The thought occurred to me while I was on a granola bender, a three-week wormhole during which I remember how easy it is to make granola, and prove it by baking two, three, four batches a week. These benders are nothing new; neither are the thoughts that occur during them. It's always,Why are almonds expensive?andWhen does granola cross over from breakfast to dessert?But this time there was a new thought, a thought about liquid measuring cups:The bigger the better.
Why hadn't I had this thought before? Because like a lot of cooks, I have an unjustifiable allegiance to the 1-cup liquid measuring cup. In 2010, when Pyrex redesigned theirs, I joined the chorus offrightened, pissed-off cookswho hated the changes, and for many years I harbored a low-grade fear that I would drop my (now vintage) 1-cup Pyrex and be forced to replace it with a new, ugly model.
Breaking my 1-cup wouldn't concern me now. I have no ill will towards it, but if it died, I'd move on quickly to my 2-cup Pyrex, which can do everything the 1-cup can do (a fact that is not true the other way around). And in the thrilling instances where it is called for, I'd use my 8-cup.
The limitations of the 1-cup are so obvious that it feels ridiculous to type into words, but here it is: it is limited by its size. And more than its size, it is limited by the measures printed on the glass. A 1-cup measuring cup actually holds more than 1 cup of stuff, but you can't tell exactly how much, because any liquid hovering above the 1-cup line is unmeasurable. Likewise for liquids smaller than 1/4 cup.
所以我一直用我微小的含氧的4-tablespoon措施e, and my 2-cup Pyrex. And on weekend mornings I use my 8-cup Pyrex, mixing the wet and dry ingredients of pancake batter right in it, then pouring the batter straight from the glass onto the griddle. Or, in the case of granola, I'm measuring my oats in the 8-cup, adding in coconut, nuts, oil, maple syrup, and stirring it all together. The 8-cup morphs into the bowl, and I've avoided dirtying a second vessel. I find this weirdly thrilling.
And in fact I find myself using the 8-cup Pyrex even when I don't have to measure. When I make a frittata, I whisk my eggs in the 8-cup, stir in the herbs and yogurt (yes,yogurt) and pour it straight into the pan. I love the Pyrex for its spout, sure, but I also love the handle, its weight, and just the oversized, Alice in Wonderland nature of it all.
Where it is small (see what I did there?) is in its price. An8-cup Pyrex measuring cup costs $12 on Amazon, a full $40 less than what I think these things are worth. I still fear dropping mine (sadly, that fear never went away—it just transferred to the 8-cup), but it's good to know how cheap it is to replace.
