Measurement Question - Liter Or Kilo?

Baking By LindaF144a Updated 21 Oct 2011 , 1:09am by auzzi

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LindaF144a Posted 11 Nov 2010 , 5:36pm
post #1 of 11

I need help from anybody that weighs their ingredients and does not use the imperial method like we do in the US.

I have a book printed from Canada called The Complete Baking Cookbook. I wanted to try some of the recipes, especially the one on the cover. As I weigh my ingredients I was going to make them that way. The author does give the measurements in both our American only system and the rest of the world system. My scale does both so that is not a problem using what the rest of the world uses. I can't remember the darn word for that at this second.

The recipes says 4 cups of cake flour or 1L. I thought L was liter and that was liquid measurement. Am I wrong? It's grams and kilos for dry, right? If it isn't L for dry measurements, does anybody want to take a guess what amount he means?

I haven't check the web for an errata on the book yet. I just have enough time right now to put a question out here and see if anybody else can help me.

10 replies
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Martina Posted 11 Nov 2010 , 10:21pm
post #2 of 11

Liter is the unit for volume for both liquid and dry ingredients. Do you have a measuring cup for liter?

Edit: I read that 1 kg flour has 1,8 Liter volume. So then is 1 Liter flour aproximately O,555 kg or 555 g.

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brincess_b Posted 11 Nov 2010 , 10:31pm
post #3 of 11

what the heck?!?! cups are weird enough, but seriously, litres?
a quick google suggests that 4 cups of flour is approx one pound of flour - although the abreviation for pound is Lb, not just L (normally anyway!)
xx

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LindaF144a Posted 13 Nov 2010 , 1:26pm
post #4 of 11

Thank you guys. I see what they did now. They gave the equivalent in using a cup measurement in liters. I am used to getting a cup measurement and then a weight in grams. It threw me off.

You ate right, it is hard enough trying to figure things out and them use liters and mls for the dry ingredients. I think I will have to figure out the weights on my own.

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ctirella Posted 13 Nov 2010 , 1:46pm
post #5 of 11

i think liter is for liquid and kg is for dry and lb is pounds or kg.

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Cakechick123 Posted 13 Nov 2010 , 3:15pm
post #6 of 11

one cup in metric measurements is 250ml, so 4 cups will be equal to 1 litre or 1000ml.
HTH

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Mietta Posted 19 Oct 2011 , 1:18pm
post #7 of 11
Quote:
Quote:

one cup in metric measurements is 250ml, so 4 cups will be equal to 1 litre or 1000ml.




The problem here is that 'litre' is an incorrect measurement for something that has to be measured by weight.

Flour is not measured by volume in the metric system.

You have to convert again from volume to weight in the metric system; that is, 1 American cup would have to find an equivalent in GRAMS, not litres.

In the American system, it can go both ways making it very confusing as Americans tend to measure everything by volume. In addition, in the American system, a cup does not equal 250ml icon_smile.gif

Finally, to add to the confusion, part of the interpretation of a recipe is to determine what type of ingredients are being used because if, for example, you have a recipe which says white flour and you opt for wholemeal, you're going to end up with very different measurements as the density of each flour is different. So you must WEIGH not measure.

Another reason why any baking book should always run with the international system: METRIC.

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Panel7124 Posted 19 Oct 2011 , 4:33pm
post #8 of 11

We always measure dry ingredients in g/kg, liquids ml/l. On my combo measuring jug 0,5 l (for liquids) equals to 310 g (for dry ingredients, specifically flour. Sugar is different). It means 620 g of flour should be 1 l ??

On the other hand, if 1 cup of white sifted flour is 125 g x 4 is 500 g...
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_grams_are_in_a_cup

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Mietta Posted 20 Oct 2011 , 2:59am
post #9 of 11
Quote:
Quote:

On my combo measuring jug 0,5 l (for liquids) equals to 310 g (for dry ingredients, specifically flour. Sugar is different). It means 620 g of flour should be 1 l ??




No.

Combo jugs illustrate the equivalency for water which is the only substance that has a guaranteed changeover accuracy.

Dry ingredients, such as flour, have different densities and you must weigh each which is why you don't have a standard equivalency. For example, packed brown sugar is different to white sugar is different to molasses is different to icing/confectioner's sugar. All are sugar but all have different measurements as does flour, oats, etc.

In the metric system, dry ingredients are weighed (weight) and liquid ingredients are measured (volume), not both.

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Panel7124 Posted 20 Oct 2011 , 9:13am
post #10 of 11
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mietta

Quote:
Quote:

On my combo measuring jug 0,5 l (for liquids) equals to 310 g (for dry ingredients, specifically flour. Sugar is different). It means 620 g of flour should be 1 l ??



No.

Combo jugs illustrate the equivalency for water which is the only substance that has a guaranteed changeover accuracy.

Dry ingredients, such as flour, have different densities and you must weigh each which is why you don't have a standard equivalency. For example, packed brown sugar is different to white sugar is different to molasses is different to icing/confectioner's sugar. All are sugar but all have different measurements as does flour, oats, etc.

In the metric system, dry ingredients are weighed (weight) and liquid ingredients are measured (volume), not both.




Maybe you just didnt get my point. Ive been using metric system for the last 40 yrs, just from when I was born (3450 g lol sorry, just couldnt resist) and understand it quite well. What I wanted to point out was the incoherency in the recipe. He used metric measurements incorrectly as many people have already stated measuring flour in volume units instead of weight units - and the reader would be more than confused if applied literally measuring 1 liter of flour you would add 620 of cake flour to the cake mixture (or if you want to be so precise actual cake flour Barilla farina di grano tenero tipo 00 per crostate e bicotti from my kitchen cabinet that I used to measure with a combo jug and weighed at the same moment. Just to avoid any misunderstanding as it could have other density than your cake flour icon_wink.gif). Measuring according to the imperial system you would have added more or less - depends on the brand of YOUR cake flour - 400 g (sorry, yesterday I gave the wrong example using SIFTED WHITE FLOUR as it was the first closest thing I found according to http://convert-to.com/499/convert-cake-flour.html 1 US cup of cake flour is even less 100 g). The difference is quite significant. If Id measure my cake flour using the incorrect measure of 1 l (which I personally wouldn't do) as I dont use the imperial system - and the weight was not stated in grams - Id add 620 g of my Barilla cake flour to the mixture. The author (I suppose its G. Geary) should probably stick with the imperial system that seems to suit him better instead of playing with metric system which he seems to do not understand quite well. However, the cake on the book cover looks quite yummy (is it The Complete Baking Cookbook: 350 Recipes from Cookies and Cakes to Muffins and Pies?).

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auzzi Posted 21 Oct 2011 , 1:09am
post #11 of 11
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Quote:

the author (I suppose its G. Geary) should probably stick with the imperial system that seems to suit him better instead of playing with metric system which he seems to do not understand quite well




The author is not "playing" - different countries have different methods of writing recipes.

For example - this method of notation is common in Canada: both measurements are volumetric [one Imperial and one Metric*]

Lovely Lemon Pound Cake
1 cup (250mL) unsalted butter
1 cup (250mL) sugar
1 Tbsp (15mL) finely grated lemon zest
4 large eggs at room temperature
2 tsp (10mL) pure vanilla extract
2 cups (500mL) all-purpose flour
1 tsp (5mL) baking powder
1/4 tsp (1 mL) fine salt
Glaze:
2 Tbsp (30mL**) lemon juice
2 cup (175 mL) icing sugar, sifted

Other metric countries like South Africa use a mixture of weight and volumetrics:
Carrot Cake
180g cake flour
10 ml cinnamon
8 ml bicarbonate of soda
5 ml nutmeg
3 ml salt
750 ml grated carrot
300g sugar
250 ml oil
100g walnuts, chopped
3 eggs, beaten

While in Europe, they use volumetrics also: but based on decilitres not mililitres ... or a mixture of weight and volumetrics both:
Gräddtårta med citron
Cake layers:
3 eggs
1 1/2 dl sugar
3/4 dl flour
3/4 dl potato starch or cornstarch
lemon curd creme
3 dl cream
approx 320 g lemon curd
3 dl fresh or frozen berries + sugar
or 1 1/2 dl lightly sweetened berry jam
Decoration:
1/2 recipe lemon curd creme
100 g apple jelly
3 dl cream

* 250ml is an indicator that it is based on 1 cup equalling 250ml, not 240ml[US metric] or 200ml[Asia metric]
** 2 tablespoons equalling 30ml is an indicator that it is based on a 15ml metric tablespoon not an Australian 20ml metric tablespoon ..

Unfortunately all Metric Systems are not the same, just as UK Imperial is not exactly the same as US Imperial.

When reading a recipe, you use one system or the other.

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