How to measure grams without scales: types of products, different methods of measurement, use of improvised means, folk methods and practical tips. How to easily determine the size of food portions How to measure 200 grams of sour cream without scales

Have you decided to make pancakes or pies, but don’t have anything on hand to measure out the right amount of flour? And as luck would have it, in the recipe all the products are in grams? Not a problem, there are simple ways to measure flour without scales. This can be done using improvised means. Of course, the result will not be as accurate as on an electronic scale, but we are in the kitchen, not in a chemical laboratory.

How to measure flour with a glass

It’s good if you have a simple cut glass lying around the house. It is believed that 200 grams of water can be placed in it. But this does not mean that the same amount of flour will fit in there. There are tricks to measuring flour in a glass.

  • Firstly, you need to pour the flour with a spoon, and not scoop it out of the bag directly with a glass. Otherwise, voids will form in the container near the walls, and less flour will fit in. Fill the glass without a slide.
  • Secondly, we don’t compact the flour in the glass, but we also don’t loosen it.

Did you do everything right? In a faceted glass you will have 160 grams. If you compact the flour, then 210 g will fit into a glass. If you first sift and loosen it, then only 125 g.

There are other ways to measure flour. Here is a small table that will help you take the right amount of flour at the right time:

Ideally, of course, it is better to make control measurements. Ask a friend for a kitchen scale. Weigh the flour once in a glass and spoon. Write down the data and hang it somewhere visible in the kitchen. Then, if necessary, you can always measure the right amount of flour.

Keep in mind that if you store your flour incorrectly, the results may be different. There will be more damp and caked flour in the glass.

How much to weigh in grams

Everything would be fine, but most often you need not 160 or 25 grams. Usually, recipes use “round” numbers. This is where the question arises, for example, how to measure 100 grams of flour?

The easiest way is to pour out an extra 30 or 60 grams from a glass (depending on the glass), that is, 100 grams will be a little more than half a tea glass and a little less than half a faceted glass. You can put 4 level tablespoons. There is a more cunning way. It will require us time and some simple devices.

So, we need a ruler and a blank sheet of paper. On a sheet of paper we draw a rectangle 10 by 20 centimeters. On the larger sides (20 cm) we measure 2 cm, put dots and connect them with lines. Before us is a rectangle 10 by 2 cm. Right?

Pour a kilogram of flour onto the paper. We distribute it evenly over a larger rectangle, the one we drew at the beginning (20x10 cm). Make sure that the flour does not extend beyond the rectangle. Then carefully use a knife to separate the part that occupies a smaller rectangle (10x2 cm). This is 100 g.

We do the same thing when we don’t know how to measure 200 grams of flour. Only then do we measure on the 20-centimeter side not 2, but 4 cm. Next, do the same according to the algorithm. By the way, this method is also suitable for measuring sugar or cereals.

Experienced housewives rarely use a measuring cup or kitchen scale, since they do everything by eye. However, some complex dishes require perfect proportions, such as baked goods and desserts. In this case, you can use an ordinary glass or spoon, as our mothers and grandmothers once did. And, by the way, they made the thinnest lacy pancakes, ruddy pies, crumbly cookies and perfectly baked tender biscuits, which were eaten very quickly. Measures for measuring weight at home are simple - a thin and faceted glass, a teaspoon and a tablespoon. Let's talk about how many products fit in these containers.

Measuring food in a glass

The measure of weight in a glass depends on whether you use a thin glass or a cut glass, as they are different from each other. The faceted glass has a volume of 200 ml, several edges and a rounded rim. The thin glass is absolutely smooth and holds 250 ml. Liquids (water, wine, milk, juice, cream) are easy to measure, but bulk products with the same volume have different weights, which greatly complicates the measurement process. This is precisely why a table of food weights is needed - with it you will never make a mistake and measure exactly as much sugar and flour as is required for a cake or cookies.

When comparing products, we will indicate the quantity in a faceted glass (first number) and a thin glass (second number). For example, one glass holds 140–175 g of wheat flour, 180–220 g of granulated sugar, 190–230 g of vegetable oil, 185–240 g of melted butter, 250–300 g of condensed milk and 270–330 g of jam. As for cereals, you can pour 70–90 g of rolled oats, 170–210 g of buckwheat, 150–200 g of semolina, 190–230 g of rice, peas, beans, millet, pearl barley, barley and small pasta into a glass. This will fit 130–140 g of crushed nuts, 130–160 whole almonds and hazelnuts, 265–325 g of honey, 210–250 g of sour cream, 250–300 g of tomato paste and 100–125 g of ground crackers.

A little about weight measures in tablespoons and teaspoons

It's hard to imagine how you can measure out five glasses of flour or a liter of milk with spoons, so these cutlery are suitable for measuring out small quantities of food. For example, if you need just a little flour to make fluffy cakes, bechamel sauce, vegetable, meat or fish cutlets, you can use a teaspoon or a tablespoon.

One tablespoon is 18 g of liquid, 25 g of rolled oats, sugar, semolina, buckwheat, pearl barley, millet and rice. You can fully expect that a spoon will hold 17 g of vegetable or melted butter, 30 g of flour, salt and ground nuts, 25 g of sour cream and cocoa powder, 20 g of milk powder, 30 g of starch and honey. You will get only 15 g of ground crackers, but you can scoop up 50 g of jam with a tablespoon. With a miniature teaspoon you can measure 10 g of sugar, starch and sour cream, 8 g of flour, 9 g of cocoa, 7 g of honey, 5 g of vegetable oil and milk. A teaspoon also contains 10 g of nut kernels, 17 g of jam, about 5 g of cereals and peas, 2–4 g of cereal flakes.

Accuracy - the politeness of kings

To measure the weight of products without scales, you need to follow some rules that will help you strictly follow the recipe. For preparing appetizers, soups, main courses and side dishes, this is not so critical. However, in some cases, such as when baking bread, an incorrect ratio of liquid to flour can cause fermentation to slow down. If there is a lack of moisture, the dough does not rise well and the bread has a dry, crumbly texture. If, on the contrary, there is too much moisture, the baked goods will turn out heavy, mushy, with a soggy and sticky crumb.

We measure products correctly

How to use home weights correctly? For liquid products, containers should be filled to the limit, that is, to the very brim. It is more convenient to apply viscous and thick mixtures (honey, jam, sour cream) with a spoon, making sure that the glass is completely filled. Fill containers with loose and viscous products with a heap, and do not scoop flour and starch directly from a bag or bag, but pour it with a spoon so that voids do not form. There is no need to shake, loosen or compact the food, and if you need to sift the flour, do it after measuring. The fact is that when sifting, the flour becomes more voluminous, which means its weight will change. For comparison, a thin glass contains 160g of flour when filled correctly, 210g of tamped flour and 125g of sifted flour. Changing the characteristics of products also affects their weight - for example, increasing humidity makes salt, sugar and flour heavier, and fermented sour cream is lighter than fresh one.

What to replace

If you don't have a tea glass or a cut glass, take any container, measure its volume using an accurate one and mark a line where the volume is 200 or 250 ml. For culinary purposes, you can also use standard plastic cups with a capacity of 200 ml. Usually in recipes, instead of the phrase “tea glass,” they simply write “glass” or “cup,” which means 250 ml. If a cut glass serves as a measure of weight, then this will certainly be indicated in the recipe.

Culinary arithmetic

There is no need to keep dozens of numbers in your head to prepare a delicious dish and not go crazy with mathematical calculations. It is enough to have a table of weight measurements in spoons and glasses in the kitchen. If you see in a recipe an instruction to take half or a quarter cup of some product, such as sugar, then having a table, you can easily convert this amount into other measures. For example, a quarter of a faceted glass contains 45 g of sugar, which is 2 tbsp. l. sugar without a slide or 5.5 tsp. Interestingly, 1 tbsp. l. corresponds to 3 tsp, and a dessert spoon is 2 tsp. One thin glass holds 16 tbsp. l. liquid, thick and bulk products.

Foreign weight measures

If you like to cook according to foreign recipes, you may encounter unfamiliar weight measures, so this information will be useful in the kitchen. The American cup is our thin glass, that is, 250 g, and the English cup corresponds to 280 g. A pint is 470 g, an ounce is 30 g, and a quart “weighs” 950 g.

They say that the secret of culinary excellence is inspiration and precision, so the correct dosage of ingredients is half the battle. If you want to make your life easier and minimize complex arithmetic, buy a universal 500 ml measuring cup with divisions for liquid and bulk products. Delight your loved ones with delicious food and enjoy it yourself!

Every person at least once in his life has encountered a situation where it is necessary to measure a certain amount of some substance, for example 200 ml of ordinary water. As it turns out, using the most ordinary objects (spoons, cups, plates and even a syringe), you can easily do this.

So, 200 ml of water is how many grams? In everyday life, scales are often used to measure mass. However, if you remember the school physics course, it turns out that weight and mass are different quantities. Weight is force and mass is quantity.

Weight is directly related to gravity. Units of volume of different substances have different masses. The exception is water. Its density (the ratio of mass and volume) is practically equal to 1. It follows that 1 ml of water contains 1 g and 200 ml of it is equal to 200 g.

Measuring with spoons

The simplest item for measuring the required amount of a substance that any housewife always has on hand is, of course, a spoon. Usually they use a tablespoon or a teaspoon, less often a dessert one. Let's find out how many teaspoons and tablespoons are 200 ml of water.

One teaspoon can hold only 5 ml of water. To determine the number of teaspoons contained in 200 ml, you need to make simple calculations: divide 200 by 5, you get the number 40. This means that 200 ml holds 40 teaspoons.

When you don't have a teaspoon at hand, you can use a tablespoon. The use of such a spoon is most effective when measuring large volumes, since it is more than three times larger than a teaspoon.

One tablespoon holds 18 ml of water. After performing calculations similar to the first case, it turns out that 200 ml contains 11 full tablespoons and a little more.

If you need to use a dessert spoon, please note that it holds 12 ml. This means that to measure 200 ml you will need 16 and a half dessert spoons.

Using a glass

Very often, an ordinary faceted glass is used to measure the amount of food. It is believed that the volume of water poured into a faceted glass until the rim is smooth is 200 ml. It turns out that in order to measure 200 ml, you need to take one single glass.

Dinner plate

The question arises, what to do when there is not a single spoon or even a glass nearby. In this case, you can use a regular soup bowl. In order to determine the number of soup bowls that can hold 200 ml of water, you need to know the volume of one such bowl.

Most often, a soup dish contains 500 ml of water. This means that to get 200 ml you need to take a little less than half a bowl of soup.

Application of a tea mug

Sometimes a tea mug is used to measure liquid. Often such a mug holds 300 ml of water. Remembering mathematics and applying the properties of proportion, you can easily calculate that 200 ml is two-thirds of a tea mug. So this item is not very convenient for measuring volume of 200 ml, as well as 400 ml, 800 ml and so on.

Using a medical syringe

Quite popular and easy to use when measuring liquid products, especially water, is an ordinary medical syringe. The ease of use lies in the fact that each syringe is marked with the number of milliliters it can hold.

In this regard, it is not possible to give an exact answer to the question about the number of syringes required for a 200 ml transfusion without knowing the capacity of the syringe itself.

In each specific case, you can independently make simple mathematical calculations. To do this, 200 ml must be divided by the volume of one syringe indicated on it.

Handy tools for measuring

If you do not have any of the above, then you can use a regular glass beer or lemonade bottle with a volume of 0.5 liters or a half-liter jar. To obtain 200 ml you need to take less than half of the listed vessels.

Conclusion

To summarize the above, we can say that measuring 200 milliliters of water at home without using special measuring instruments is quite simple.

Every housewife always has some improvised remedy at hand. However, it is worth remembering that the listed standards are applicable mainly only to water; for other liquids that have a density different from the unit, it is necessary to make more detailed calculations.

Health

Do you eat right but still can't lose weight? Perhaps it's not what you eat, but amount of food consumed.

Most people don't know what acceptable size should look like portions. Research has shown that we are poor at judging how much food we should have on our plate, and people often overestimate portion size and underestimate calorie content.

So how do you figure out how much it costs to eat without endlessly counting calories or weighing everything on a scale?

Here's an easy way to determine adequate portion sizes of staple foods and how it looks in relation to the size of your hand.

Meat serving size

Meat: palm of hand


The portion of meat should be the size of the palm of your hand (not including fingers).

The steak in the photo weighs approximately 100 grams and is about the thickness of a deck of cards. A portion of this size of protein can be taken with every meal, and you need to spread your protein intake throughout the day, as we process it better in small portions. However, you should not consume more than 500 grams of red meat per week, and it is better to choose other sources of protein, such as fish and legumes.

Fish portion

White fish: whole hand


White fish such as cod, haddock or pollock are low in fat and calories, so a serving can be as large as your hand (about 150 grams and 100 calories).

White fish contains small amounts of omega-3s and is a good source of selenium, important for the immune system and healthy hair and nails.

Oily fish: palm


Like meat, a portion of fatty fish such as salmon, mackerel or sardines should be about the size of your palm. Fatty fish fillets weigh about 100 grams and contain about 200 calories. One serving per week will provide you with enough omega-3 fatty acids.

Salad portion

Spinach: two handfuls


This is the amount of raw spinach one person needs for one (80 grams) of the 5 servings of vegetables recommended daily. The same serving size will work for other lettuce leaves.

Vegetables should be eaten with every meal, and not just a few leaves, but almost the whole bag.

Serving of fruit

Berries: two hands


One of your five servings of fruit a day is a handful that fits in the palm of your hand.

This amount of berries contains about 90 calories, but other fruits, such as grapes, contain more sugar and about 161 calories.

Serving of vegetables

Vegetables: clenched fists


One in five servings of vegetables (80 grams) per day should be at least the size of your fist. It is also important to strive for a variety of vegetables in your diet and eat vegetables of different colors. Vegetables should take up half of your plate.

A serving of pasta per day

Pasta: clenched fist


This amount of pasta seems quite small, but the pasta will expand in size as it cooks. This serving contains 75 grams and 219 calories. A serving of uncooked rice should also be the size of your fist.

Carbohydrates, which are important for maintaining energy, and fiber should take up a quarter of your plate (proteins the other quarter and vegetables half the plate).

The sauce will add extra calories.

A serving of nuts per day

Nuts: one palm


Nuts and seeds make a good snack, are filling and contain heart-healthy unsaturated fat, although they are high in calories. A good portion is something you can hold in the palm of your hand. Therefore, try to eat nuts and seeds separately, and not several at once.

Portion of potatoes

Potato: fist


A carbohydrate serving should be approximately 200 calories for women and 250 calories for men.

One 180g potato contains about 175 calories, but a baked potato can be twice as much, so you can share it between two people.

If you are not trying to lose weight, you can eat a slightly larger serving.

Food servings per day

Butter: tip of thumb

Any serving of fats, including butter, vegetable oil, and peanut butter, should be no larger than a teaspoon or the size of the tip of your thumb from knuckle to nail tip. In total, there should be no more than 2-3 servings of fat per day.

Chocolate: index finger

A piece of chocolate the size of your index finger (20 grams) contains approximately 100 calories and is an adequate treat.

Cheese: two fingers

A 30 gram portion of cheese should be the length and depth of two fingers. It contains about 125 calories and provides you with a third of the recommended amount of calcium. A serving of grated cheese can be the size of your fist.

Cake: two fingers

The cake slice should be the length and width of two fingers (one end may be a little wider if you cut with a wedge). This serving contains about 185 calories and is acceptable as a treat.