OT - None Metric measurement question
 

ok i have a recipe calling for 1 pound of zuchini

problem is i have no clue how many cups are in a pound...

can you do this...

ps. metric is better...

Re: OT - None Metric measurement question
 

a cup is a measure of volume. a pound is a measure of weight. you want to translate it to kilos.

which, by the way, is about 2kg to the lb. or more exactly:

1 Pounds (avoirdupois) equals 0.453592 Kilograms

[ August 03, 2004, 21:56: Message edited by: Puke ]

Re: OT - None Metric measurement question
 

hmmm... so if one cup is 110 grams...

and 1 pound is 453 grams...

i would need 4 cups and 13 grams... which is 1/8th a cup give or take a few grams

wow this sucks...

Re: OT - None Metric measurement question
 

ahh man... different stuff has different weight per volume in the cup system...

Re: OT - None Metric measurement question
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Oh ya, you could say that, but then it would be mass, not weight. Or it could be volume too. As in a cup, b cup, c cup and so on.

Re: OT - None Metric measurement question
 

Well, it probably dosen't have to be exact. Get a half litre of water in one hand and the zucchini in the other, then guess and chop.

Re: OT - None Metric measurement question
 

lol! dude, different things always have different volumes. you cant convert lbs to cups to liters without alot of headache.

if your measurement is in lbs, then convert to KG and use a scale.

Re: OT - None Metric measurement question
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Cup is a unit of volume. Pound is a unit of weight. You can not directly compare them without having the density of material. It is like saying how many liters are in a kilogram... Of course, you can't really directly compare pounds and kilograms, as one is a unit of force and the other a unit of mass... but it is close enough for imprecise measurements such as cooking food.

[ August 03, 2004, 22:34: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

Re: OT - None Metric measurement question
 

1 litre is 1 kilo...

rather easy

Re: OT - None Metric measurement question
 

drives me nuts that most food items are still in imperial... one of the Last hold overs i guess... I am lucky that i can kind of work with both of them...

ask any 12 year old about miles , pounds , cups and they will look at you with a blank look...

which is good in my books...

Re: OT - None Metric measurement question
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">of H2O. one litre of liquid iridium is considerably more than a kilo. zuchini are another matter entirely.

Re: OT - None Metric measurement question
 

Silly Tesco. One liter of your head is many, many kilos, due to its high density. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon6.gif

Re: OT - None Metric measurement question
 

Just get a bucket and a bathroom scale.

Problem solved!

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: OT - None Metric measurement question
 

In cooking, when dealing with items like veggies, it's all about the volume and personal preference. So chop them up as you want them, until you fill a cup with them. Don't worry about weight. That's my understanding.

Re: OT - None Metric measurement question
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">If he's grinding up the stuff for some sort of strange baked-vegetable-mush dish the amount could be improtant, as the mashed-up vegetable will be mixed with the other ingrediants.

Re: OT - None Metric measurement question
 

Ok, I assume this is in Canada based on your profile so you have several options (take none of these seriously) :

1) Go to the grocery store and find something American which is labeled in pounds. Take it to the produce section and put it on the scale. Do the math and buy the equivalent in zuchini.

2) Assuming you already have the zuchini or are buying it from an open market or such: do 1) above except buy something else that you might like as a side dish. Come home and cut apart a coat hanger to make a primitive balance and use it to weigh out an equal amount of zuchini.

3) 1 gallon of water weighs about 8.5 pounds. Estimate 1/8.5 gallon of water, take to grocery store, put on scale, buy equivalent of zuchini. Oh wait, if you can't measure a pound, you probably can't measure a gallon either...

4) Cross the US border. Buy 1 pound of zuchini, go home, cook. Hmmmm... Maybe you need to buy 1.5 pounds due to the exchange rate. (Sorry, I admit that was a little cold.) http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

6) Go to McDonalds, buy 4 quarter pounders, put them on the scale, no, wait, eat them and you won't be hungry for zuchini any more. Eat a "pound cake" as dessert just to feel good about it.

6) Ask your neighbor for 1 pound of zuchini. Let him figure it out.

7) Use 1 kilogram = 2.2 pounds as a conVersion factor. (use this only as a Last resort)

8) Come on, man! This is cooking! Just grab a couple of handfuls and throw them in!

Slick.

Re: OT - None Metric measurement question
 

well the dish turned out good.

I used 4 cups and 1/8 of the zuchini ( from garden ) shredded
with 3 cups cooked rice
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups of ( spanish onion ) chopped fine
1 1/2 cups of peppers ( garden peppers half hot like chilie or caynenne and half red sweet ) chopped fine
pepper
12 ounces of corn
1 tablespoon oil
2 cups grated white cheddar cheeze ( sharp for you people down south )
1 cup crumbled feta...
then some spices from the garden that were chopped ( which were some basil, oregano , thyme )
how to cook...

Take enough rice to cook up 3 cups ( which is like a cup and a half... 2 and 1/2 cups of water and some butter or marginine.... combine in a pot bring to a boil and stir away.... reduce heat... and set a timer to 25 minutes )

then shread 1 pound of zucchine... 4 cups and a bit and set aside
Take the oil and pour it in a pan and heat until medium hot ( hold your hand above the pan ( about 6 cm away ) and count... when it takes about 4 seconds for your hand to feel warm it is ready

I have found that this amount of time is equal to cutting up the onions and getting them ready...

Then put all those onions and zucchine in the pan and stir away until mixed... and let it cook until the zucchine is soft..

Which is the same amount of time it takes to cut peppers and put them in a bowl, add the corn and shread the cheeze and crumble the feta...


Combine the cheezes in another bowl

take the spices and cut them up and then add them to the pepper and corn bowl...

Turn the heat off on the onions and zuchine and let it cool down.

Get out a big mixing bowl and a oven pan that can hold all this stuff...

spray oil or what ever on the oven pan ( casserole dish etc )...

Turn the oven on to 375

The time should go off for the rice now...

take 3 eggs and place them in the mixxing bowl and beat them up a bit.

Then add the rice... and mix it up real good like

Take the Zuchine and onion that is still sitting in the frying pan and drain it ...

add it to the mixing bowl... and do some more of that mixing

then add the veggies and cheeze....

Sprinke pepper on it ( salt if you like that as well )

and mix it up real good....

I also added a wee bit of hot sauce

When it is all good and mixed dump the whole thing into the oven pan...

Place it in the oven and set the timer to 25 minutes... ( i had the heat coming from the bottom and no lid on the oven pan )

Then go off and do something...

when the timer goes off turn on the bbq...

And then set the timer for 25 minutes again

And cook your meat

When the timer goes off again...

turn the heat to the top and let it brown for 10 minutes

when timer goes off again... remove from oven

go get stuff off bbq

eat and enjoy...

very tasty

Re: OT - None Metric measurement question
 

You missed my post directed at you Tecso.

Re: OT - None Metric measurement question
 

i saw it... i laughed...

better to have a heavy head than a light head...

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: OT - None Metric measurement question
 

Hmm, I suppose that is true! Depends on how light and how heavy though... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: OT - None Metric measurement question
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I tried this, but the water kept running through my fingers. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif


Tesco, you could save yourself a lot of trouble and just buy a kitchen scale. A lot of recepies work better if you measure by weight instead of volume anyway. This is especially true with baking. You think comparing a cup of one thing to another is bad, try comparing two cups of flour. They aren't the same because of variances in how tightly they are packed. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/shock.gif That's why you should weigh it.

Re: OT - None Metric measurement question
 

In cooking one can just grab stuff and throws it in, but as Geo says, in baking and desserts you need to follow the recepie, and a scale is a good thing.
I hate the old recepies with "a coffecup" of....

Re: OT - None Metric measurement question
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Hmm.. well not quite true, at least not 5 years ago when I was 12. I (and almost every other 12 year old I knew) had a good working knowledge of both Metric and Imperial systems. After all, when someone asks you how much you weigh, do you tell them you weigh 160 lbs, or 73 kg?? Everyone I know tells me in pounds, not kilograms. (Forgetting of course that pounds are a unit of force, while kilo's are a measure of mass) Or when asked for your height, do you tell them in feet and inches, or in centimeters or meters?? If someone told me they were 183 cm. tall, I would have take a while and figure out how tall that actually was! Now, if they told me instead that they were 6 feet, 1 inch tall, I would know exactly how much that was.

I think that people of my generation will use a combination of both systems, because that's what we've grown up with. Our parents used Imperial, we were taught in Metric at school.

[ August 04, 2004, 17:33: Message edited by: Renegade 13 ]