Measurement Madness

Out of frustration with some posts I'd seen on the web, I posted recently about measurements and how we should try to use them properly. Natasha, of Tastorama (a blog you should read, if not for the recipes, at least for the delicious pictures), commented that she, too, had similar frustrations. She mentioned an "American cup".

See, in my innocence, I believed that one cup was one cup the world over. From her comment, I sensed that my innocence was going to be shattered.

So, I did a little Google Fu and looked for "cup measure". The first entry to come up was from Wikipedia. I'm not a big fan of the site on some subjects (democracy is good ... but when a published scientist can't make corrections to an article about his own work ... that's bad). But, for stuff like this, they're fine. Here is the article that came up.

Holy Volumetric Schizophrenia, Batman! A cup is not a cup the world around! Oh, I feel my innocence slipping away. A cup can be 200ml, 250ml, 240ml, and other odd amounts depending on where you are and who you are talking to. And, there are official and unofficial cups.

What a mess!

I think I'm going to try harder to move to grams and liters now.