Gluten-free Flours And Other Ingredients

[RiceGuy]

OK, so maybe this is a bit of a rant, but here goes...

I find it quite annoying that all baking ingredients (and basically all foods, period) are sold by weight. Shouldn't it be by volume? Think about it; We measure flour and other ingredients by volume, as in cups, tablespoons, teaspoons, etc. What does it matter what it weighs? When I buy a bag of flour, I could care less if it weighs one pound or three. What I want to know is how far will it go - how many loaves will I get out of it. How many cups are in the bag.

For instance, one cup of sweet white rice flour weighs more than twice as that same amount of soy flour. So the weight is irrelevant, especially in the case of gluten-free flours. If there was only one type of flour, then it wouldn't matter so much. I think I did see one bag of something that specified how many cups, but that's obviously rare. I have seen recipes given in grams, so I wonder if Europe goes by volume.

I hope I'm not the only one who sees this!?

[debmidge]

Ingredients are sold by weight, not by "cup" measurements because when they are first packaged, they hit the top of the container but as they get moved around from factory or packaging house to distributor to grocery store and to home the dry product gets packed down which gives the appearance of less product. You want to purchase dry goods in weight measurement because the manufacturer/packer can "fluff" up the product to make it look like more.

Also a cup of liquid measurement doesn't compare to a cup of dry - there are too many variables.

I hope this makes sense...

[Juliet]

It's because of what the previous poster described that in Europe they don't go by volume measurements in their recipes but use a scale. Professional bakers even in the U.S.A. often use a scale, too, because depending on how you measure using a cup or teaspoon it can vary from day to day how much you're actually using. A cup of sifted flour (gluten free or not) is less than a cup of unsifted flour, for example.

[RiceGuy]

You want to purchase dry goods in weight measurement because the manufacturer/packer can "fluff" up the product to make it look like more.

OK, good point. Except when I pour flour it's not particularly packed. It's not as if it's a solid mass. Though again, I agree that sifting the flour does tend to fluff it up some. So then I suppose the solution would be to put the volume measurement on the label along with the weight.

Also a cup of liquid measurement doesn't compare to a cup of dry - there are too many variables.

Right. And a cup of coconut oil actually weighs only 7.36 ounces. That's the basis of my point. There really isn't any way to know the volume without actually measuring it. So I think the packages should specify at least an approximate value. A value based on what the consumer can expect when measuring the product in the usual manner.

I know of one brand of shredded coconut that has the volume in cups on the label, and that's even more compressible than flour. It's based on what you'd measure when pouring it. I see nothing wrong with having that in addition to the weight.

[Mom23boys]

Look on the nutrition panel of the package.

Mine will say something in line with "serving size - 1/4 cup" and then "about 6 servings per package". That lets me know there is about 1.5 cups in a package - give or take a little.