Weight of Liquids
With the advent of accurate electronic scales it has become more common to weigh liquids for use in recipes, avoiding the need for accurate volumetric utensils. The most common liquids used in cooking are water and milk, milk weighing approximately the same as water in the low volumes used in cooking.
1 mL of water weighs 1 gram so a recipe calling for 300 mL (≈ ½ Imperial Pint) of water can simply be substituted with 300 g (≈ 10 oz.) of water.
1 fluid ounce of water weighs approximately 1 ounce so a recipe calling for a UK pint (20 fl oz) of water can be substituted with 20 oz of water.
More accurate weight equivalents become important in the large volumes used in commercial food production. To an accuracy of five significant digits, they are:
| Measure | Weight (water) at 4.0 °C (39.2 °F) |
|
|---|---|---|
| grams | ounces | |
| 1 mL | 1.0000 | 0.0353 |
| 1 fl.oz. UK | 28.413 | 1.0022 |
| 1 fl.oz. US | 29.574 | 1.0432 |
| 1 pint US | 473.18 | 16.691 |
| 1 pint UK | 568.26 | 20.045 |
| 1 litre | 1000.0 | 35.275 |
Even a home cook can use greater precision at times. Water at 4.0 °C (39.2 °F) may be volumetrically measured then weighed to determine an unknown measuring-utensil volume without the need for a density adjustment.
| Ingredient | Density (g/mL or av.oz./fl.oz.) |
|---|---|
| Sugar | 1.2 |
| Flour | 0.7 |
| Salt | 1.2 |
| Butter | 0.9 |
Read more about this topic: Cooking Weights And Measures
Famous quotes containing the words weight of and/or weight:
“Ah, mon cher for anyone who is alone, without God and without a master, the weight of days is dreadful.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)
“As deaths have accumulated I have begun to think of life and death as a set of balance scales. When one is young, the scale is heavily tipped toward the living. With the first death, the first consciousness of death, the counter scale begins to fall. Death by death, the scales shift weight until what was unthinkable becomes merely a matter of gravity and the fall into death becomes an easy step.”
—Alison Hawthorne Deming (b. 1946)