[consp]

> either calling spelling I'd never see a "common mistake" (like "gr." for grams)

Almost all cooking books I have do this (sample size is not big though, and with almost all I mean all except one). I don't know why though, maybe it's an old abbreviation which stuck in certain text types?

[ndsipa_pomu]

I've got a serious bugbear with recipes using "cups" as a measure - it infuriates me. Who in their right mind uses a volume measurement for foods that can vary hugely in their size according to how long they've been sitting around?

[kelnos]

The vast majority of home cooking in the US measures in cups. Certainly there are people in-the-know who are going to be more precise and measure by weight, and most restaurant kitchens will probably do so as well.

I agree it's not great, but ultimately I've found it doesn't really matter in practice, even for baking most of the time. For regular cooking I do get frustrated when I'm asked to include "2 cups of shredded chicken" or the like, but ultimately it really doesn't matter. Being off won't ruin the recipe, and often more or less of a particular ingredient is a matter of personal taste anyway.

I have a kitchen scale, but it's always simpler and easier to grab and use a measuring cup, so that's what I do most of the time, unless the recipe actually calls for weight without giving volume.

[ndsipa_pomu]

I just don't get it - surely homes in the U.S. also have measuring scales? Outside of the U.S., we just go for measuring ingredients by weight which completely gets around the issue of settled ingredients or the inconsistency of measuring things by volume. Why can't recipes just use metric measurements (I'll allow the substitution of grammes for weight rather than newtons) and also provide the quick'n'easy and inaccurate cups measures too?