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Re: help

"Mike Avery" <mavery@mail.otherwhen.com>
Sat, 08 Feb 2003 10:56:59 -0700
v103.n009.13
Arthur Altstedter <altstedter@shaw.ca> wrote:

 > what is size of 4 oz of butter
 > what in cups is 5 oz of flour               ?
 > what is 25 g in size re tsps
 > what is the weight of 1 cup of flour

These aren't as easy to answer as you might hope....

4 oz of butter is 1/4 pound, or 8 tablespoons, or one stick of American butter.

Measuring solids by volume is difficult because most solids are ground and 
thus compactable.  So, depending on how the flour is put into a cup, 5oz of 
flour could be as little as 3/4 cup or as much as 1 1/2 cups. It depends on 
the flour and who is measuring it.  Some people just scoop flour out of the 
bin.  This is the most compact, depending on the condition of the flour in 
the bin or bag.  Others lovingly pour a tablespoon of flour at a time into 
the cup.  This is a lighter cup.  Others sift the flour, especially for 
cakes, before they measure.  This is the lightest cup.

How much a teaspoon or tablespoon of something weighs depends on what it 
is.  A teasapoon of feathers is pretty light.  A teaspoon of mercury is 
pretty heavy.  I was having problems weighing salt on a digital scale, so I 
dusted off my old photo-lab triple beam balance. Here's some weights and 
measures... of salt:

1 TBSP = 15.75 gr
1 tsp = 5.25 gr
3/4 tsp = 4.43 gr
1/2 tsp = 2.6 gr
1/4 tsp  = 1.8 gr
1/8 tsp =  .9 gr

So, 25 grams of salt would be around 4 3/4 tsp.

What is the weight of 1 cup of flour?  It depends, again, on how it's 
filled.  If you spoon your flour, you'll get around 4 1/2 ounces of flour 
in a cup. If you scoop and level, you'll get about 5 1/2 ounces. 
Personally, I scoop and then wiggle the cup a bit to level it. It's almost 
instinctive now, and I don't think about it, I just do it. And I get 5 1/2 
ounces per cup.

Hope this helps,
Mike
-- 
Mike Avery
MAvery@mail.otherwhen.com