Question about measurements

[BainsBane]

Is an 8 oz pack of mascarpone the same as a cup? Or are weight and fluid ounces unrelated?

[applegrove]

1. Find out how many ounces are in a pound of butter. Then use the cup scale

on the pound of butter packaging to compare. That is what i would do. That way you can convert a solid to cups and see if they match. I don't know how many ounces are in a pound as we use metric here in canada.

[Staph]

3. One pound of butter

is four 8-ounce sticks, or, if you're like me, eight 4-ounce half-sticks. One full stick is one-half cup. Two full sticks is one cup.

[BainsBane]

4. It's the same

a oz by weight = a fluid ounce.

[DURHAM D]

2. Did you ask Alexa? nt

[Laelth]

5. Those are both measures of volume.

They are the same.

-Laelth

[mr_lebowski]

6. Not sure that's entirely correct ...

Pretty sure an ounce is a measure of weight.

And what is referred to as the volume of 1 oz = the volume of 1 oz of water when weighed

If someone asked for 5 ounces of lead, and you gave them the volume of a cupful of lead ... you'd be giving them way too much

It's only when whatever your dealing with has a similar density to H2O that ounces are an effective substitute for volume.

[Laelth]

7. oz. is both a measure of weight and volume.

In the cooking context above (when what’s being measured is a liquid or a solid that can “fit” into a certain amount of space within a measuring cup) then oz. refers to a volume. 4 oz. of rice (a quarter cup) refers to the volume that the rice will occupy in the measuring cup.

That said, a 6 oz. steak is measured by its weight and not its volume.

-Laelth

[mr_lebowski]

8. This is an assumption based on whatever you're likely to be cooking with

Has a density very close to that of water.

Ounces is a not a measurement of volume, strictly-speaking.

See my edits

[Laelth]

9. I don't think that we disagree.

I will even concede that your explanation is more precise.



-Laelth

[mr_lebowski]

10. I love a consensus ... nice chatting :)

Laelth

[Major Nikon]

11. By definition oz is a measure of weight

Cup, Tbs, tsp, etc. are measurements of volume.

A cup is only 8oz when measuring water or some other substance of identical volume to mass as water.

Examples:

8oz of milk is 1 cup.

8oz of rice is about 1 1/4 cups.

8oz of flour is about 1 7/8 cups.

In the context of the OP 8oz of a store bought substance is always by weight and in the example of mascarpone will most definitely not be 1 cup.

[Coleman]

12. Wet measurements are not the same as dry measurements in the imperial (what we as americans) use

A wet cup and a dry cup is not the same. This is why our system sucks as compared to metric.

[mr_lebowski]

13. The fundamental problem is that ounces measure mass but fluid ounces measure volume

And people confuse/interchange them when they are not, strictly speaking, interchangeable.

And to make matter even more confusing, there's two standards of what constitutes the volume of a fluid ounce:

A fluid ounce is mainly used to measure the volume of fluids. The abbreviation that represents it is fl oz.

There are different types of fluid ounces used, mainly troy and avoirdupois. The mass of a fluid ounce of water is approximated as one avoirdupois ounce. This measures around 28.35 grams.

There are two measurement standards for fluid ounces today. One is the imperial fluid ounce, and the other one is the US customary fluid ounce.

An imperial fluid ounce is equivalent to 1/160th of an imperial gallon. It is also equivalent to 1/40th of an imperial quart, and 1/10th of an imperial cup.

A US customary fluid ounce is equivalent to 1/128th of a US gallon. It is also equivalent to 1/32nd of a US quart, and 1/8th of a US cup.

The fluid ounce is used to measure the volumetric quantity of water, wines, beverages, and more.

If you look at a food recipe in most of the rest of the world, they will always use mass (g) measurements for solid or semi-solid (like, say, brown sugar) ingredients, and reserve the use of volume (L) measurements only to liquids.

As soon as you vary from the above standards, both systems actually have the same inherent flaw ... namely, incorrectly ignoring the differing densities of various things you might cook with.

[BainsBane]

14. FYI: 8 oz is more than a cup

of mascarpone.