little orange fruits weigh what?

April 3, 2009 12:33 PM

How much does a pint of kumquats weight?

That's about 500 mL by volume, but I understand non-USians prefer to weigh ingredients. Precision is of some importance here. (Yes, I have Googled to no avail. Short of actually going out and trying to *find* a pint of kumquats out of season, you're my only hope.)

posted by libraryhead to food & drink (13 comments total)

how much do they *weigh,* of course. where's that edit feature?
posted by libraryhead at 12:34 PM on April 3

Well, from this Kumquat Growers Inc page. 1/4 of a bushel is 10 lbs, which google says is 74 pints. So.. a pint weighs about 1/2 a pound.
posted by borkencode at 12:42 PM on April 3

I have neither access to kumquats nor a kitchen scale; however, I do have a package of mandarinquats sitting on my kitchen counter and slowly rotting because my in-laws thought they sounded interesting.

The package has holes in it, so I can't test its volume, but it looks like it would hold about a pint, maybe slightly less. It's labeled as weighing 10 oz (284g), so absurd extrapolation says that a pint of kumquats would weight 10-12 oz.
posted by tomatofruit at 12:42 PM on April 3

They are mostly water, so one strategy is to assume that they weigh the same as a pint (16oz.) of water, which is calibrated to weight 16oz. or 1lb. Probably they are somewhat less dense than water and so weigh a little less.

If they are not packed efficiently you should estimate the true volume and use that.
posted by grobstein at 12:42 PM on April 3

According to the Florida Kumquat Growers, a quarter bushel of kumquats weighs about 10 pounds. You should be able to figure it out from there.
posted by Lazlo Hollyfeld at 12:43 PM on April 3

Dammit borkencode. Beat me to it.
posted by Lazlo Hollyfeld at 12:44 PM on April 3

As another data point confirming the Kumquat Growers page, this recipe says that 2 quarts = 2 lbs, so a pint would weigh 1/2 lb.
posted by cabingirl at 12:49 PM on April 3

9.455 ounces. You're welcome.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 12:53 PM on April 3

A pint's a pound, the world around.
posted by pentagoet at 12:57 PM on April 3 [1 favorite has favorites]

I did find that kumquat growers' page, but was stumped at the bushel. Consensus says: 1 pint kumquats = 280 g. If your marmalade doesn't turn out, you can't say I didn't try.
posted by libraryhead at 1:01 PM on April 3

A pint's a pound, the world around.

Not really.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 1:24 PM on April 3 [1 favorite has favorites]

Assuming spherical kumquats (how long have I waited to say that?), packing is the key to answering this, aside from being so gauche as to actually measure the weight.

Spheres can pack as densely as to fill 75% of the space, if they are packed carefully, but if jumbled, fill only 64%.

So, a pint (0.473L) of spherical kumquats, as dense as as water (roughly) would weight:

0.473 mL * 1.0 g/mL * 65% = 0.31 kg or 10.9 ounces.

Close enough for making jam.
posted by bonehead at 2:25 PM on April 3 [1 favorite has favorites]

A laden, or an unladen kumquat?
posted by brenton at 3:35 PM on April 3 [2 favorites has favorites]