So a gallon of chocolate syrup must weigh like 14 pounds

[kay1864]

I got this chocolate mint cake recipe off the web*. And it calls for 16 oz of Hershey’s syrup, so I thought okay, two cups. But after measuring 1½ cups, the squeeze bottle (24 oz) was almost empty, so I stopped at that.

After baking for 30 minutes as the recipe called for, the cake part was jiggly in the center, but the outside was done. So even 1½ cups (12 FLUID oz) might have been too much liquid.

I think the recipe meant a 16 oz can, but not sure they even make those any more.

And if we had gone metric in 1975 like we were supposed to, we wouldn't run into this problem.

DAMN YOU GERALD FORD!!

:P


* http://www.recipeland.com/recipe/41804/

[PVnRT]

1. Not quite

You do realize that chocolate syrup is more dense than water, correct? Measuring cups are generally calibrated (lines painted on them) using water. Chocolate syrup, in addition to being non-Newtonian, is much more dense - 1 fl. oz. of chocolate syrup weighs more than the equivalent volume of water.

In other words, the problem lies not in the absence of the metric system but in poor unit conversion and poor physical property information, a common problem in the freshman chemical laboratory. You should have just used 2/3 of the bottle, approximately, and it would have been fine.

/nerdsnark

[kay1864]

4. Of course I do

And if we used ml and grams instead of oz and oz, there would be no confusion at all. None.

Milk: Fluid ounces
Chocolate syrup: "regular" ounces (weight)

Measuring cups for fluids: Fluid ounces.

Chocolate syrup: a fluid

Freshman chemistry course: Shouldn't be a prerequisite for recipes.

American old-style system of measurement: Fucked-up.

[In_The_Wind]

2. It'll still be yummy with ice cream!

[reyd reid reed]

3. It'd be like the owl and the tootsie-roll pop

No way to get an accurate measurement. Give me a gallon of chocolate syrup and I promise you -- it won't be a gallon for very long.

:P

[ElboRuum]

5. Possibilities...

1) Misprint... maybe 10oz?
2) Recipes always refer to quantities in terms of 'cups', 'tsp/tbsp', when the volume measurement is meant. When assuming a prepackaged product sold by weight, oz is used (presuming foolishly that the exact size of product is available).