Cooking/baking -how do you do it?
 

Just wondering what measurements you Brits here in canada use. Do you still stick with weight measurements or have you switched over to cups etc.
I love British food magazines and cookbooks but I just am so unfamiliar with weighing stuff that I rarely use any recipes.(I drool over the pictures) I know what 1/4c of butter looks like but 50g completely throws me off. I have bought a cheap scale but it is just hard to change-I try and convery British measurements but that can be time consuming.

I am metric in almost everything but I starting cooking and baking in the 70's and am just stuck in my ways.

So what do you all use?

Re: Cooking/baking -how do you do it?
 

I have a flat scale - Salter Aquatronic. You just shove the bowl/jug on and it automatically adjusts to zero. I got used to the measurements then - as you learn where ingredients sit in particular bowls etc. I still cannot bake to save my life, but everything else eventually worked itself out.

Re: Cooking/baking -how do you do it?
 

We don't use metric at all. Goods here are priced and sold in pounds and ounces and recipes are published in pounds and ounces cups and so on. For example, I currently have a three pound roast in the oven at 350F (as specified by Julia Child); I'd only convert the values to metric if I was filing a report with a government inspectorate.

Metricalation was a great fear of my other half when she enrolled in a professional cooking course. She was greatly relieved to find that Canadian schools use imperial foods as she'd been alarmed by the idea of metric pigs and cows. We eat organic where possible and assume there's some sort of genetic modification involved in metriculating crops and animals. We don't want any of that around here.

Re: Cooking/baking -how do you do it?
 

I use blobs, wallops, pinches, hand fulls, shakes, splashes and sprinkles.

Re: Cooking/baking -how do you do it?
 

This thread is about cooking.

Re: Cooking/baking -how do you do it?
 

**spits coffee all over my screen** :rofl: :eek:

Re: Cooking/baking -how do you do it?
 

So, what did you think it was about eh? ;)

Re: Cooking/baking -how do you do it?
 

Well, when I see anything written by 'peas' I think sex.

Re: Cooking/baking -how do you do it?
 

Especially when she talks of "blobs, wallops, pinches, hand fulls, shakes, splashes and sprinkles".

Kinky. :p:rofl::rofl::rofl:

Re: Cooking/baking -how do you do it?
 

Those words ooz sexiness don't they.

Re: Cooking/baking -how do you do it?
 

Only if spoken/written by the right person. ;)

You see I've met HWP. :thumbup:

Re: Cooking/baking -how do you do it?
 

Or is that 'ooze', can't remember the spelling, it's a long time since I've done that.

Re: Cooking/baking -how do you do it?
 

Yes I know you've met her. She told me.

Re: Cooking/baking -how do you do it?
 

What? "oozed"? :confused::eek::eek:

Re: Cooking/baking -how do you do it?
 

In my dreams.

Re: Cooking/baking -how do you do it?
 

Buy the packs of butter that have the weight divided up into sections of 50g. They have lines printed on the paper wrapper so you only need to cut the amount you need.

Also, for anyone that may live in higher altitudes you should be aware that you may need to add a little extra baking powder to get the baked item to rise properly, even when using all purpose flour.

Re: Cooking/baking -how do you do it?
 

That'd be fine if we were in France but I have here a stick of President's Choice Fresh Churned Unsalted butter, it's sold by the pound and labelled for easy cutting in cups, table and tea spoons. I suppose if you wanted 50g you could find out how many inches approximates to a gram and measure but it'd be all together easier to cook properly in the first place.

Re: Cooking/baking -how do you do it?
 

LOL abput some of the replies. trust you Brits to veer the thread off course. :p

Umm yes if the butter here was marked in grams I could just cut a 50g piece off but everything is in cups here.
i am a very experienced cook and baker and so I can often just eyball 1/4c of something but when I look at a Britsh recipe I am lost.
I just wondered if you al still used British measurements here or if you had converted to imperial.

Re: Cooking/baking -how do you do it?
 

That's where I'd get a bit worried re. cup measurements :unsure: Cups come in all shapes and sizes don't they and the US cup measurement would probably be quite different from how we'd see it. I wonder if they'd use a larger cup?

I still use pounds and ounces when I bake, though I should really have gone metric years ago. It's a pain to convert, though I am slowly moving across.

Re: Cooking/baking -how do you do it?
 

We have a friend who lives near Courtenay and she tells me that she has to reduce the temperature on her oven slightly from that used in the recipe or everything burns. Something to do with the altitude I think!!:unsure:

Re: Cooking/baking -how do you do it?
 

Only for their bras.

Re: Cooking/baking -how do you do it?
 

3x spoons of sugar
2x 34C cups of milk...:)

Re: Cooking/baking -how do you do it?
 

:D

Re: Cooking/baking -how do you do it?
 

:lol:

Re: Cooking/baking -how do you do it?
 

I use all sorts (no - NOT Bassetts..lol)

Baking is a science (exact), but cooking is an art. I weigh for any British recipes and measure for CDN/US ones. Even that is a pain sometimes though, 'cos US/CDN measurements sometimes differ, too!

Re: Cooking/baking -how do you do it?
 

I'm also fairly bilingual. Use a Salter Aquatronic with tare for UK recipes as it does oz, fl ozs and metric.

For US/Canadian recipes, I use jugs with cup measurements that I bought in Toronto as I was fed up not being able to translate.

It doesn't actually matter what you use so long as you stick to the same measurements throughout the recipes as it's the ratio of each ingredient that is important.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Muffins-Fast.../dp/0952885824

This book has a good section on the differences between flours and measurements, plus the recipes work really well!

I have to say I am not good with metric, though!:D

Re: Cooking/baking -how do you do it?
 

I bought a glass measuring jug for a couple of $'s when I got to Canada and it has Metric, imperial and cups on it so I can use all recipes... or could until my daughter dropped it last week!.

Re: Cooking/baking -how do you do it?
 

How do you know how big a cup is supposed to be??
Do "they" mean a little posh bone china tea cup, a regular cup or mug, or maybe a latte mug?
I have no clue on that one.

:unsure: :unsure: :unsure:

Re: Cooking/baking -how do you do it?
 

It's 8 fl ozs......

Re: Cooking/baking -how do you do it?
 

1 Cup = 250ml = 8fl oz

whether that's eight U.S. or English fluid ounces though, I don't know. Because a U.S. gallon is 3.78 liters, whereas an Imperial (English) gallon is 4.54 liters - fun, innit?...lol

My American measuring cup reckons that a cup = 240ml. My Canadian measuring cup says a cup = 250ml :unsure: On that basis, Canadians should be fatter than Americans, not the other way around.....:rofl: