I was always wondering. ..so I thought you can give me an answer. How comes that is is so popular to measure everything in volume instead of weight. Okay milk and stuff I sort of understand, but flour, sugar chocolate etc? Besides all the extra washing up - Yikes - it's not as accurate. When I bake I have my scale and switch between gram and (in case of liquids) ml. It's so convenient and precise at the same time. When I think of pouring sticking syrup into a cup before pouring it into the bowl I need it to be, washing finger/spoon and cup before the next measurement...I would go crazy over that. So why? Why do you do that, lol?!

It really doesn't make sense especially when you scale recipes up, but that is the way Americans are taught.  I have a scale and even though I know weighing is better, if it's a smaller recipe I go back to volume.  It's just comfortable, but when you talk about less clean up I know you're right!

most of my family recipes are in volume, they didn't have scales to use so they used cups.  I find weight much more accurate but hate the idea of measuring out loads of recipes.  So... family recipes are in cups and new recipes are in weight.  For my polish mother in law, she ended up using volume after she came here ... finding scales for kitchens wasn't common in the 1950's.  Her version of a cup is what ever size she had but she always stuck to that one cup.  My thought is pioneer women just used what they could to bake and carrying a scale across the country wasn't too practical.... so most used coffee cups to measure.  Any historians out there???  

No no...I get that point and you're absolutely right. They didn't have scales like 100 years back. But this is a modern world and digital scales are cheap and widely available. 

So I'm hoping for someone  (from America) to give me an answer why people still use cups today.

I mean you could easily recalculate the measurements into grams for old recipes, there are even free conversion programs online.

Or is it just us humans being lazy and stick to what we know? 

I'm actually really really curious to get some answers...

No no...I get that point and you're absolutely right. They didn't have scales like 100 years back. But this is a modern world and digital scales are cheap and widely available. 

So I'm hoping for someone  (from America) to give me an answer why people still use cups today.

I mean you could easily recalculate the measurements into grams for old recipes, there are even free conversion programs online.

Or is it just us humans being lazy and stick to what we know? 

I'm actually really really curious to get some answers...

I don't know but I agree and want to add thermometers. I'm going to start giving all my friends who are getting married a scale and a thermopen if they've registered for anything baking (or cooking!) related.

Really, I think most people have never heard of weighing your ingredients.  I've baked my whole life and was taught to bake with measuring cups.  It wasn't until I got into custom cakes and began watching tutorials that I'd ever heard of weighing ingredients.  Any cookbooks I have list the ingredients with cups.  Even when you watch most cooking/baking shows on tv now, they still use cups.

These days, I weigh everything and it's so much easier and more accurate.  AND LESS DISHES TO CLEAN!!

i use cups, always have.  regarding less dishes to clean, don't you put the ingredient on a plate/saucer/bowl/glass first before you weigh? you'd still need a knife to cut your butter or spoon to take out your shortening etc etc.. won't you still be washing the same number of utensils/dishes regardless of what measurement you use? 

It's just the system taught in America.  I homeschool our son, and his school has some lessons on metric measurements, but they are short and quick.  So even though he might "learn" the other way, if every one around him, including me most of the time, uses volume, that's probably the way he's going to be most comfortable with.  It's just an ingrained part of American life.  Same goes for Fahrenheit and Celsius.  That's just what's taught in schools 

@mattyeatscakes  No, actually you scale out your first ingredient, hit the tare button, scale your next, hit the tare button and so on.

ahhh.. lol.. i don't have a kitchen scale so i don't know how that would work. hehehe