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Comment by Mikeb85 | Hacker News Reader

Volume measurement for flour is inconsistent and annoying.

Metric and by weight is by far the best format for recipes and best way to measure ingredients.

In professional kitchens it's all we ever used (I used to work in some top restaurants, talking world's 50 best back in the day).

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Oh, that's good to know. Maybe it's time to invest in a kitchen scale. (And I'll buy an actual cookbook while I'm at it, so I won't have to deal with this SEO disaster any more..)

EDIT: Hey, wait, I actually found a good website with recipes: http://online-cookbook.com/goto/cook/rpage/000DDF

and a good search engine: https://search.marginalia.nu/search?query=pancake+recipe&pro...

A scale makes for less dishes too. Just reset the scale and pour next ingredient into the bowl. No need to use another spoon to dig from the flour or sugar bag.

The reason why volume measurements developed in the US rather mass measurements can be traced back to Frankie Farmer’s The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book of 1896. The first cookbook with accurate and repeatable recipes. Volume measurements were a practical matter. Every kitchen had measuring cups. No one had a scale.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boston_Cooking-School_Cook...

And now you can buy a digital scale for like $20. It's the 21st century, weight measurements are way more accurate, easier too for small quantities.

It's almost as if legacy recipes don't exist, nor are very important to people, nor have working knowledge built around these units.

And? Legacy units can be converted.

I've got cookbooks that date back to the 17th century. Lots of recipes from the 19th century. And old family recipes too. Doesn't mean I won't use metric and weights when I create new recipes, write recipes down, etc... And all my professional cookbooks are metric and by weight.

While this is true and adds effort, it is relatively easy to convert them too.

Interesting, the 1860 historical farm I toured as a kid had a balance and they were careful to not have volume measures at all in the house. Most general store exhibits of that time have kitchen scales and no volume measures.

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