Wayyyyy OT: European measurements
in [Design]
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From: D Yuniskis on 3 Jun 2010 15:43 Hi, I have a (baking) recipe that I am trying to decipher. <sheepish grin> Originally in Italian so all the measurement units are European. Weights and liquid measures are easy to translate. *But*, some things tend to be "packaged" differently. Point in question, what's a "package of vanilla"? I'm guessing probably ~25mL liquid volume. But, I have no idea if vanilla is used as dried *beans* or *extract*, etc. (nor if that 25mL is even the right figure!) Could someone on the other side of the pond clarify this? Also, if this is vanilla *extract*, is it safe to assume it is cut with alcohol? And, if so, what percent, by volume (obviously, getting the right amount of flavoring is critical :> ) I chuckle as I once was on the other side of this problem -- gave a european friend a recipe which had baker's chocolate measured in units of "squares". She later complained that the Rx turned out *horribly*... then asked me what a "square" was :-/ Thanks! --don
From: Spehro Pefhany on 3 Jun 2010 16:04 On Thu, 03 Jun 2010 12:43:10 -0700, D Yuniskis <not.going.to.be(a)seen.com> wrote: >Hi, > >I have a (baking) recipe that I am trying to decipher. ><sheepish grin> > >Originally in Italian so all the measurement units are >European. Weights and liquid measures are easy to >translate. > >*But*, some things tend to be "packaged" differently. > >Point in question, what's a "package of vanilla"? >I'm guessing probably ~25mL liquid volume. But, I >have no idea if vanilla is used as dried *beans* >or *extract*, etc. (nor if that 25mL is even the >right figure!) There's also "vanilla sugar"-- mostly sugar with vanilla flavor. >Could someone on the other side of the pond clarify >this? Also, if this is vanilla *extract*, is it >safe to assume it is cut with alcohol? And, if so, >what percent, by volume (obviously, getting the >right amount of flavoring is critical :> ) > >I chuckle as I once was on the other side of this >problem -- gave a european friend a recipe which >had baker's chocolate measured in units of "squares". >She later complained that the Rx turned out *horribly*... >then asked me what a "square" was :-/ > >Thanks! >--don
From: OBones on 3 Jun 2010 16:40 D Yuniskis wrote: > Hi, > > I have a (baking) recipe that I am trying to decipher. > <sheepish grin> > > Originally in Italian so all the measurement units are > European. Weights and liquid measures are easy to > translate. > > *But*, some things tend to be "packaged" differently. > > Point in question, what's a "package of vanilla"? > I'm guessing probably ~25mL liquid volume. But, I > have no idea if vanilla is used as dried *beans* > or *extract*, etc. (nor if that 25mL is even the > right figure!) If it's the same as in France, which I suspect it is, then you would be looking a this: http://www.vahine.fr/tous-nos-produits/sucre-vanille-de-madagascar/index.html Vanilla flavored sugar in a package, that is about 7.5g Don't know if you have that in the US though.
From: D Yuniskis on 3 Jun 2010 18:34 Hi Spehro, Spehro Pefhany wrote: > On Thu, 03 Jun 2010 12:43:10 -0700, D Yuniskis > <not.going.to.be(a)seen.com> wrote: > >> Originally in Italian so all the measurement units are >> European. Weights and liquid measures are easy to >> translate. >> >> Point in question, what's a "package of vanilla"? >> I'm guessing probably ~25mL liquid volume. But, I >> have no idea if vanilla is used as dried *beans* >> or *extract*, etc. (nor if that 25mL is even the >> right figure!) Grrrr.... s/25/15/g (though I would have thought 10mL a better "intensity" :< ) > There's also "vanilla sugar"-- mostly sugar with > vanilla flavor. Hmmm... is this how vanilla is typically introduced to a Rx? I.e., do they not use (liquid) vanilla extract? I would assume it would be harder to control the sweetness if you had to introduce sugar every time you introduced a certain amount of vanilla flavor (e.g., using extract, the alcohol boils off). And, this still leaves the question of how to equate that to "liquid measure" :< (sigh) I guess I'll just have to plan one interation just to get the flavoring right and then work on the rest of the Rx from there... <frown>
From: D Yuniskis on 3 Jun 2010 18:42
OBones wrote: > If it's the same as in France, which I suspect it is, then you would be > looking a this: > > http://www.vahine.fr/tous-nos-produits/sucre-vanille-de-madagascar/index.html > > Vanilla flavored sugar in a package, that is about 7.5g I assume that's primarily the weight of the *sugar*. (1.5t?) The question is then, how much vanilla to add to 7.5G of sugar to get the same "flavor" :< > Don't know if you have that in the US though. I suspect I could probably find it. But, I'd want to come up with a more "portable" recipe, anyway, so that would just give me something to compare (empirically) against (way too much effort there! :> ) I'll try to make some estimates based on the proportions that *I* tend to use (e.g., this much flour, egg, butter, sugar suggest *that* much vanilla...) and tweek it until it seems right. Thanks! |