to use half a cup and fill it twice when you need a full cup. Same with the spoons. I do this all the time.
A measuring cup for liquids is marked for fractions of a cup. It isn’t difficult to read.
hi adam. i live in northern europé, and while you can get dry yeasts here, everyone uses, and every recipe calls for fresh yeast. maybe it would be interesting to do a video comparing dry yeast, active dry yeast and fresh yeast?
Wait. Where in northern Europe? I'm from Norway, and recipes with fresh yeast are few and far between here.
And also explain what is the difference, I have no idea at all XD
@@TheCrathes Sweden, it's all fresh here.
Weird, in my country both forms of yeast are used but I did notice the elderly mostly use fresh yeast. Personally I like the dry stuff better because is more convenient and stays good for quite a long time. I'm also from Europe
@@cedricl8215 Interesting, wonder why it's so different
personally I measure how much coffee I drink by BPM
[Heart]Beats Per Minute? Blood Pressure Medication? 😆
Underrated post
My reasons for weight measurements:
1) To have reproducible results. I don't "aim" for specific weight of a certain ingredient, but I measure how much i ended up using of it; so that I can make fine adjustments next time
2) To track calories.
But for spices and salt and such, of course I always go by taste and have the feeling of how much I need.
Well the first can also be done by volume, but the second I wholeheartedly agree with
I always used volume measurements with my US cookbooks and had accurate results almost all of the time. However, when I began using UK and European recipes I was "forced" use metric weights and measures. I have found this invaluable when weighing dry ingredients and have converted almost all of my US recipes to metric. This is especially useful when measuring flours, grains, and some sugars, as well as many other minor ingredients.
I just don't measure at all. I just pour it in till it looks right... but most of my recipes are just in my head, and because of my food allergies, I've had to adjust them so much that they barely resemble the original recipe that inspired them...
He wasn't arguing about metric, and made that clear multiple times. The argument was volume vs weight. Completely different discussion.
As a french person : Most of home cooks here don't use a kitchen scale that much, Measuring glass that mesure "weight" of several different ingredients are a much more common occurence. Cooking by weight is usually restricted to baking or for cooking enthousiast. (Recipes are mostly writen in grams tho. But a lot of people measure thoses grams by volume.)
Same here in Brasil
Similarly, in Brazil, most of the time I see people using volume, although generally using the cups + spoons system. Weight measurements usually only come as additional information, but many recipes lack it
That's almost everywhere. Adam is on crack if he thinks people take out their scales to measeure how much grams of onions they want to use
Would someone mind making a compilation video of “every thesis idea Adam has ever given?” Thanks!
A playlist would be better as it keeps the revenue stream to the Original Creator.
@@NishithThakkar that would kind of defeat the point though. That’s like saying sports center shouldn’t show the highlights they should just re-air the game. The point is that he has said “if you’re a student looking for a thesis” a lot, so it would be funny to see all of them together in one compilation video. It would not, however, be funny to watch 67 consecutive minutes of Adam videos in which he happens to mentions that once. Maybe you aren’t familiar with compilation videos? There is a good one about Adam but he is being terrible at cooking, you should check it out.
The point about feel and how it should look is spot on. I started making pasta from a recipe in a well known chef’s book. I have never used anywhere near the amount of flour called for. Over time I have adopted the method of using a mound of flour and a number of eggs based on how much I want, and then kneading it to the consistency that works.
thank you for voicing this balanced approach. There are pros and cons to both and I love that I’m equipped to handle volume or mass depending on the project!
Adam, it's actually super common for millions of Europeans to measure out "100 ml" of flour instead of weighing it. We just call it "1 dl" of flour, because the metric system is cool that way.
Im living in a small middle europe country and I dont know a single person what uses volume to measure baking ingredients.
@@mynoxx01 I live in a pretty large country and we do it tbh
Honestly, I've never saw "one dl of flour" ^^'
Even my measure-glass who is obviously measuring volumes is gradued in weight XD
I swear, it is so weird reading how many european countries make proper use of the metric system. Around here you won't see a deca or hexa nothing. We have grams and kilograms. Milliliters and Liters. What, can't count past 100?? What do you need all them complicated divisions for? /s (don't ask about meters and centimeters).
As for mass vs volume.. I just checked an old 70s cookbook I have in the house; same page, one recipe called for 500ml of oil, the next called for 1/4 kg. So.. consistency is for suckers?
Give me everything in grams and I'll be happy. I got a good, 5kg 0.1g ±0.3g, scale and I'll never let it go. I use it for cooking, baking, fitness powders (those little scops are garbage), calorie counting when on deficit, ect.
Yeah those scoops are stupid. "24 carefully levelled scoops of powder..." Screw that, my blender has a built in weighing scale.
@@dananskidolf why would you use 24 spoons. At that point you use a cup.
@@ShyFly221 Certainly it would've made sense for them to include a bigger scoop, but I suppose this was as big as can comfortably go down into the tin. I don't know why the tins are so small.. Maybe it's so you don't avalanche too much while pouring it..
When I started using weight for flour I started understanding how the volume looked throughout the whole process. So in that sense it helped me think for myself. When I'm not measuring with the scale I use my hands to grab what I want and it's been turning out pretty good and only getting more intuitive.
But you need a new reference point to build intuition for every new ingredient
Adam, please keep putting my weight measures in your recipes, alongside with your volume ones, and we’ll all be happy.
I actually found that a kitchen scale reduced my dishes at least for some things.
I use a scale when it's conducive to what I am making - measuring different liquids into a microwave safe bow, and volume for everything that is repeated use - a 1/3 cup measuring cup lives inside my oats jar, a 1/8 teaspoon inside my instant coffee.
I didn't, and now, instead of throwing my dishwasher-safe Pyrex cups in the wash, I have to meticulously clean a piece of electronic equipment so that I don't damage it
The day I learned that I could weigh ingredients by weighing in the whole container/bag, zeroing the scale and then measure by how much I take away made me also use WAY FEWER DISHES too. Or just measuring lots of things that will go together anyways in the same bowl and just zeroing between ingredients, works like a charm
@@gabtroublemaker how did I not think about this!! Thank you!
What’s so frustrating for Europeans cooking US recipes is that a lot of us don’t own those measuring cups/spoons. So what I always have to do is to convert recipes to weights just to find out that nobody on the internet can tell me how much half a teaspoon of instant yeast weighs. That’s why it’s much appreciated when content creators include weights (measured by themselves, not just converted)
Buy them on Amazon
i cant put my finger on how but the above reply feels like a dick move
@@cyan.6399 it's because I already have my kitchen full with perfectly fine bowls etc not gonna replace my stuff
If you have a measuring jug you can mark the cups on the side with a sharpie: for one cup you would put a mark at 237ml
I get this 😅 the most reliable sites I've found are mass sellers of the product in question and scientific sites like EngineeringClick's article on milk density or FAO/INFOODS Density Database version 2.0
or in cases like salt and white sugar that can weight differently between companies-
looking at the back of the package :P Good luck mate! ^-^
Here, here, Adam! I think the last statement fits much of life, for me. Your comfort zone is a great starting point. With a good foundation of measurement in general, you can cook edible food. Once, the basics are mastered through repetition, you can learn new things, like the use of both volume and weight. And, that is what this is all about. You have given me courage, skills and knowledge that have helped to broaden my culinary expertise. And, helped save money! Though we occasionally order pizza, your original cast iron pizza recipe (with tips (sp.) from Chef John and Kenji) is our go-to Friday night pizza recipe. At under $10 when we make pizza, versus the $20 to $30 for ordering pizza, we save $10 to $20 a week, potentially saving over $500 per year. That can buy a lot of vinegar chicken legs...
I'm from Japan, one of the most meticulously pedantic countries you'll ever see this side of the Pacific.
I usually like using measurements when I'm unsure of the process and require a rough idea of what amounts of each ingredient is needed, and I usually go by weight.
Once I get used to that though, I usually just eyeball it, and usually that means volume. I rarely bring out a scale for food I'm used to cooking, and what little measuring I do is usually with my sense of taste.
I'm not making chemicals at an industrial plant, I'm making goddamn gravy and chicken.
P.S. Also when I do imperial measurements I literally use cups, teaspoons and tablespoons. It's already not precise imo so I just save the headache and use what people actually used before standard measuring cups and spoons. Often times it works fine, well within the margin of error if the only goal is to make food.
Yeah if you're used to it then you can start eyeballing and playing with amounts. If it's nrw then you need an accurate base to start with.
In Sweden, recipes for home cooks absolutely tell you flour measurements in volume, mainly dl. Thats dl = decilitre = 100 ml.
I rewrite my recipes to pure ml instead of the Swedish traditional scoops dl (100 ml), tsk (5 ml), msk (15 ml), kryddmått (1 ml). I find it easier to multiply or divide the batch and also to eyeball measurements with other scoops ie using half-ish a dl for 45 ml. It also guards against misreading tsk as msk and getting very spicy meatballs! And to the point of the video: it's much quicker to scoop than to weigh!
Yeah Finland too. Which makes sense
@@jaylindelycke6727 I get you!
But I also really like recipes that I can make with only a dl measure.
Same in Denmark
Same here in Norway.
I thought you used “The Glug”
Le glug
@Ryan Gilmore as the Spanish would say.
Sounds pretty German to me. Die Glüg.
@@fiatlux8828 as the German would say.
you mean "goulag" right ?
wait you use the same measuring cup/spoon to scoop out every ingredient without washing it in between? wont that cross contaminate the ingredients? eg scooping out flour right after scooping out cocoa powder without washing it in between?
Liked the video for the Augustus 'quote'. Great content, Adam!
I am from metric world and I appretiate this video. It goes through whats good, why its good and the biases we came to terms with. Good one Adam! Also I gotta mention that from the time I watch you I started to keep bottle of cooking white wine in the fridge. It has been working great.
We just keep adding stuff until our ancestors nudge our hand gently and tell us "that's enough, child"
Me, an Asian: *cooks*
My entire bloodline: That is enough soy sauce for exactly 2 people.
Really appreciated your explanation for reason #6. Fantastic video.
Oh, dear Jesus, when i saw those orange cups, I got flashbacks to my Gram's kitchen, as we inherited those after her passing. And I'm getting flashbacks to cleaning those as well as getting wooden spoons touching biscuits before their ready
Adam, I want to add that in Europe, small quantities and liquids are usually measured in volume, but we are talking about tea or table spoon sized.
Nobody measures in cups.
Right! Thats true
We use dl measurements here in sweden! All measurement kits have spice spoon, teaspoon, table spoon, 0.5 dl and dl
Yeah, it seems to vary depending on country. The measurement kits GoogelyeyesSaysHej mentioned are very common in Finland too and many recipes use deciliters for flour etc. And you can get some bigger metal measurement cups that are 2,5 or 5 dl, but they are so big, that I'd use them mainly for liquids.
I mean you use Liters the standard family sized soda bottle how is that difernt then cups?
All of this comes down to one factor, which is called "depends on what you're cooking"
Most cooking (not baking) is more 'art' and doesn't need exact measurements. Baking, on the other hand, is more chemistry and therefore needs more exact measurements for repeatability.
@@wesleywalker4709 Baking also depends on the humidity of the air, your oven, your flour, your salt, and a million other factors that you have to compensate for with touch feel and taste. So as long as it's in the general ball park with larger measurements, it will work out the exact same with volume or weight.
@@wesleywalker4709 i measure everything by weight and dont use recipes because calorie tracking becomes practically useless if you go by volume.
Thank you for your video, it's very interesting 👍🏻
Thank you! you've explained everything that has often frustrated me... when I cook off a recipe.
Great video, but I would like to add that cheap glass-topped scales are on amazon for less than $25 which lets you place your hot pan directly on it and they also display 0.1-gram increments with surprisingly decent accuracy. The only downside to this newer wave of scales is that they tend to only weigh up to 3-4kg, instead of the 5-10kg of other kitchen scales.
Which is great. I'm just not willing to drop $25 on something I'll use somewhere on the order of two or three times a year.
@@Great_Olaf5 Well, if you start cooking and baking mostly by weight and not by volume you will use this scale very often. For me it would be quite useless to buy a set of measuring cups unless i would start cooking recepies based on them.
@@lenab5266 And I can recognize that, however that situation is not my own.
When I have bought cheap food scales (less than about $35-40), they are horribly inaccurate with small weights. Like, if I don't calibrate it for a few weeks, suddenly I'll stick a clean nickel on there and it will tell me it weighs 5.4 g or 4.7 g or whatever. Like, really really bad. Maybe I just haven't found the good cheap ones.
@Apsoy Pike "weighing" as in "the max weight they can measure"
I'm from Europe, Finland to be exact, all our recipes say "1dl flour, 2dl sugar" etc. we dont use grams except for butter (our butter packages have lines showing how much is how many grams so its easy to cut the butter and melt exact amount)
Bruh I once bought some cream that was imported from france and then I saw this dl thing on it . Back than I didnt know what it was bcuz I didnt know the short form for decilitre. Sheesh was I stressed .
Same in Sweden
The same from Sweden, all Nordic countries have the same measure when baking or cooking food. Sometimes we use weight but often only when volumes is not possible.
@@yahyashaikh7151 Stressed? That is the most bizarre thing to be stressed about
Yeah, in France we use all the factor prefixe (except da deca), l, dl, cl, ml and hl (as said no dal). m, dm, cm, mm, km, dam (damn it, we use decametre in construction). kg g mg (ok, i've never seen hg, dag, dg and cg).
Please a detail video of different types of kitchenwares you have
The recipes I usually follow are typically using volumetric measurements, but often a mix of the two. The problem I sometimes have is that volume isn't suitable for all ingredients. Especially when an ingredient can be in many states and the recipe doesn't state which one you should use. A half a cup of butter is difficult to measure when it's solid, I could melt it but that would alter the amount significally.
That scale with fractions instead of a decimal hurts to even look at lol
That shit belongs on measuring tape... measuring tape that I will never use because cm/mm is so much more convenient, if not hilarious when you call out for a cut on a job site that needs to be 157.35cm.
@@Sigmagnat650 Being born in Canada and working in construction, I much prefer imperial to metric.
A long time ago I read a good post from a gentleman making a point that 12 is much more divisible and 'natural' than 10. Also that there are 12 hours in a day and not 10. The jist was that it's easier in practical use.
@@Sigmagnat650 More convenient then saying a human in 5 foot 9 inch instead of 179 Centimeters?
@@GreenBlueWalkthrough More convenient for short people who like to sound taller, I bet.
Just be careful not to make the same mistake I did by measuring by volume as in sound. At least I know now that tomato sauce in a glass jar makes my family members scream louder than pasta.
additionally that adds more conversion factors between Moms yelling and standard metric scolding
New subscriber here! I love the analytical take-aways when it comes to food. Please keep it up as I plan to embed into more of your fine content 😌
As someone born to the metric worl i tend to use weight instead of volume.
Sure, many recepies often contain wordings like "a tablespoon" or "a teaspoon", that means we use our regular spoons that'd we use for eating as well.
For the sake of precision I bought a set of tablespoons and teaspoons that weigh out the exact standard and I'm pretty happy with it.
Whether I use weight or volume depends on whether it is liquid or solid.
Liquids can be measured extremly precisly by volume, while by weight solids are often more consistent.
You can't rely on weights or volumes for seasoning, in that case I always always always go by taste.
More flour: when baking, exactly how much flour you need in a dough will depend somewhat of how dry the flour is. And that, in turn, can depend on how long it has been sitting on the shelf, how the mill has treated the grain, the moisture content in the ambient air etcetera etcetera.
bread is so complicated, except it isnt at the same time. It makes you wonder how the lay person could bake bread every day on the north American frontier (i understand people in other places bake bread obviously, but this is the only kinda culture i am 100% on).
@@fredjones5698
I wouldn’t say bread is complicated, but it DOES require that you pay attention and maybe take notes. If you do it enough, even that becomes second nature as all of your senses start to participate and you learn what ‘feels’ right.
10:16 that spoon is rounded. filling it up 25% would get you FAR less than a quarter teaspoon because the geometry of it means most of its volume is closer to the top of the scoop. How the hell can you argue that measuring by volume is visually accurate when its easy to get tricked by simple geometry?
like I'm pissy because I dont WANT to think for myself. I dont' have the energy for that. All I want is recipes I can follow down to the gram that are designed for home kitchens, so that way I know I'll get consistent results without having to rely on my own nonexistent planning and thinking skills. ingredients are too expensive to waste on failed experiments.
well also at that scale he brings up a valid point about scales not being sensitive enough for that, so you either go ahead and use a small 1/2 tsp measure or something, or you need to choose a more sensitive and likely more expensive kitchen scale.
Literal NPC.
I always get more than I bargained for when I check in with your channel! That was real "food" for though ha ha (sorry). I think you have a really good point about how it's more fun to judge things by eye - measuring things is always a chore, and an extra thing to wash to boot. What's more, you're right when you say that it makes sense to draw a distinction between cooking for a single meal vs cooking in batches, something which makes all the difference to the amount of utility there is in measuring.
I think the "you can see it and it's easier to experiment with" argument falls apart when you start talking about things that pack differently like flour. I've seen variations for 1 cup of flour from 120g to 170g. Also keep in mind that your viewers can see your product but they can't feel it - for things covered in flour on the outside like many bread doughs judging that internal texture is hard until you've made it right a few times and having gram measurements can make the difference there.
If you find a baking recipe that doesn't seem to "work" for you using the traditional volume measurements, I recommend doing the flour by weight and playing with that number.
part of learning to cook is also just learning how the ingredients work and how the product should feel at different points, if you're learning to make bread and expect it to work perfectly on every try, your expectations are out of wack in all honesty.
Long live the Empire
Meow
"when you look at something in terms of weight, you're doing a weight to volume conversion in your head"
Ok BUT, when you're thinking in terms of volume for a recipe, you're still doing a conversion in your head, whether it's space-it-takes-up-in-your-visual-field to cups, mL, or fluid ounces. As someone who's very bad at eyeballing even linear sizes, let alone volumes, I don't think humans inherently know how big a cup or a liter is. Look at how "well" people compare cup sizes between fat, short glasses and thin, tall glasses. Either way, what measurements seem intuitive is all lived experience and what you're used to.
Exactly XD
I am absolutely lame to measure things with eyes, wether it's weight or volumes ^^
Anybody who thinks they're good at eyeballing measurements with any kind of accuracy is delusional.
@@WatchMeSayStuff You don't think it's possible for someone to cook a recipe multiple times and learn how to eyeball most of the ingredients to get an end result that is indistinguishable from one where they measured every ingredient?
A key difference in the idea in that quote, is that, when measuring by volume, you are using a consistent reference frame. A cup of flour, cheese, water, or whatever is still the same volume and looks the same. With weight, 100 grams looks different depending on what you are using and its density. So it is easier to learn to recognize a cup, and from there guess at half, third, quarter and so forth, than learning what 100 grams of every ingredient looks like (which no one does). So I do agree with you, humans probably don't inherently know but if you use volumes enough I think you could get pretty accurate or at least consistent between recipes that you make.
@@johnallens479 It's easier, when you're born in the volume system ^^
Personally I have no idea what a cup of cheese is, or a cup of flour ^^'
One trick you neglected is that you can measure the before and after weight of the ingredient instead of the mixture.
If I wanted to add something to the mixer I could weight the bag put in some stuff then measure the bag again to see the negative value.
Also, you can still eyeball stuff even if you don't have experience with it, because it will for sure have the net weight on the package so you just take whatever fraction you need.
For example, if the package is 100 grams and you need 30 grams, you just take slightly less then a third.
Indeed, this is what I do if I need to add something to the mixing bowl mid mixing. Just put the container on the scale and set to zero.
Hi Adam! I really adore your channel. It's so helpful for learning how cooking works, something I was unable to do for a long time.
Do you, or any of your viewers, have suggestions for alium substitutes? Garlic and onions are a staple of home cooking... however I have a severe alium intolerance. It's not an allergy, I don't enter anaphylaxis, but it's an intolerance bad enough to leave me locked in the bathroom for literal hours, ejecting from both ends and in enough pain to make me sob. So anything seasoned with a high amount of garlic, or just eating onions, is off the table for me. I know there's not "one true substitute" for anything in cooking, however I'm getting really tired of virtually every chicken recipe I try tasting like cardboard because I can't add garlic or onion powder. :/
I know this comment is ten months old, but on the off-chance you never got any good answers anywhere else: infused oils are generally gut-safe for people with IBS and similar intolerances, as they cut out a lot of non-ibs-friendly compounds, but i'm not 100% on whether they'd remove alium (and I can't find any good info one way or the other online). Garlic infused oil is common enough now to be found on grocery store shelves, and both onion/shallot- and garlic-flavoured oils are easy enough to make at home. Might be worth testing.
The real question is...
How will this affect my brownie skins
I worked in a commercial prepared food processor. Everything was done by weight with scales that had to be checked regularly, I now measure most things by weight. I’ve seen the light measuring by weight is the way to go.
When it comes to dry goods I’ll use volume up until a tablespoon. When I’m trying to get something like “half a cup of flour” it’s tough. Is that hard packed? Sifted before measuring? Dry stuff is just less precise by volume. Weight allows for a much easier way of knowing for sure. Especially with baking.
Liquid I go by volume because they always fit the container by definition.
Tonight, I'm gonna make a bread experiment! Your channel has inspired me to try things in the kitchen, because after all "You do you"! I believe experimenting for yourself is the best way to know what works for you.
0:43 Actually Swedes measure Flour in Deci Liters lol
And grams, and tablespoons, and teaspoons
Same here in Finland. 2.5dl of milk, 8dl flour, one egg, 100g of salted butter, 1 tsp of ground cardamom etc.
Also here in Denmark, I think it is a Nordic brotherhood thing.
@@lukasjuul4487 No one likes you, Denmark.
Yup, was just about to comment that myself. Those in-between measurements like deciliters/decimeters/hecto(gram)s seem to get ignored a lot when Americans talk about metric units, but they are very commonly used here. I measure flour in deciliter cups pretty much every time I use it. Then again, I'd probably use a kitchen scale if I actually owned one...
Adam mentions why I like cooking with weight. consistency. I own one of these jeweller's scales and use it all the time. I'm basically the "in-house chef" tweaking and developing recipes to adjust to my taste and ingredients. The scale is mainly there for documenting what I did the last time cooking a dish and then the next time I know exactly what to put in to get the desired results.
This. cooking and baking by weight makes it easy to consistently replicate dishes. Some people like this for their home cooking.
and that's completely fine. he isn't arguing with you, he just prefers not to do things by weight, and you do.
@@yidavv The "robotic thinking" point kind of detracts from the idea of it being about preference tbh. Implies measuring by precise numbers somehow negatively impacts your whole outlook on life.
@@CraftsmanOfAwsomenes sure, but towards the end literally says that he likes it probably just cuz he was raised with it. and people don't need to justify the way they cook, let people do their thing. but he is right about the robotic thing. thats just one side of using weights tho, just like themusicfan96 said, he finds enjoyment in tweaking recipes to his liking. the robotic thing is just how adam feels if he did it,
@@yidavv I'm saying his earlier point detracts from his later point. I was aware his conclusion was that it was about preference in the end.
A video I would love to see from you Adam, is whole grain vs refined grain and why people are using refined grain in the first place, as well as health benefits and such. I think it would make for a very interesting topic.
Adam, you are an inspiration. If I ever have sons, I hope they grow up to be like you. I appreciate you and your content. Take care of yourself man.