When we started giving Italian cooking classes, we were probably naive, simply used to our family recipes. I mean recipes handed down for generations, without much information on the quantities to be used. Our great job was to determine precise measures to help people prepare the dishes we did together. But ……

In Italy and in many other countries,the traditional scale consists of two plates or bowls suspended at equal distance of a fulcrum. One plate holds an object of unknown mass/weight, while known masses are added to the other plate until the plates level off, which happens when the mass on each plates is equal. Isn’t it easy ?
The world of spring scales and balances is fantastic as these items have been created for centuries and used by people everyday:they have a long-and sometimes even artistic- history.

In Italy the quantities of the ingredients are mostly indicated for mass using the weight in metric system, while in other countries the indication is given by volume with the use of specific tools.

Anyway,  we have been trying to convert our recipes into cups and spoons : there are lists and lists of conversions, the use of Google converter, but there is little consistency from one country to another, which can create  confusion.

So we decided to stay with our measurement Metric system and as a suggestion for whoever wants to realize traditional Italian recipes is to use those  imperial/metric measuring containers or cooking digital scales which are easily available.

Good Italian Cooking to Everybody!