#a friend said grams are better for super precise recipes and I need to point at my available scales for measure and say No

[phoenixyfriend]

Hey I have some photos for you all! Also, the above stove is not twice my age; it is merely a decade or so older than me (late eighties, whereas I'm mid-nineties).

This is the only available balance/scale, which actually is twice my age, as it is older than my father (this thing is from the early/mid sixties, so it's closing in on six decades old if it isn't already there). It is not very good at finely-tuned weight adjustments. There might be rust. I do battle with it every time I use it.

Here is the only volumetric I have, a 1 liter measuring 'cup' that has... several sets of measures:

Had to use a can of coffee for contrast on the measuring cup but the translations (bottom word is in latin alphabet).

Pirinac: rice (measured in grams or ounces) Brasno: flour (measured in grams or ounces) Litar: volume (milliliters) Secer: Sugar (measured in grams or ounces)

Keep in mind that different types of rice/flour/sugar are going to weigh different amounts, so having a volumetric try to approximate weight is not helpful! Long grain rice weighs differently from round grain! Whole wheat is heavier than white flour! Caster sugar is going to weigh differently from granulated! If you're a volumetric then just have everything in milliliters, I am begging, what is going on with this measuring cup, it is for estimated quantities only.

Would anyone like a controversial baking opinion?

Baking recipes in imperial measurements are actually more internally consistent than recipes in metric.

90% of Imperial recipes are standardized to be volumetric.

You do measure some things by weight in imperial recipes, but that's mostly on the cooking side, not the baking one. When things are mass-based, it's usually items that are pre-measured (e.g. bars of baking chocolate tend to tell you their weight in oz and you can easily measure it by way of math since they're molded into a grid already).

But other than a few specific things, basic recipes for baking are volumetric.

Water? Cups. Flour? Cups. Sugar? Cups. Vanilla? Tablespoons. Salt? Teaspoons. Baking soda/powder? Teaspoons. Spices? Teaspoons.

You have two rings of measuring cups and spoons, and a knife to level off? You are grand.

Metric recipes you gotta switch between volumetric (liquids) and mass (dry ingredients), and it is very frustrating when your only scale is 50 years old and of questionable quality.

(You do have more weight-based measurements in cooking, though, like Meats and Legumes.)

The reason this is relevant to me rn is that I am at my grandmother's in Serbia and. There are no measuring cup/spoon sets to purchase. Of the below, only the single big clear cup is available, but not the measuring cup/spoon sets, which is what I'm used to:

And the only kind of scale my grandma has is probably twice my age, and looks kind of like this but more banged up and with more slide-y bits:

So I am in a bit of a bind as far as measuring non-liquid items goes.

Also her oven, which is also significantly older than me, has no temperature markings. At all.