Weights and Measures

[dmcavanagh]

This is mainly for Pete....what weight do you consider a full cup. I weighted out a cup of water at 234 grams, but I would like to know what you consider the correct weight for a cup of flour. A bag of flour always list the weight of a 1/4 cup as 30 grams, thus a full cup should be 120 grams. Is this the weight you use when you calculate hydration % for someone when they post a recipe. Hand scooping a cup always weights higher than 120 grams.

[c0mpl3x]

a 'cup' of flour isn't accurate for weighing.   fine for cookies and other stuff but pizza is serious business

[dmcavanagh]

a 'cup' of flour isn't accurate for weighing.   fine for cookies and other stuff but pizza is serious business

I already am aware of that cOmpl3x, I'm just looking for a reference point. Somebody says a "cup" and that doesn't mean much. Just want to know if there's an "industry standard" for the weight of a real "cup".

[BrickStoneOven]

The way I found out the weight was packing a metal measure cup as much as I could and level the top. I got 172g from that.

[dmcavanagh]

The way I found out the weight was packing a metal measure cup as much as I could and level the top. I got 172g from that.

That's way too heavy for a cup, there's 454 grams in a pound and a pound is roughly considered 3 1/3 cups. If you multiply 172 X 3.33, you're way over 454grams!

[apizza]

For what it's worth, I've settled on 136 grams.

[BrickStoneOven]

I used a metal 1 cup measuring cup and packed it with flour and leveled it. That's what it came out to, not my fault. And all flours have a different weight characteristic, I used and packed Caputo Pizzeria flour to 172g.

[dmcavanagh]

Wow, we're all over the lot on this one, no wonder I see such wacky numbers when people start talking about hydration %, no ones using the same amounts, so in truth the numbers are meaningless.

[cornicione54]

Wow, we're all over the lot on this one, no wonder I see such wacky numbers when people start talking about hydration %, no ones using the same amounts, so in truth the numbers are meaningless.

Exactly the opposite actually. Where people refer to baker's percentages, they are using weights (not volume measurements). Hydration is simply the ratio of weight of water wrt weight of flour.

[dwighttsharpe]

You actually answered your own question in your op. One cup is 120 grams, or 4.23 oz.

This is about what one would consistently get if a mass of flour(typically ap) is fluffed, lightly spooned into a volume measuring cup, and leveled off with the flat side of a knife.

This is the way, pretty sure, the USDA determines flour should be measured, King Arthur Flour, etc.

The key though, in reality, when a recipe is listed with volume measures, you usually don't know how the recipe author weighted their cup of flour.

Video on how to measure flour:

Can't post the link, but KA flour has a video (youtube) on how to measure flour.

[TXCraig1]

The wide range of responses to this post (120g - 172g = 52g or 43%!) illustrate why it is not a good idea to measure by volume when accuracy and precision are important.

For what it's worth, I approximate KABF at 655g/l = 155g/c

Craig

[BrickStoneOven]

Wow, we're all over the lot on this one, no wonder I see such wacky numbers when people start talking about hydration %, no ones using the same amounts, so in truth the numbers are meaningless.

Most people use a scale to do the measuring and not volume measurements. I just measured a cup of unpacked and packed Caputo Pizzeria. Unpacked-144.3g Packed-173.3. I used my dads gold scale so I think it is pretty accurate.

The wide range of responses to this post (120g - 172g = 52g or 43%!) illustrate why it is not a good idea to measure by volume when accuracy and precision are important.

Craig

Very true

[dmcavanagh]

Exactly the opposite actually. Where people refer to baker's percentages, they are using weights (not volume measurements). Hydration is simply the ratio of weight of water wrt weight of flour.

But how often do people actually get out the scale and weight out each time. I suspect that people may get lazy and just scoop the flour out free hand and saw to themself, "yeah, that's 3 cups", when in reality it may be 3 1/2 of 3 3/4 or whatever. And perhaps when they do that,  they already have the wrong assumption of what the real weight of a cup is.

[PizzaHog]

For those without a scale, or to see how volume measures differ, here is a helpful link for those who may not have seen it before.
http://tools.foodsim.com/
I believe forum member RedNovember created this.

[BrickStoneOven]

I scale every single time I make pizza.

[buceriasdon]

Yep, I do also. Now that I have a decent scale, why not use it? Anymore if I look at a recipe that uses cups, I move on......
Don
PS. Good topic!
[quote auth
or=BrickStoneOven link=topic=11786.msg109261#msg109261 date=1283713358]
I scale every single time I make pizza.
[/quote]

[Jackie Tran]

I guess until Pete arrives, here's my 2 cents...

Back sometime when I created the easy to remember basic NY pizza recipe, I spent a little time weighing out different flours using 2 different measuring cups.  I made measurements of unpacked flour leveled by cutting across the top with a butter knife.  I found that my 2 different measuring cups gave slightly different measurements.  I made multiple measurements with both types of measuring cups and took the closest average. 

AP flour : 125-130gm
BF flour : 135-140gm
Hg flour : 140-150gm

[dmcavanagh]

Tran Man, thought I'd be hearing from you! OK, try this on for size. I have 5 bags of flour in front of me, they are GM ap unb, Bob's Red Mill whole wheat pastry flour, King Arthur Italian-style flour, KA unb. white whole wheat, and KA unb. bread flour. On the "Nutrition Facts" label of each one, is this:
Serving Size 1/4 cup (30g).!!!

[dmcavanagh]

I just scooped loosely spooned flour into a measuring cup which I had on my scale (yes I did cancel out the weight of the cup). When I got to 120g (30 x 4), I still had plenty of room left in the cup.

[dmcavanagh]

One of the reasons I'm asking this question is because I have seen some statements about hydration ratios in post both here and elsewhere that just don't seem realistic. Getting into the upper 60's and l
lower 70's and you can have some damn wet doughs, doughs which are almost impossible to work with. Handling wet doughs is tough, getting them dressed and off a peel is a nightmare. The aggravation alone would negate the joy of the finished product, no matter how great it might be. But, I think that some mismeasuring and or miscalculating may be more common then people realize or want to admit. Of course, if the measurements are as far off as some of the numbers I've seen in this post seem to be, it would explain some of my suspicions. I'm hoping that Pete gets in on this and gives exact numbers of what would be needed to produce a 70% hydration dough, then I'd like anyone who was interested to take those numbers and scale it out to make that dough and see how it handles. I think some people will be in for an eye opener!