Math is hard.

From Cooks Illustrated no less:

"Ingredients:

blah

blah

blah

1/3 cup olive oil

blah

blah



Procedure:

1. Do some stuff.

2. Add 1/4 cup of the olive oil.

3. Do other stuff.

4. Do other stuff.

5. In separate bowl, mix remainder of olive oil with....

6. Serve."



Anyone know what 1/3 c. minus 1/4 c. equals, and how far up the author's colon I should cram this recipe?

[Robin Garr]

Anyone know what 1/3 c. minus 1/4 c. equals

One ounce, aka two tablespoons.

and how far up the author's colon I should cram this recipe?

That is a personal matter between you and the author.

One ounce, aka two tablespoons

Actually not quite, although my guess is it's not critical. 16 tablespoons in a cup, so 5 1/3 T in 1/3 cup, 4 T in 1/4 cup. Subtract and the difference is 1 1/3 T, or 4 teaspoons, if you like.

Chalk it up to our handy system of measurement.

[Robin Garr]

Actually not quite, although my guess is it's not critical.

I was rounding.

I was rounding.

Rounding? Rounding?? There's no rounding in baseball!

This is a recipe, dammit, not brain surgery. It has to be accurate!

Pour the 1/3 cup into a 1/4 cup, and what is left in the 1/3 cup use in the second step.

Pour the 1/3 cup into a 1/4 cup, and what is left in the 1/3 cup use in the second step.

That's the most idiotic thing I've ever heard. Sheesh.

So much easier in metric

From Cooks Illustrated no less:

"Ingredients:

blah

1/3 cup olive oil --- 80ml olive oil

blah

Procedure:

1. Do some stuff.

2. Add 1/4 cup of the olive oil. Add 20ml of the olive oil.

3. Do other stuff.

4. Do other stuff.

5. In separate bowl, mix remainder of olive oil with.... in separate bowl, mix 60ml of olive oil with

6. Serve."



Anyone know what 1/3 c. minus 1/4 c. equals, and how far up the author's colon I should cram this recipe?

Peter - you have your second two olive oil additions mixed up. See - metric isn't easier.

[Jenise]

Pour the 1/3 cup into a 1/4 cup, and what is left in the 1/3 cup use in the second step.

Lol, Carl.

[Robin Garr]

Since we're all over the field here, and my own first answer was a bad approximation based upon careless thinking, I'm going to channel my mom, the math teacher here.

We have one-third cup, and we have one-fourth cup. To compare them we have to go to the least common denominator and convert each measure into 12ths. So, 1/3 = 4/12, and 1/4 - 3/12. The difference, the leftover amount, is 1/12 cup. Tada!

But that's not a common measure, so we need to convert again. A cup is divided into 8 ounces or 16 tablespoons. Divide 16 by 12 and we get 1 1/3 teaspoons, which still can't be measured with standard kitchen equipment, but it's close enough to eyeball.

Personally, I'd just use Carl's method, although I think reversing his instructions might be wise.

Well, the metric measures are dead simple, its the cup that gets me .

What's comfusing are the original instructions.

I read it as you need a total of 1/3 cup

Then you take 1/4 of that 1/3

I see now what it's saying is you need total of 1/3 cup = 80ml

but you add 1/4 of a full cup, which equals 60 ml

So if it said


2. Add 60ml olive oil.

3. Do other stuff.

4. Do other stuff.

5. In separate bowl, mix 20ml with....

6. Serve."

Then they'd be no confusion and its simple to measure and understand.

A cup is divided into 8 ounces or 16 tablespoons. Divide 16 by 12 and we get 1 1/3 teaspoons, which still can't be measured with standard kitchen equipment

Wow, this really is complicated That should have been 1 1/3 *table*spoons, in other words 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon or 4 teaspoons, which *can* be measured using standard spoons.

I have my own bizarre measurement methods. Having spent some time in the UK, I started using a kitchen scale and kept using it on my return to the US. But that's not the bizarre part. I've "simplified" liquid measurements for baking by memorizing a few numbers in order to translate volumes into mass. My units? Grams per tablespoon! Oils are a little less than 14g per T, water or things mostly water a little more than 14. Molasses/honey/corn syrup and the like 21g/T. Liquids not fitting in those categories can sometimes be determined from those nutrition labels. I know, weird.

Well, the metric measures are dead simple, its the cup that gets me.

The metric system is definitely superior in most cases but I don't think this is one of them. Many Euro recipes that normally use weights/masses still default to tablespoons and teaspoons (15 mL and 5 mL, if you like) for small quantities. The real problem here is just a stupid recipe. If they'd just said 4 T for the first addition and 1 T for the second, you'd have something understandable to cooks on all continents.

[Robin Garr]

Wow, this really is complicated That should have been 1 1/3 *table*spoons, in other words 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon or 4 teaspoons, which *can* be measured using standard spoons.

Yeah, my bad, Mark. I was on the right track, but all those least common denominators wore me out. 1 tablespoon plus one teaspoon it is! (The difference between 1/3 and /1/4 cup, that is.