Measuring Sour Cream

Decorating By Gerle Updated 18 Jul 2012 , 5:33pm by FromScratchSF

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Gerle Posted 18 Jul 2012 , 4:08am
post #1 of 11

I have a silly question..... For years I've been told that you measure sour cream in a dry ingredient measuring cup because of it's consistency. I was reading through a couple of baking cookbooks (Art and Soul of Baking was one of them) this past weekend, and they said to measure sour cream in a liquid measuring cup. I know a lot of you weigh your ingredients, and I'm slowly working into that method of measurement, but I'm curious as to how most of you (other than weighing) measure sour cream. I'm now wondering if I've been measuring sour cream properly or not.... I tried searching this subject matter, but was unsuccessful. I probably didn't search it right, but tried several different methods and couldn't get what I was looking for, so sorry if it's a duplicate question.

10 replies
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scp1127 Posted 18 Jul 2012 , 4:21am
post #2 of 11

I weigh it. It weighs between 8 to 8 1/2 oz.

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FromScratchSF Posted 18 Jul 2012 , 4:42am
post #3 of 11

Agreed - I do 8.4 oz per cup.

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CupcakeMamaof2 Posted 18 Jul 2012 , 4:52am
post #4 of 11

Hmmmm. I've always used dry ingredient cup but never thought about it. Curious now too.

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manddi Posted 18 Jul 2012 , 5:04am
post #5 of 11

I use a dry cup. Sour cream is to thick to lay flat in a liquid cup.

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poohsmomma Posted 18 Jul 2012 , 1:26pm
post #6 of 11

I use the displacement method if ther is other liquid in the recipe:
I use the WASC recipe here on CC. It calls for one cup of water and one cup of sour cream. In a two cup measuring cup, I fill it with one cup of water and then spoon in the sour cream until the water reaches the 2 cup line.

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Gerle Posted 18 Jul 2012 , 1:37pm
post #7 of 11

Thanks for the replies so far. It's interesting to see the various ways bakers do things. I am getting into more of the weighing of ingredients so I'll probably just stick to that method. It's also interesting how a measurement of an item can be so different when weighing. I'm learning new things every day!

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imagenthatnj Posted 18 Jul 2012 , 3:18pm
post #8 of 11

I weigh it, too. My baking textbook doesn't even come with anything else than grams, ounces and baker's percentages.

BUT, I've read that if you're not weighing it, you should use a dry ingredient measuring cup. It makes sense for accuracy.

"Ingredients like sour cream, peanut butter, and yogurt are measured using dry measuring cups because they are too thick to be accurately measured in the liquid cups. Level off sour cream and peanut butter with the back of a knife."

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FromScratchSF Posted 18 Jul 2012 , 3:20pm
post #9 of 11

I weight almost everything. It's the only way you can make sure your ingredients are in proper ratios. There is no way to be sure or accurate by measuring by volume. It's especially important when you are baking scratch.

And it's a heck of a lot easier measuring out 3 pounds of sour cream then it is spooning out 68 cups (or whatever 3 pounds would be in cups icon_smile.gif

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hbquikcomjamesl Posted 18 Jul 2012 , 4:24pm
post #10 of 11

The thought occurred to me that one of those deals with the movable plunger for a bottom (that Alton Brown was always using on Good Eats) would also work.

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FromScratchSF Posted 18 Jul 2012 , 5:33pm
post #11 of 11
Quote:
Originally Posted by hbquikcomjamesl

The thought occurred to me that one of those deals with the movable plunger for a bottom (that Alton Brown was always using on Good Eats) would also work.




I have those things - they seem like such a good idea and he makes them look so cool but they are a MESS and a pain to use! Called Wonder Cups.

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