Kenneth
No, really isn't ambiguous at all. It has a very specific meaning. "Dry ounces" is a standard of measure. It's what comprises a dry pint and that's how berries are sold - those pints and quarts are different than fluid measures with the same names. You're confusing them with "avoirdupois ounces" which are measures of weight. There's no direct interchangeability. The clichˇ that says a volume ounce of water weighs an ounce avoirdupois is wrong. Close but no cigar.
measure just about everyplace else that uses ounces (not many places left). I'd suggest you ask the person for clarification. The final recipe will vary significantly if he meant weight and you used volume or vice versa. It's just guesswork that way.
What many other people would or wouldn't do isn't germane to the discourse. There are defined standards for volume and weight with conventional names. Guessing about them is merely guessing, no matter how many people do it.
You know, there are standards for recipe notation. They vary from country to country and culture to culture. To see the American standard, get a copy of "Recipes Into Type" by Whitman and Simon.
PING: The Bobs 626What I did: Boiled the hocks for 3 hours while I was out and about. Defatted the stock. Squeezed the juice from the kraut and saved it. Fried a small...
Few American kitchens have scales because of Fanny Farmer and her approach to writing recipes. She published her book just about at the right time for the industrial revolution to provide standardized measures. Little glbutt cups with numbers on them are cheap. Scales are not. So cups it was and so it remains except in the professional kitchens.
Anyone who told you to add 8 ounces of anything customarily referred to by volume is merely adding distraction and confusion. If people are going to play in the kitchen, it behooves them to learn the local language.
Pastorio
