Hi! Peter Reinhart directed me to your group after I mailed him a few
questions. Perhaps you can help me with a few things?
1. I have just moved back to the UK - my bread-making experience has all
been in Holland. Does anyone know a good mail-order supplier of flour &
other ingredients in the UK?
2. I am looking for a really good recipe for crumpets?
3. Being British - I always groan at American recipes using cups. Have
estimated things in the past - but can someone please tell me the exact
volume equivalent either in imperial or metric?
Thanks!
[[ Editor's note: We addressed the measurement question recently (v102n044
on 30 Sept 2002). It's worth repeating with some additional information
about the "cup".
The "How Many?" website:
http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/index.html
tells all the gory details of units of measurement.
In the US system, the avoirdupois ounce of weight is 1/16 of a pound, which
is 7000 grains. A grain is originally the weight of a barleycorn. The
avoirdupois ounce is about 28.35 grams.
The US fluid ounce is 1/16 of a pint. There are 2 pints in a quart and 4
quarts in a gallon. The US system uses the traditional British wine
gallon, defined as 231 cubic inches by Parliament in 1707. The US fluid
ounce is about 29.57 milliliters.
The British Imperial fluid ounce is 1/20 of an Imperial pint or 1/160 of an
Imperial gallon. The Imperial gallon was defined by Parliament in 1824 to
be exactly 277.42 cubic inches, which is the volumn of 10 pounds of water
under certain conditions. The imperial fluid ounce is about 28.41 milliliters.
One milliliter of water under certain conditions weighs one gram.
So a US fluid ounce weighs 1.04 avoirdupois ounces and an Imperial fluid
ounce weighs 1.002 avoirdupois ounces.
The cup is a traditional unit of volume used in recipes in the US. It is 8
fluid ounces or approximately 236.6 milliliters. In the US the same cup
measure is used for both dry and liquid ingredients. In Britain, the
"breakfast cup" or "tumblerful" is sometimes used by cooks. It is 1.2 US
cups or about 284 milliliters.
Reggie & Jeff
]]