I am not the right person to talk about the measurements, you see. You should consider taking advise from someone who is good in Mathematics. I hardly pay attention to anything that looks and sounds like numbers! In fact, me and the word ‘arithmetic’ should not even be in the same sentence!!! If you still consider my opinion, I think you are pretty desperate, dude! Well, I generally eyeball the ingredients and also use some sort of rudimentary measurements of my own for my everyday cooking. That is why, I panic when I have visitors. I hate…when people judge me…and especially my stupidity.

Anyways…there is always someone to blame…’Mommy’! My mother never taught me anything in a right way or in a wrong way ( and to make it look ‘right’ )!

Yeah, she simply gave me various cues to assist her in the kitchen! My typical cheat-cards were like this…if she wanted some tamarind…she used to say,”bring me a cricket ball sized tamarind” and I obeyed. She must have thought…I responded better, whenever she tricked me like this for being her little helper! Or maybe, I must have really annoyed her with too many questions like this: what exactly is ‘a cup’ mean? …why should ‘a cup’ should always be of 150 ml and not 250 ml?…as cups do come in different sizes, right!!! (enough said about my pea-brain, I guess)

That is why the ingredients in my recipes are too vague to follow…I usually rant it in my own style ‘gooseberry sized – jaggery’ , ‘lemon sized – tamarind’ or ‘peppercorn sized – garam masala’ !!!. Anyway…slowly I progressed to understand what ‘a pinch’ of turmeric will do to the dish, and how ‘a fistful of chana dal’ will make wonders in cooking!

Off lately, I have been thinking of my hard times in the kitchen alone, how I ridiculed the big pot of rasam with just 2-3 dry chilies and the crazy amount of spices I used! And, the mess I created whenever I filled everything brim full …whether its be heating oil for the fries or making curries for two! What was I thinking??!! In the beginning I was misled  by group of people, who blended and pureed enormous amounts of ginger n garlic paste! They must for have been pre processing it for a month’s supply or they must have cooked for an entire village; that’s not the point…I trusted them, and used ladles and ladles of this paste for my solo cooking. Ooops, should I even mention…how disastrous it was.   Oh boy, I was such a dumb-head…I repeatedly made this BIG mistake and took no responsibility at all!  And blamed everyone for ruining my dinner. Poor me, I ate whatever crap I whipped back then. Sometimes, without any human interruption…life is pretty hard, right!!

So, from my very bad start, I have come this far. Here you go, my cue card for you guys. Good luck.

Natural Measurements – Written and Attested by Malar Gandhi.

Volume or Measurements

1 Gallon = 4 Quarts = 8 Pints = 128 fl oz = 256 Tablespoons = 768 teaspoons

 Weight Measurements

Length Measurements

Temperature Conversion

Convert Fahrenheit ( ° F ) to degree Celsius (° C)  – (Fahrenheit – 32) × (0.556)

Convert ° F to ° C                                                -  (Celsius × 1.8) + 32

Conventional Oven Temperature

Regular Temperature Chart

Controlled Spoiling – Incubation Time

 Conversion Chart

Abbreviations