Ounces to Tablespoons, the Dummy Conversion

Sometimes the crack research team at the Antisocial Network can see where misguided freelancers went wrong in their misinformation, but other times it isn't so simple. Take, for instance, the time we ran across Leslie Renico of Leaf.tv (formerly eHow.com, in case you didn't know) and her woefully inadequate attempt to explain "How to Measure Dry Ounces to Tablespoons."¹ We'll grant that the title is stupid to begin with: "measure"? why not "convert"?  but nevertheless, the screw-up is entirely on Leslie. No wonder they took away her byline!

Since she had to pad her answer out to at least 100 words, Leslie went straight to what seems to be her wheelhouse:

"Sometimes when cooking or baking, it’s necessary to convert ingredients from one unit of measurement to another. Not knowing how can make you want to pull your hair out, particularly when you have three different pots boiling and a screaming toddler on the loose..."

...which, we assume went over well with some SAHM charged with being her content "editor." Be that as it may, we wondered why anyone wanted to convert dry ounces to tablespoons in the first place, since most recipes provide an equivalency, e.g., "2 ounces shredded cheese (¼ cup)." Renico apparently didn't know why, either, nor did she know that the only precise conversion from weight (ounces) to volume (tablespoons) requires the introduction of a density factor. Unaware of that necessity, or perhaps uneducated about details (they apparently don't talk much about density in criminal justice classes), Leslie used one paragraph of her "answer" to explain that a liquid ounce equals two tablespoons; then used 73 words to announce a straight-up conversion that could have been stated in six words: one dry ounce equals 2.38 tablespoons. A little math suggests that one tablespoon, then, weighs about 12 grams.

Unfortunately, that's wrong: the weight of a tablespoon of any ingredient depends on its density. For instance, a tablespoon of buttermilk powder weighs about 12.5 grams, while a tablespoon of unsweetened cocoa weighs just 5.5 grams. A tablespoon of caraway seeds weighs 9g, as does a tablespoon of yeast. Oops...

In fact, we couldn't find anywhere, including within Renico's references, that supports her conversion factor of 2.38 tbsp/oz; though one reference says that a tablespoon (of water?) equals 28.3 grams. Perhaps that's where our Dumbass of the Day came up with such a ridiculous notion. We sure as heck couldn't find it anywhere.

¹ The original has been rewritten by Leaf Group's cleanup team, but can still be accessed using the Wayback machine at archive.org. Its URL was   ehow.com/how_8135716_measure-dry-ounces-tablespoons.html

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