yed with American recipes and the stupid really get annoyed volume measures .

Borrowed from Sue Quinn of the Telegraph .
31 March 2017 • 4:07pm

Dear United States of America. Could you please buy some ruddy kitchen scales? Here in the UK, we love your food, we really do.

We guzzle your dirty burgers, crave your Cronuts and scoff your hot dogs like there’s no tomorrow. But your recipes are giving us heartburn. Why on earth do your cookbooks and food websites cling to cup measures when kitchen scales are much easier, more precise and infinitely less faff?

Take cucumber, for example. At this moment I am looking at a recipe in a US cookbook that calls for six cups of chopped cucumber. What does this mean? Do I chop the cucumber big or small? Do I cram it in or fill it loosely? Is it OK if some of my cucumber sticks over the top? Are we talking an American cup (about 240ml), an Australian, South African or Canadian cup (250ml), or do I just grab my favourite mug because I don’t know you’re referencing a special calibrated vessel?

This isn’t the end of the world when it comes to cucumber, of course, or other ludicrously cup-measured solids like grated cheese or chopped chocolate. It might just mean the flavour and texture of your dish won’t be as good as it should be. But apply this vagueness to baking and there’s trouble afoot.
Person pouring sugar into a bowl
Many non-US cooks are confused about what exactly constitutes a cup Credit: Alamy

US food website Serious Eats – which has seen the light and offers both cup and weight measures in its recipes – once asked 10 people to measure a cup of plain flour into a bowl. Depending on the scooping method, how it was packed and whether they tipped every last bit out, that cup of flour weighed anything between 113g and 170g. (Apparently, according to websites devoted to the science of weighing flour, the official weight of 1 cup of plain flour is 120g and the correct technique is to spoon it into the cup, then level off with a knife). This is a huge disparity; someone might make a cake with 40 per cent too much flour in it. I’m thinking that'd be a pretty dry cake.
etc etc.
I have just struggled with a "half cup of butter" .