What conversion data do you use to convert to volume on small amounts?
Matt,
My conversion data in general comes from various sources. My favorite place and the one I go to first is the nutritiondata.com website. Since that site doesn't cover every food ingredient, I use the information on labels of ingredients even though the numbers aren't the most accurate because of rounding and other possible factors. For ingredients for which I am unable to find any weight/volume information, or for items like dried oregano or basil from my own plants, I use the 300-Z scale. I will also use that scale to cross check the data from various sources to see how well they compare. Most of the conversion data I have collected over the past few years has found its way into the various dough calculating tools (
http://www.pizzamaking.com/dough_tools.html). The expanded dough calculating tool, at
http://www.pizzamaking.com/expanded_calculator.html, has the most pizza-related ingredients listed--over forty. In some case, like vital wheat gluten, where there are multiple brands, I average the numbers. Some items, like sugar, are also generic and can mean ordinary table sugar, raw sugar, light brown sugar and dark brown sugar (the labeling information is generally the same). I have found the volumetric data on many of the items to be accurate enough that I don't use my 300-Z scale to weight them. This includes yeast, salt and sugar and most other ingredients used in small quantities. If there is a lot of oil, I weigh it; otherwise, I use the volume measurements. There are a few items that can't be weighed on my 300-Z scale because they are outside of the range of the scale or I am not sure of the reliability of the reading. An example would be 1/64 or 1/128 teaspoon of yeast. For items like that, I use mini-measuring spoons such as those shown at
http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,5583.msg47264.html#msg47264.
Peter
