Dry Measuring Cups vs Liquid Measuring Cups
I recently received this email from a visitor asking,
“If a recipe calls for four ounces of something, how do you know if they mean four ounces on the food scale, or in the measuring cup? What’s the difference between dry measuring cups and liquid measuring cups, why would you need different cups, wouldn’t they measure the same amount? This may sound stupid, but not to me. Thanks for your time.”
I asked my friend Chef Jennifer Field, a graduate of Orlando Culinary Academy, Le Cordon Bleu Culinary Arts School, who offered this response,
“This is a very good question; many people don’t stop to consider that there is a difference at all between liquid and dry measures, so good for you! My general rule of thumb is if the recipe calls for 4 ounces of a liquid, use a liquid measuring cup. If the recipe calls for 4 ounces of a dry ingredient, use your scale. Now to your other individual questions:
What’s the difference between dry measuring cups and liquid measuring cups?
Dry measuring cups are meant to be filled right up to the top and then leveled off with a straight edge of some sort. Liquid measuring cups generally have a pour spout and are made to be filled to the gradations on the side of the cup (1/4 cup, 1/2 cup, 6 oz, etc.) rather than being filled right up to the top.
Why would you need different cups?
Wouldn’t they measure the same amount? Well, for one, measuring a liquid by pouring right to the tippy top of the measuring cup is just asking for spilling and mess. For another, it’s really hard to level a dry ingredient (think flour or oatmeal) if it’s not right up to the top of the measuring cup.
Also, for liquids, the mantra “a pint is a pound the world around,” basically holds true within a couple of wee fractions of an ounce either way. This means that 1 pint of liquid (16 ounces) = 2 cups of liquid, whether that liquid be milk, water, or oil.
With dry measures, pesky settling must be taken into account. I wasn’t a physics major, but it’s a matter of mass versus weight: depending on how you use your dry measures (do you scoop up a cup of flour or spoon it into the cup? Do you sift first? Do you pack your flour down?) a cup of flour can vary in weight from about 3.5 ounces to about 5 ounces. That’s a lot of variation.
My advice is to measure dry ingredients with a dry measure once and weigh the outcome. Use it in your recipe and see if you like the way it turns out. If so, write down the weight of that particular ingredient and use the weight every time that particular ingredient is called for.
For example, the way I fill a one cup measure, all purpose flour weighs 4 ounces. I like how this works in my recipes, so I will use 8 oz. of all purpose flour for 2 cups in a recipe, or 3 ounces of all purpose flour for 3/4 cups in a recipe.”
Hope this helps, and thanks for asking such great questions. I bet this will help other folks with the same questions.
on May 20th, 2008 at 8:25 am
Good article, but one minor correction regarding the physics of weighing dry goods. Mass is a function of the amount of matter in something. Weight is the amount of force than this stuff exerts downward due to gravity. On the moon you’d “weigh” one sixth as much as you do on earth, but you’d have exactly the same mass. Since we all live out entire lives on earth the concepts of weight and mass are used interchangeably and often confused. Measuring dry goods is really a function of weight and volume as a cup is a measure of volume which can vary dramatically from baker to baker.
on May 21st, 2008 at 12:51 pm
Thanks for the correction–like I said, I’m not a physics major; I’m a pastry chef:-)
on May 22nd, 2010 at 2:11 am
I went to williams sonoma the other day. And i asked the lady if they had any liquid measuring cups and then she went over and showed me a bunch of dry measuring cups. And i was like aren’t these for dry ingredients? and she was like a cup is a cup, you can use any of them it doesn’t matter….i just stood there amazed.
on August 27th, 2010 at 7:32 am
This is all good stuff but my recipe calls for a pound of flour……my measurig cup is “liquid” how can I measure reasonably well using this cup?
Hi Rosina, weighing flour is the most accurate way of measuring flour because of all the variables as discussed in the post but 1 pound of flour = approximately 4 cups. - RG
on September 28th, 2010 at 12:03 pm
Is French’s Bold N Spicy Deli mustard considered dry or liquid when measuring? I measured in a dry cup.
Thanks
Me, I would think of it as wet but I would check further. - RG
on October 26th, 2010 at 12:45 pm
You can not POUR mustard, therefore it is a DRY measure.
on August 27th, 2011 at 5:00 pm
Really good information, Thanks! I am raising a baby calf that was rejected by his mother (he was a twin and she would only accept one calf) and I needed my dry measurement of milk replacement powder to be pretty accurate. This article really helped me out. Thanks again, Jo Ann
You are welcome Jo Ann - RG
on September 5th, 2011 at 9:00 am
If a recipe calls for 6oz. DRY, how much in cups equal 6oz pasta?
Jody - My general rule of thumb for pasta is that 2 ounces of dry equals about 1 cup. So, for your recipe that calls for 6 ounces of pasta, you’ll end up with about 3 cups of cooked pasta. Hope this helps. - RG
on September 5th, 2011 at 1:42 pm
So, if I measured a cup of flour in a liquid measuring cup and a cup of flour in a dry measuring cup would they weigh the same?
Kateri - Even if you measure two separate cups of flour in the same measure, dry or wet, they might not weigh the same. This is because flour’s weight is effected by how much water from the atmosphere that flour absorbs as well as how packed down–or aerated–it is before measuring. A “cup” of flour can weigh as little as 3.75 ounces and as much as 5.5-6 ounces, depending on how you scoop the flour and the other factors I mentioned above. Aside from that, if you measured a cup of flour in a liquid measure and in a dry measure, they would weigh different amounts. This is mainly because, aside from what I’ve said previously, you cannot level off the flour in a liquid measure, and flour, unlike a liquid, does not seek its lowest level. It mounds up. If you shake the liquid measure to level off the flour that way, the flour gets compacted and thus will weigh more than the dry measure. In a dry measure, you can just heap the flour up in the cup and then level it off with a straight edge, such as an icing spatula. My advice to anyone who asks about weights versus volume measurements is to buy a scale. This is for both accuracy and consistency. I weigh a cup of flour at 4 to 4.5 ounces. That way, I don’t have to worry about leveling off, packing down, humidity or anything else. 4.5 ounces is 4.5 ounces, whereas a “cup” might not always be a “cup.” - RG
on September 14th, 2011 at 7:48 am
Thanks for the very informative information. I have been doing a lot of pickling the last few days (using old recipes) and I have run into some challenges with the measures. This information helps tremendously.