100ml of milk weighs differently, depending upon the milk whether skimmed, semi or full. So if a recipe you are given asks for 100ml of milk as yours did then you have no idea what volume 100g of milk is. So, specifying the weight of a liquid is just as bad as specifying a cup of say sugar, as the amount you get is imprecise. I’d always stick to grams for weight and ml for liquids. As for Question 2, for the purposes of a recipe. it doesn’t matter very much at what temperature as long as the liquid doesn’t freeze or boil. Room temperature would be appropriate when cooking.
I guess you are referring to me Dr M, and I seem to be getting a lot of ridicule over the simple idea of measuring all ingredients in grams. I can only see positive reasons to do so and NO reason not to (apart from inertia or laziness)
You said “precise taste is more important” and that is exactly my point.
I was watching a YouTube video of how to make Kouign-Amann by the chef of a very famous French restaurant. Interestingly, he talked about grams of flour rather than cups but when he added some milk - he added so many grams of milk (not millilitres) which immediately grabbed my attention because he was now singing from my hymn sheet. The clincher came when he said the recipe needed some salt so he added 5 grams of salt – not “a pinch” or “to taste” or a “sprinkle”. There it was in black and white, accurate, un-equivocal, five grams of salt.
He then explained that he does not actually do the cooking in the restaurant. He has a team of chefs who do it for him. He designs and supervises the recipes. He spends a lot of time and effort doing so and uses his vast experience to get the recipe as perfect as he possibly can. Then, he has to communicate what he has created to his chefs so that they can reproduce the same dish every time to the same quality.
So to answer AMs question “Does anyone worry about uncertainty in the measuring of ingredients”
My answer is yes.
If you have a café or restaurant you are surely interested in the direct costs of every portion you serve.
If, like my granddaughter, you have diabetes you are definitely interested in the amount of carbohydrate in your meal.
If, like me, you have a weight problem then the number of calories in a meal are of consummate interest.
I am sure there are many other parameters some people may need to monitor depending on what their dietary anxieties are such as gluten, salt, cholesterol. If the original recipe is in grams, each individual can have their personalised lookup table in a spread sheet to measure exactly what they want.
If everything is recorded in the format shown in my Scones Recipe further up this thread then it can be linked very easily to a spreadsheet to AUTOMATICALLY give all that information for any recipe with no effort.
I have made a short YouTube clip to show what I mean for a very simple “Jam on Toast” recipe. Obviously this is calculated steam fashion but I hope it shows what happens automatically when I link any of my recipes to my spreadsheet.
They would all weigh within 1 gram of each other and be approximately 3% heavier than pure water but could vary in volume by as much as 5% depending on temperature.
If I specify 100 grams of milk it will not matter whether it is full fat, semi skimmed or skimmed or what temperature it is.
Not at all Mik. This is light-hearted banter and what people on SF love. (hence the critair reference). The whole idea is to see how far we can go with “angels on pinheads” arguments and people are delighted that you have given them an excuse.
Go with the flow and add to the light humour - such fun in what at the moment is an incredibly troubled world. Thank you for posting.
I reckon most non-engineers would struggle with the difference between precision and accuracy.
Do 100g of feathers and 100g of lead weigh differently as well?
100ml of milk will certainly weigh differently depending on the fat content but 100g of something is 100g and on Earth weighs in at about 1 Newton regardless what it’s made of.
Thank you for your reassurances Sue but they are not really necessary. I am more concerned with inadvertently giving offence than receiving it. I have a fundamental principle which is that I do not allow anyone to offend me but if they insist, they must give one week’s notice in writing before I consider it.
I have a bit of a reputation locally as a nutty professor. To paint a picture for you, imagine a combination of the characters of Doc from the film “back to the future” and Frank Spencer.
I have been using my “GRAMatical method” of recording recipes for well over 20 years in various iterations so I have worked out its value by now.
Well I don’t often log in to reply but!!! With most recipes you can tinker and substitute to your heart’s content and still usually end up with something edible. With experience you always end up with something edible. So handfuls and pinches are fine! (Except for beginners)