Every day in the kitchen we cook everyday dishes and don’t even think about the correct proportion of the products being laid, but as soon as we decide to try a new recipe, everything becomes much more complicated. In order to get exactly the taste and consistency described in the recommendations, it is necessary to cook, strictly observing the weight and ratio of each ingredient. It is at this moment that the question often becomes relevant, how to weigh products without weights at home? Kitchen scales are a very convenient thing, but not every home has it, so housewives often have to use certain tricks to determine the weight of the ingredients for the recipe.
Important information
In every kitchen there is sure to be a glass, a teaspoon and a tablespoon. It is with their help that most often they have to measure products. It is only important to know the volume of the glass in advance, as they come in 200 or 250 ml. New dishes, as a rule, have a larger size, and the faceted glass known to generations holds strictly 200 ml in itself up to the rim.
How to weigh products without weights with spoons? In this case, liquids should be poured strictly to the brim, try to collect viscous products with a “slide”, and loose ones must be gathered with a small top. The following standard weighing arrangements apply only to those solids that are placed in spoons and glasses freely, without tamping.
It should also be remembered that cereals and any loose must be dry before weighing. Vegetables - washed and peeled, also chopped, and if necessary, measure the amount equal to pieces. The same recommendations apply to fruits. Before weighing meat without scales, the product must not be washed so that it is not saturated with water. If in the recipe only pulp is used, without fat and bones, then it is only necessary to weigh it, having previously separated the desired piece, rinsing and always getting wet with a napkin.
The secret to high volume
If the weight of liquids and loose ingredients can be easily determined using spoons or a glass, then how to weigh large-sized products without scales is a question. In this case, use measuring containers should be pots or bowls, the volume of which is known and measured in liters.
Having densely packed the necessary ingredients in them, you can approximately determine their weight by comparing it with the tare volume.
If a more accurate measurement is needed, then 2 pans of this size should be prepared so that one fits freely into the other. Pour water into a large container and place it in the sink. Pour exactly one kilogram of sugar, salt, or another product that is in the kitchen at the exact weight into the smaller pan. Now the small container needs to be lowered into the large one so that the water from the bottom pan reaches the edges of the top. So how to weigh products without weights from improvised materials and what does sugar have to do with it? Now it should be emptied, placed in a small container that, in fact, must be weighed, and also lowered into a pot with the same water. As soon as the liquid reaches the edges, it means in the upper tank exactly one kilogram of the required product.
Fluid volume
In this case, weighing is not even required, since all pouring ingredients are indicated in recipes in milliliters, not grams. To determine their desired volume, you will need a measuring cup. If you can’t even find it in the kitchen, then an ordinary faceted, tablespoon or teaspoon for small scales is suitable.
It is important to remember that the same volume of different liquids will always weigh differently. For example, in a glass of water there will always be as many milliliters as its volume, but vegetable oil is necessarily less, because its density is less.
Approximate standards
If you delve into such nuances once, then you can be guided by approximate recommendations on how to weigh products without weights. According to them, 5 g of liquids, 4 g of cereal, 10 g of salt or sugar and 3 g of flour are placed in a teaspoon. A tablespoon contains 20 g of liquids, the same amount of cereals, 15 g of salt or sugar and 25 g of flour. This applies only to a spoon with an average slide, and if when collecting loose ones the excess easily rolls by itself, then with flour everything is more complicated. You can also pick up a spoon with a slide of 5-7 cm, since its powder consistency simply does not allow the packed product to pour. Having collected such an amount, it should be understood that the flour will weigh 35-40 g.
In a standard glass of water or milk there will be 200 grams, vegetable oil 250 grams, cereals and other loose - 200 grams, and flour to the rim - 180 grams.
Weighting vegetables
Sometimes all the above recommendations do not help to approximately weigh products without weights. How can vegetables be placed in a glass or pan? After all, an empty space is distorted between them, distorting the final result. To determine the weight of such products, the standard of piecewise grammar is often used. So, a head of white cabbage weighs on average 1.1-1.5 kg, although in the cold season on the shelves you can also meet heads of cabbage weighing 4-5 kg. One potato tuber on average takes 100 g, onion - 70 g, carrots - 75 g, beets - 100-150 g, tomato - 75-100 g, cucumber 50-100 g, eggplant - 150-200 g, celery root - 40 -60 g, cauliflower - 800 g, radish - 70-100 g, parsley root - 50 g.
Standards for fruits and berries
Recommendations on how to weigh products without weights at home contain approximate values for popular berries and fruits. So:
- average apple - 100-150 g;
- pear - 120-150 g;
- quince - 150-200 g;
- banana - 100-200 g;
- orange - 100-150 g;
- lemon - up to 100 g;
- figs - 40 g;
- plum - 30 g;
- apricot - 20-30 g.
As for the berries, their weight is best measured with a glass or spoon. In a standard glass container with a volume of 200 ml will fit:
- strawberries - 120 g;
- raspberries - 150 g;
- cherries or cherries - 130 g;
- blueberries - 160 g;
- blackberries - 150 g;
- cranberries - 120 g;
- blueberries - 160 g;
- lingonberries - 110 g;
- currants - 120-140 g;
- Mulberries - 150 g;
- gooseberry - 170 g.
Liquids and viscous products
How to weigh products that can completely fill the tank space without weights? This should not be a problem at all. Measuring containers, spoons or glasses are used. In a teaspoon is placed:
- 5 g of water, vinegar, cream, milk, any juice and melted butter;
- 3 g of vegetable oil;
- 4 g of melted margarine;
- 7 g of berry puree or liquor;
- 8 g of tomato sauce;
- 9 g of liquid honey;
- 10 g sour cream, tomato paste;
- 12 g of condensed milk or marmalade;
- 15 g of jam;
- 20 g of honey or jam.
The same products in the same order will take in a tablespoon, respectively, 18 g, 20 g, 15 g, 20 g, 25 g, 30 g, 25 g, 30 g, 40 g and 45 g. It is noticeable that even the same the products in the new container take up weight no longer in ascending order. With the measurement in glasses, a similar situation develops, so it’s definitely impossible to calculate how many grams there will be in a large container, relying on the data of teaspoons, the result will be only approximate.
So, in a faceted glass, the total volume to the rim is 200 ml and it will occupy exactly water, milk, cream, vinegar and juice. Sour cream in the same container will already be 210 g. Vegetable oil, melted margarine or butter - 180-190 g, tomato sauce - 180 g, jam - 185 g, melted fat - 245 g, jam - 280 g, berry puree - 300 g, and honey - 330 g.
Loose
For cereals and other products, there are also certain measures of weights according to the volumes used for measuring containers.
A teaspoon contains 10 g of salt, sugar, egg powder, starch and flour. In the same spoon, you can measure 7 g of coffee or citric acid, 9 g of cocoa, 12 g of baking soda, 5 g of dry gelatin or poppy seeds.
A tablespoon, respectively, will measure the weight of the same products in the same order: 30 g, 25 g, 25 g, 30 g, 30 g, 20 g, 25 g, 28 g, 15 g and 18 g.
Cereals, as a rule, occupy 4 grams in a teaspoon, 20-25 g in a dining room, and 150-170 g in a glass.
In general, a glass in a volume of 200 g can contain salt and starch only 150 g, sugar 180 g, poppy 135 g, ground nuts 140 g, and icing sugar - 160 g.
Spices, seasonings and seasonings
When preparing a new dish, it is also important to weigh the herbs properly, as their excess can completely ruin the final result. So, 1 gram of bay leaf is about 10 medium leaves. A gram of pepper is 25 of its peas, and 1 gram of clove is equal to 15 of its heads. Powder spices should be measured with a teaspoon. Cinnamon will contain 8 g, mustard 3 g, cloves 4 g, ginger 2 g, allspice 4-5 g, red and black 3 g.
Diet Products
The question of how to weigh products without scales for a diet is very relevant. In order to correctly calculate the calories consumed, they have to determine the weight of not only raw materials, but also already prepared dishes or products that are immediately ready for use. Allowing yourself to snack on cookies in the package, you can easily calculate the weight of one treat, dividing the total weight of the pack by the number of cookies. The average weight of marshmallows is 42 g, marmalade 20 g, gingerbread 30 g, and biscuit biscuits 10 g. A slice of bread takes an average of 20 g, the humpback will be heavier and weigh about 50-80 g.
Purchased buns are always labeled and do not need to be weighed. A sausage mug weighs on average 5 g, a finished patty - 80-100 g, and a chop - 200 g.
It must be remembered that cereals during cooking increase in volume depending on the addition of water, pasta - 2 times, meat, on the contrary, decreases by about 50%. And in fact it’s easy to weigh products without weights. Cottage cheese as a product immediately ready to eat can be measured with a glass. In faceted containers, it will take no more than 130 g, depending on the fat content. Dried fruits and other diet sweets should also be measured in glasses. Raisins in it will be 130 g, and sushi - 50 g.
A chicken egg without an average size shell weighs 40 g, and a large one - 60 g. If you need to eat separately the yolk and protein, you need to remember that depending on the size of the egg itself, only the weight of the protein changes. It can be 20-40 g, and the yolk always weighs 20 g.