Measuring & Units
I was surprised to find out how many different standards there are for what I thought were entirely standardized units. Between the major anglophone countries there is nowhere complete agreement in the actual sizes of the common cooking measurements. For gallons, quarts and pints there's even a full 20% size difference between the US and the UK. This is something you'll definitely have to consider when reading an international recipe or buying measuring cups and spoons.
Germans use similarly named units (Teelöffel, Esslöffel, sometimes Tasse) which are about the same size, but understood to be very rough estimates, akin to a pinch or a splash. Since they're so inexact, hey tend to use the actual named utensils from thier kitchen (teaspoons, table spoons, a tea cup, etc.) and many are not aware that an exact measurement could be meant by these terms.
On this site, I'll effectively be using the Canadian scale, but always with conversions.
| Measure | Australia | Canada | UK | US | US FDA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Teaspoon | 5 ml | 5 ml | 5 ml | 4.93 ml | 5 ml |
| Dessertspoon | 10 ml | — | 10 ml | — | — |
| Tablespoon | 20 ml | 15 ml | 15 ml | 14.79 ml | 15 ml |
| Fluid ounce | — | — | 28.41 ml | 29.57 ml | 30 ml |
| Cup | 250 ml | 250 ml | — | 236.59 ml | 240 ml |
| Pint | 570 ml | — | 568.26 ml | 473.18 ml | — |
| Quart | — | — | 1,136.52 ml | 946.35 ml | — |
| Gallon | — | — | 4,546.09 ml | 3,785.41 ml | — |
Cooking by Weight
This is one of many reasons it can be easier to cook by weight. If you aren't in the habit, I'd recommend trying your hand at it. In the modern world, it's not so fiddly as some people imagine. With a digital kitchen scale, you can simply set your mixing bowl on it, zero the scale and pour in your ingredient until it shows the right weight. Thats much easier than measuring out 2 2/3 cups of something and less dishes to do afterwards. You also dont have to worry about what exactly "packed," "heaped," or "scant" mean to this author. 400g of flour is always 400g of flour. The one thing I do usually use volume for is spices. A cheap kitchen scale won't be able to handle the amounts you'd typically use and you'll need a precision scale for them.
I try to include weights in recipes here wherever I can.