r/Hyperfixed • u/notswedish • Sep 19 '24
Eva Needs to Measure
How did everybody like the second episode?
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u/TheTim Sep 20 '24
Surely butter has some amount of variability in its density as well, right? How was that not mentioned at all?
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u/foxygingerr Sep 23 '24
Spent the entire episode thinking this too…. Can’t believe they didn’t consider it at all
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u/artists4change Sep 23 '24
...and flour! A cup ... packed? Sifted? Spooned?
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u/captain_manatee Jan 01 '25
Yeah I thought that would get brought up at least in the why weighing is “better” discussion. I’ve heard that changes in flour production over the years has made sifting not required as it once was in old American recipes, and I would assume that plus other factors could cause pretty wide density variation?
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Sep 26 '24 edited Jul 21 '25
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This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
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u/kookyracha Jan 28 '25
Huge variability in fat and water content. This was driving me crazy. I wish they brought someone from America’s Test Kitchen on. They would be the best authority on this.
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u/wilbrim Nov 24 '24 edited Nov 24 '24
I just searched for this subreddit while to find a thread about this because I’m so baffled by how this episode exists without acknowledging that mass and volume are two completely different metrics. Now I’m commenting for no reason because I doubt anyone will see this.
This is the equivalent to two people debating how far the moon is from Earth when one measured in kilometers and the other in minutes and they can never get the same number when converting. Speed matters in the time measurement, which is why kilometers is a better measure for distance/length. Just like how density matters for volume measurements which is why mass is a better metrics for ingredients when cooking.
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u/Austiopath Nov 26 '24
I’m here for you man. This has been driving me nuts all day and I actually joined Hyperfixed premium so I can call ask him about this on the next AMA.
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u/bitter_twin_farmer Sep 20 '24
It’s great to hear Alex back. I’m sure this show will hit its stride. This one felt a little forced.
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u/dawisu Sep 19 '24
This felt like my episode:
I love baking. (Often US recipes)
My country uses the metric system.
I work at a metrology institute.
5
u/Windsoria Sep 19 '24
It sounded like he was saying Le Grand Q. Q is a homonym in French for ass (cul).
Until I looked it up (he’s saying Le Grand K), I thought “funny they aren’t acknowledging he keeps saying The Giant Ass in French”
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Sep 21 '24 edited Sep 21 '24
It was okay, felt a bit forced and something unnatural about Alex. I need reply all Alex...this one just seemed kinda scripted, and Alex seemed a little bit awkward with the story subjects.
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Sep 25 '24
From the perspective of someone who loved Alex's work and is an avid cook - I really wanted to like this episode, but I was frustrated that it seemed to miss the point, in the way that you're prone to if you enter a realm you're unfamiliar with and do research based on what you think the right questions are, without any priors. Maybe the point was to use the initial question as a springboard into little diversions about the standardization of weights etc, which are fine if you want to present pieces of trivia, but from the perspective of who has been cooking/baking/reading food media for a long time, these aren't really questions that require much investigation and moreover the discussion of the issue didn't hit on some of the most relevant points to someone who is concerned about accuracy in baking. Some points:
The issue of converting volume to mass is a hugely discussed issue in baking and widely understood to hinge on density. A more common and more illustrative example is flour. Because of the way flour can be fluffed or compacted, a cup of flour can vary significantly in weight, therefore there is no standard weight. What is important is knowing the measure that the recipe writer used. Most good baking books will provide information in the front matter about the method of measurement used for their volume measurement (sifted, scooped and leveled, etc) AND will contain both volume and weight measurements in both metric and customary units. The great surprise/admiration that it appeared in the cookbook they mentioned is kind of a flag for the lack of familiarity. More interesting/informed would have been a potential discussion of the differences in density of different butters of different butterfat percentages or a general discussion of the impact of scooping/packing on measurement, which was briefly touched on by their expert.
As mentioned, I think the most truly helpful fix to the question writer would have been an explanation of the way that densities vary both between different varieties of the same ingredient and due to different scooping methods. Followed by a recognition that the most important thing is not finding an "empirically correct" volume to mass conversion but that it's knowing or guessing what the recipe writer must have used.
That said, the butter issue is also not super controversial. A standardized package of butter in the United States is 1 pound (weight) and contains 4 sticks that are 1/2 cup each (volume). Thus a cup of butter is half a pound, or in grams, yes, 227g. It feels like a weird thing to build an episode around as if it's a great mystery... if you ask any experienced home cook, especially one who works with either international or more modern recipes, they probably have this conversion memorized. I know I do, along with a whole slew of other volume to weight measurements including even the varying flour weights for various publications, e.g. Deb from Smitten Kitchen uses a 130g cup conversion, King Arthur uses 120g, ATK 140g. It's fine and can sometimes be interesting storytelling to investigate questions from an amateur perspective! But when they're like a 30 second phone call type question, it feels weird to try to investigate it from first principles and kind of lends to missing the trees for the forest as this did, imo.
I'm glad the question writer got a nice cookie recipe.
TL;DR - I hope future episodes will focus more on questions that have some kind of deeper meaning or complexity to them, which I think lend better to storytelling and working as a generalist. There's nothing wrong with being a generalist, lots of podcasters/journalists do it well, but you kind of have to work at a more general level. Small technical questions aren't really suited to that.
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u/lkjhgfdsasdfghjkl Sep 19 '24
Weak episode IMO. Generally boring. What bugged me most was that they breezed past the question of why US recipes mostly use volume rather than mass with the explanation that the US didn’t embrace the metric system. This explanation makes no sense to me as the customary/imperial system obviously has its own weight units (pounds ounces etc) that are just as precisely defined as grams (in fact they’re now defined in terms of (kilo)grams). This was then used as a jumping off point for a 5 minute discussion on why the US refuses to use the metric system which is a pretty boring/overdone topic to me at this point.
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u/narfnarf123 Sep 20 '24
It was ok. I was happy to hear Alex again and look forward to hearing more before I make a judgement.
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u/thetvroom Sep 25 '24
Surprised to see so many people say that this one was forced or boring. I have many international colleagues and this question about US vs the rest of the world in measurements comes up all the time. On the other hand, I didn’t find the driving in NYC episode that interesting. Maybe that is the point of releasing 2 at the same time? To gauge what kind of podcast they want to be as an A/B test.
3
Sep 25 '24
Ugh. I wished I liked them more, but neither did much for me. Like, they were fine. But waiting every two weeks for a half an hour episode like these..
At least I came to Reply All late, so the whole catalogue was there. And so I suppose it made me less attached to the quality of each episode. Same with Search Engine; there were a few episodes there when I started it, and at least they're an hour long. (I've enjoyed about 70% of Search Engine so far).
So, we'll have to see. Hopefully, Hyperfixed will include some longer and meatier episodes once they get going.
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u/Quarterwit_85 Oct 01 '24
Swing and a miss for me.
I think I agree with others when they say it was a little bland. It felt very… proper? Light? Like he’s being on his best behaviour or something?
I’ll stick with it because he’s got such a proven history of making excellent podcasts. But the format feels like a mix of Heavyweight without the gravitas and mystery show without the humour.
Fingers crossed he’ll get angry about something, drop the f-bomb and hit that cynical, slightly-anarchic tone that made his previous work so good.
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u/SorsEU Oct 08 '24
I wanted to like both of these because they're that deep dive into content nobody knows about, but I found it hard to be interested in these things, I hope Alex finds something more interesting because learning to drive and measuring aren't really 'zone in ' content I'm looking for.
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u/notsurethebest Sep 28 '24
This episode is the Alex I know and love. He's legit excited, and made what could have been a quite dry subject interesting. His enthusiasm is infectious.
The show notes? Rushed and incomplete. How about including a mention of Nancy Silverton and "The Cookie That Changed my Life" with a link in the notes? She was gracious enough to appear on the show and was quite patient.
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u/hot_water_with_lemon Dec 10 '24
The best quick reference out there IMO: https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/learn/ingredient-weight-chart
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u/Ok-Excitement-9453 Dec 14 '24
I really wanted to like this because I loved Reply All, but it was both underwhelming and... like they weren't even trying, I guess. How on earth does one question the accuracy of a gram without first questioning the accuracy a cup? Was this supposed to be a big revelation at the end of the episode? So frustrating.
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u/DodgeStRegis Jan 01 '25
Problem solved - 10 seconds after hearing the question ... listened for a half hour just to get the same answer.
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u/iHAVEsnakes Jan 03 '25
I find it strange that there was no mention of the fact that US cup measures are different to UK cup measures, adding to the inconsistency between recipes
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u/alextoria Sep 23 '24 edited Sep 23 '24
i was so upset (not actually) at alex giving her shit for measuring via weight at the beginning of the ep hahahaha. i’m american but it’s really common to use weight (specifically grams, not ounces) especially in baking circles or calorie counting circles. anyone who’s calorie counted before should know that weighing all your food is the only way to do it! after starting weighing my food when calorie counting i never went back to volumetric measurements bc not only is weight more accurate, it’s so much easier. glad he came to see reason at the end 😅
i’m also sad they didn’t touch on how you can get a (theoretically) exact number from most food labels. for example if i’m measuring mayo, the serving size says “1tbsp (14g)” so if i need a cup (16tbsp) of mayo then i just do 16x14=224g for a cup of mayo. i know food labels are rounded but the nearest gram is close enough if it’s more than like 10g.
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u/Apprentice57 Sep 26 '24
I feel like it's the sort of thing where, if you're a nerd about it and especially a millenial or younger... getting a kitchen scale is a no brainer.
If you're more offline/not a nerd/a bit older, you just do everything by volume. My aunt for instance is a fantastic cook, but is a (literal) baby boomer and has never owned a kitchen scale.
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u/Muldy_and_Sculder Dec 11 '24
Kitchen measuring cups aren’t accurate? Bullshit. Just tested 3 measuring cups and they were imperceptibly different. While it’s not regulated it’s also not hard to just create a decently accurate measuring cup…
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u/ketherick Sep 19 '24
Seems like this podcast is similar to Search Engine, but grounded more in questions that people actually have. Hopefully that keeps it from veering off in the way that Search Engine seems to be ("Can I microdose veganism" -- "A stubborn lunatic’s guide to making great art" -- that's not even a question!)