Why are volume measurements vs. weight measurements used in cooking and baking in the USA?
United States measures The U.S. uses pounds and ounces (avoirdupois) for weight, and U.S. customary units for volume. For measures used in cookbooks published in other nations navigate to the apropos regional section in Traditional measurement systems. Measures are classified as either dry measures or fluid measures. Some of the fluid and dry measures have similar names, but the actual measured volume is quite different. A recipe will generally specify which measurement is required. U.S. recipes are commonly in terms of fluid measures. See table at source url. See also: http://www.squidoo.com/cooking-measurement Sources: http://en.wikipedia.
From Wikipedia: “Cooking weights and measures In recipes, quantities of ingredients may be specified by mass (“weight”), by volume, or by count. For most of history, most cookbooks did not specify quantities precisely, instead talking of “a nice leg of spring lamb”, a “cupful” of lentils, a piece of butter “the size of a walnut”, and “sufficient” salt. In Europe, cookbooks used mass (“weight”) rather than volume, though informal measurements such as a “pinch”, a “drop”, or a “hint” (soupçon) continue to be used from time to time. In the U.S.A., Fannie Farmer introduced the more exact specification of quantities by volume in her 1896 Boston Cooking-School Cook Book. Today, most of the world prefers measurement by weight, though the preference for volume measurements continues in North America. Different ingredients are measured in different ways: Liquid ingredients are generally measured by volume worldwide. Dry bulk ingredients such as sugar and flour are measured by weight in most of
