European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - June 20, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Directions by Marian Burros new York times in response to a column that explored the proper Way to write a Cookbook a writer asked when authors were going to shape  what do you mean by three medium apples he wanted Lopnow. And Why Don t you Tell us How Many ounces and pounds to buy instead of How Many cups How often have you stood in front of a package of Rice in the supermarket and wondered How Many one Pound packages to buy to make a recipe calling Lor 10 cups or How often have you tried to decide Between a two Pound bag or a live Pound bag of flour for the bread recipe calling Lor 10 cups of course these ingredients Are Shell stable and if too much is bought it can always be used later so if your memory is fuzzy about How the recipe worked out last time or something new is being tried buy More rather than less. It would be just As easy for manufacturers to provide such information on the labels. Why can t the six ounce package of chocolate chips say that in contains one cup perhaps Consumers have not made their wishes known. Nutrition Labelling on some packages provides a clue. When the Label gives the serving size in cups and then the number of cups found in the Container the work has been done for you. Few recipes for Home Cooks Supply Bolh weight and volume. They leave the Cook to Figuro out what size consumer watch Box. Package can or Nack to buy. And More often than nol recipes Call for Hrco drum onions instead of one Pound. What a med us. Of course is determined by How Small the maltese onions arc in thai stack and How Large the largest arc. Of on it dons nol make much difference whether the aggregate weight of the Moons is 12or 16 ounce. In h sense it depends on to much you Uto rows. The biggest problem however is with packaged dry ingredients because there is no Rule of thumb. There Are. Lor example. 20 cups of while flour m a five Pound bar but Only 18 a cup of whole wheat four in a five Pound bag. The weight Obrown sugar is different from the weight of while granulated sugar which is different from the weight of confectioners sugar. After awhile you remember some of these equivalents. For example there Are iwo to three Tablespoons of juice in a Mcmon. Three medium apples or potatoes in a Pound and just about 16 Spears of asparagus in a Pound. Liquid measurements arc toss of a problem because cups can to converted swiftly into ounces. From school clays we need Only remember that there Are eight ounces in a cup Lour ounces in half a cup and so on. From hat in is an easy step to convert Tablespoons to ounces every liquid ounce equals two Tablespoons. The Basic problem lies in the fact that most Home Cooks use cups and Tablespoons while most professional Cooks use pounds and ounces. Until we Cook by weight we have two alternatives memorize the equivalents or Consul an equivalency Chart one of the Best can be found in Joy of cooking by Irma s. Of Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker following Are a few equivalents thai May come in Handy bread 1 to 2 slices soft equals 1 cup crumbs 1 Pound loaf equals 10 cups Small bread cubes Butler or Margarine 1 ounce equals 2 Tablespoons. 1 stick a ounces equals i cup chocolate in swelled 1 ounce equals 1 Square team heavy 40% 1 cup equals 2 cups whipped eggs 4-6 whole b-10 Whites 10-14 Yolks equal 1 cup sugar granulated 2m cups superfine Syi cups Brown about 2 to cups firmly packed granulated Brown about 3 1/8 cups confectioners. 3rt cups equals 1 Pound the cautious approach to sodium Labelling by mar Ian Burros new York times Ore than five years ago or. Arlhur Hull Hayes then the commissioner of the food and drug administration told a congressional hearing Hal in companies did nol voluntarily Label packaged products soon with their sodium Content he favored forcing them to do so. Asked later what he meant by soon Hayes said within six  Hayes is Long gone from the Fra he resigned three years ago to become Dean of Mew York medical College. The chairman of the subcommittee that heard the testimony. Albert Gore or. D-tenn., has moved from the House of representatives to the Senate. And there is still no Law that cays All packaged food Musl contain information about sodium Content. Two years ago the Fra published a proposed regulation to make sodium Labelling mandatory under certain circumstances. If there Are no delays the regulation is scheduled to Lake effect this summer. Almost a dozen companies have asked Lor extensions in order to comply. One of them coca cola says it May be reformulating us Tab soda and would like to relabel when it reformulated. Other companies have Solhei reasons. The new Labelling regulation Falls far Short of what Hayes wanted it would require Only that manufacturers who give nutrition Labelling on their foods include the sodium Content on the nutrition Label. About 55 percen of All prepared foods have nutrition Labelling so under the proposed regulation nearly half the packaged foods sold in this country would nol have sodium information unless the manufacturer provides it voluntarily. Manufacturers who want to offer Only sodium information without the rest of the Standard nutrition Label would be free to do so. The proposed regulation defines the Way a manufacturer May describe the amount of sodium in a product to be called sodium free a food must have less than 5 milligrams a serving. Very Tow sodium products May contain no More than 35 milligrams a serving. Low sodium foods May have no More than 140 milligrams a serving. Reduced sodium would mean thai the sodium in american Page 16 the stars and stripes a after adjustment for inflation America Consumers were less Well off in 1982-83than they were in 1972-73. The average before tax income then was $29,702compared to the 1982-83 figure of $28,207. Despite the decline in real income americans hardly changed the Way they spent their Money according to the Bureau of labor statistics whose studies always come out a couple of years after the fact. A study by the congressional joint economic commit Lee Louth that tha average income of America s 33 million families with children declined eight percent from 1973 to 1984. Harder times have hit families across the income spectrum in Points out with Tower income households the most devastated. Friday june 20.1986 the food has been reduced by at least 25 percent. Even if the proposal goes into effect shoppers would still have to be Alert Lor such phrases a no  no Salt added and Salt  such descriptions do not mean the product is sodium free. Such Salt free foods May contain Monos Odham glutamate sodium bicarbonate sodium saccharin or other sodium based ingredients that add sodium to the diet. The Only Way Consumers can protect themselves against ingestion of unwanted sodium is by carefully Reading the ingredient statement which a required by the Fra. While a manufacturer can use any sort of fanciful phrase or terminology on the Label it is much harder to hide the facts on the ingredient statement. Where they stand financially the wealthiest one fifth of families has experienced a 1.7 percent Cut in their real income since 1973. The Bottom two filth experienced losses of 20 percent and 34 percent respectively. In the meantime another study in America by Money Magazine would seem to make it obvious that if anyone is upset about not having enough Money in is women. Of the 2,491 who look part Hall of All women said Money is on their minds More than sex Many also said that they enjoy Money More than sex. Among men it was found that Money and sex came out about equal in importance. And if believing makes it so women also Are better Money managers than men of those surveyed 51 percent considered themselves belter Money managers from wire reports