Pyrex: How measuring cups measure up

[Quartz Obsession] Pyrex October 18, 2017 One recent afternoon the Quartz editorial slack channel erupted over some fresh breaking (baking?) news: “[An Ex-Googler Redesigns The Humble Measuring Cup.]( The new product, funded via Kickstarter, was described as “the love child of a chem lab graduated cylinder and classic kitchen Pyrex,” and has tapered sides to make measuring more “mathematically optimized.” There was a lot to discuss … How important is mathematical optimization to cooking? Is Google going to get some of the credit for any Kickstarter launched by any of its thousands of employees—past, present, and future? What’s the deal with measuring cups, anyway? But more to the point: Can anyone really improve on Pyrex?!? BY THE DIGITS [3,040:]( Number of standard cups that could be held by the world’s largest measuring cup, made of Pyrex, created in honor of the company’s 100th anniversary in 2015 [4 feet 2 inches:]( Height of the aforementioned cup [500°C]( The highest temperature that vintage Pyrex can withstand (923°F) [-192°C:]( The lowest temperature that vintage Pyrex can withstand (-313.6°F) [2:]( Number of spouts on the original Pyrex cup, one on each side MILLION-DOLLAR QUESTION What’s so Pyrex about Pyrex? --------------------------------------------------------------- You probably think glass is glass. The same stuff that houses your Cabernet Sauvignon also sheathes the front of your car and improves your vision. That’s not entirely true. The oldest types of glass—and the most familiar—are “silicate glasses” based on the chemical compound silica, and most commonly found in nature as (ahem) quartz. Quartz sand is the main component of most commercial glass. Pyrex was revolutionary: It was a fusion of silica and sodium borate, forged in a hot furnace, which greatly reduced the “coefficient of thermal expansion.” Glass with a low coefficient of thermal expansion can withstand relatively extreme temperature changes. That’s why a baking dish comes out of a 450°F oven just fine, while an empty beer bottle would shatter. That, plus the fact that borosilicate glass is resistant to chemical corrosion, is also why Pyrex is commonly used in science labs. PERSON OF INTEREST The mother of measurement --------------------------------------------------------------- The reason we use measuring cups for cooking at all is because of one woman: the cooking school teacher and cookbook author Fannie Farmer. “Early American recipes were poetic and open to interpretation, often inconsistent, with important steps listed out of order and ingredients measured imprecisely — usually ‘a tea cup,’ ‘a good amount,’ or ‘to your taste,’” writes[historic gastronomist Sarah Lohman.]( Of course, measuring cups existed even in ancient times: Circa 1550 BC [Egyptians used them for pharmaceutical purposes]( around 2,000 years ago, the village of [Reina north of Nazareth]( was a hub of manufacturing for measuring cups made of limestone. But Farmer brought the standard cup into modern cookery. In [the 1896 cookbook]( that bears her name (pictured here in its 1983 edition), she crystallized the recipe format we now use: ordered ingredients, clear instructions, precise measurements. Farmer, who had suffered a stroke as a teenager that limited her mobility, became well known for her work in nutrition for the ill. But she was revolutionary in her scientific approach to cooking: she provided explanations of chemical processes and became known as the “mother of level measurements” for her insistence on being exact with ingredients. take me down this 🐰 hole! Here’s [an exhaustive set of conversion calculators and charts]( for cooking around the world (and lots of other things you might need to measure). watch this! Did you know there’s a Christian rapper named PyRexx? Neither did we. BRIEF HISTORY Cooking in glass --------------------------------------------------------------- [1893:]( Borosilicate glass is first made by German chemist Otto Schott, who sells it under the name “Duran.” (Not the inspiration for Duran Duran, unfortunately.) 1913: Bessie Littleton, the wife of a scientist who worked at Corning Glass Works in Corning, New York, breaks a ceramic baking dish. Allegedly, she sees potential in the borosilicate glass her husband works with and [asks him to saw off the top of a glass jar](. In it, she bakes a “uniformly shaped and so light and perfectly browned” sponge cake. 1915: People start cooking in glass. “At the time, that was unheard of,” says Jeff Sauer, business director of laboratory glass at Corning Inc.’s life sciences division. Corning starts manufacturing Pyrex but it takes a while to catch on. The glass implements are advertised as being able to withstand the heat of the oven and the cold of the fridge, but in the 1910s and ’20s, only the richest Americans had refrigerators. After some initial success, sales plummet. 1929: Corning hires home economics professor Lucy Maltby to head up a new consumer services office. She implements a test kitchen, which enables the company to design products to customer demand. ([According to Smithsonian magazine]( executives wouldn’t make a decision without asking “What does Lucy think?”) Corning meanwhile automates production—initially, glassblowers blew bubbles of glass, one by one, into dish-shaped molds. Between lowered costs and improved product lines, Pyrex finally takes off. 1990s: Pyrex switches from borosilicate to soda-lime glass, which it says is more resistant to physical damage when dropped, cheaper to produce, and more environmentally friendly. But the new glass formula is also [more likely to crack under high heat](. So if you want the real thing, hit up eBay for vintage pieces or order a shipment from Paris—European Pyrex is still made from borosilicate. POP QUIZ What *was* the inspiration for the band name Duran Duran? The durian fruitAn Island in the Persian GulfA character in Doctor ZhivagoA character in Barbarella Correct. The band took their name from the French sci-fi film's Dr. Durand Durand. Incorrect. If your inbox doesn’t support this quiz, find the solution at bottom of email. Quarts recommends A few of our favorite cups --------------------------------------------------------------- So can you improve on Pyrex? (Given that Pyrex itself has tried to improve on Pyrex?) Quartz staffers have a few opinions on the matter: [“I’d rather just get the measuring cup Alton Brown uses on Good Eats.”]( — Johnny [“I’m all about this guy.”]( — Yanofsky [“This is really good for cocktails.”]( — Yanofsky [“I find the angled ones to be frustrating for baking because they’re hard to scrape with a spatula. Classic glass Pyrex is 💯 .”]( — Kristin QUOTABLE “With apologies to Fannie Farmer, we should be driving the last nail into the coffin of the dry measuring cup; volume-measuring dry ingredients is inaccurate and faux scientific. But until we can persuade American recipe writers to abandon the archaic, imprecise convention of the cup, these picks will do.” [—The Sweethome on KitchenAid dry measuring cups. (Any serious cook knows that a scale is the most accurate way to measure dry ingredients.)]( talk to us What's your measuring M.O.? [Click here to vote]( Waiting on AI that can weigh my dry ingredients for me.A little bit of this, a little bit of that.Fannie Farmer FTW. the fine print In Friday’s poll about [kaleidoscopes]( 47% of you said we could “color you intrigued.” 🌈 Today’s email was written by [Elijah Wolfson]( and [Jessanne Collins](. Images: [Ben White]( on [Unsplash]( (poll image). The correct answer to the quiz is A character in Barbarella. Enjoying the Quartz Obsession? [Send this link]( to a friend! Not enjoying it? No worries. [Click here]( to unsubscribe. Quartz | 675 Avenue of the Americas, 4th Fl | New York, NY 10011 | United States Share this email