Cup measure

One way to deal with cup measurements if you use a recipe repeatedly is to use the cup measurements as the recipe suggests, but then weigh the cup holding the ingredient (subtract the weight of the cup, though.) Write the weight on the recipe, and from then on, you can use weights.

Chocolate chips are small enough that you can get very very close to one exact cup in a one cup container. Maybe you will be 99.95% or 100.05% volume. But, with chocolate chips - more is always better.

Thanks for all the answers :-)
I love bigpans water container, but it will notwork with chocolate chips. The carrots was just an example, chocolate chips is just as much a headake to me.

I eyeball it. Usually, with a vegetable like carrots, if you use a little more or less than the recipe calls for, it's not going to mess up the end result. Besides, except for very exact and persnickety recipes, I consider the recipe to be a guideline, not scripture.

An accurate way to measure 1 cup of chopped carrot is to get a 4 cup container, put in 3 cups of water, then add chopped carrot until it gets to the 4 cup level mark. Discard the water and you have exactly 1 cup of chopped carrot.

When I asked a question here once, somebody pointed me to this incredibly useful website. It doesn't answer this specific question, but you could back the information out with a little calculating: http://www.e-cookbooks.net/ingredeq.htm

It really depends. There are undoubtedly some who dutifully follow exacting instructions. Others, myself included, use my eye for measurement, especially for savory dishes where precise measure is not usually crucial to success. Personally I am surprised so many of my fellow Americans still favor the cup.

Personally, if I see a recipe that calls for 1 c. chopped carrots, I get irritated and just throw in whatever amount I think is enough. I would much rather see the amount given in weight or in total number of carrots, etc. But too many people in the US don’t use a kitchen scale, so that’s why we end up with silly measurements like that. For the record, one cup of chopped vegetables is about 200 ml in Metric Speak.

You need about 2 medium (4-6oz each) carrots to get 1 cup chopped