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I agree with both who said 12oz is the sweet spot. Another good feature to look for is stackable since (depending on your cupboards) you can use a lot less space, and a wider base so not easily tipped over.
the trouble with large plates i found is that more food is heaped on them.
i found that having smaller plates and bowls effectively reduced my portion size, which was much healthier.
i was amazed to notice this. simply by using smaller plates and bowls, i ate less (a LOT less) without feeling hungry or deprived or forcing myself to cut back.
my favorite plate i currently use is a glass mini-pie plate less than 6" across. I like that it has sides. it is aesthetically pleasing to me. I like glass. these make me happy just looking at them in the cupboard or seeing them on my counter.
for mugs i also found some clear glass mugs. i like thick clear glass. glasses for tea i found some also thick clear glass, and some pretty pale green glass too. functional things i use every day and look at every day, for me need to also be beautiful and pleasing to look at and handle.
I'm not seeing this. I looked online to see that a standard plate is 10.5 inches in diameter, which is the size of some casual plates I recently bought for outdoor use. They are the same size as the plates that belong to the fine china I received for my wedding 40 years ago. Just for grins and giggles I looked online at Macy's, Belk's and Target, with most plates coming in at the 10.5 or 10.75 size, and a couple of 11 inch plates.
I did read that you can find plates with a larger rim, mostly found in restaurants, but that is mostly a decorative element as the well of those larger plates is generally the same size as the well on a standard plate.
Mugs that come as part of a dinner set also don't seem that much larger to me either. Mugs that are not part of a dinnerware set however do seem quite a bit larger but I think that's due to the way people use them nowadays. Me, I rarely sit down to breakfast for 'a cup' of coffee, instead I grab the biggest mug I can find and fill it to carry around with me all morning. I do it at work and I do it at home, the bigger the mug the better IMO. Judging from the mugs my co-workers carry around I don't think I'm alone in that sentiment either.
Where I saw it was the bowls. I met my husband in 1979, and we knew we were going to get married not soon after. I started buying dishes because I was working at a department store, and I could get the dishes that I liked at a discount even on sale. I bought Pfaltzgraff Yorketown. I was way into early American. Those balls held somewhere between 9 to 10 ounces. They were considered soup/cereal bowls, but I also bought the rimmed soup plates. Held about the same. And
Somewhere in the early 2000’s I had shed the early American esthetic, except for my silverware, and was now decidedly mid century modern. My dinnerware had suffered catastrophes, and I was running out of bowls.
And that’s when I discovered that the soup/cereal bowl is now in about 22 ounces. You could literally open up a bag of frozen broccoli, put it in a bowl, stick it in the microwave and cook it in something that was supposed to be a soup bowl or a cereal bowl.
I didn’t think about this, I just bought something I liked. And like a lot of people I’ll fill the bowl with the cereal, and didn’t realize that I was now eating three times the cereal I should. Yeah those bowls became cat food dishes.
I try to be very conscious of how much I eat, and for me, a lot of portion control is a mind game. Take sandwich bread. Bread is now made in really large loaves. One piece is a serving. One piece cut in half to make a sandwich is technically a proper portion. But in my head, it’s a half sandwich. And I feel deprived. Luckily they still make bread in the smaller loaf pans and generally they cut it thinner, so two pieces is a serving and it is technically probably the same size as that “half sandwich” but to my head, I feel better.
Even though it’s a mind game that I’m playing on myself. A whole sandwich is better than a half. Even though calorically it’s exactly the same. Humans are complicated.
But regarding coffee cup sizes? I am on team big. I have a 24 ounce coffee mug, and because I drink my coffee very white, I’m probably getting 12 ounces of coffee and 8 ounces of milk. And my preference is milk over cream.
the trouble with large plates i found is that more food is heaped on them.
i found that having smaller plates and bowls effectively reduced my portion size, which was much healthier.
i was amazed to notice this. simply by using smaller plates and bowls, i ate less (a LOT less) without feeling hungry or deprived or forcing myself to cut back.
my favorite plate i currently use is a glass mini-pie plate less than 6" across. I like that it has sides. it is aesthetically pleasing to me. I like glass. these make me happy just looking at them in the cupboard or seeing them on my counter.
for mugs i also found some clear glass mugs. i like thick clear glass. glasses for tea i found some also thick clear glass, and some pretty pale green glass too. functional things i use every day and look at every day, for me need to also be beautiful and pleasing to look at and handle.
I think that's a smart tool to help you use self-discipline when eating! There is another thread here on how to eat less ice cream, and to your point - if you dish out the ice cream into a cereal bowl, you'll probably eat a lot, but if you dish it out into a little glass sherbet dish, it may help you to eat less - still need some will power of course, but it's a device to help you enforce some self-discipline.
I have a set of dishes made in CA in 1934-1940. It's amazing how important dishes were back then. These were made for everyday use for families. They are for casual dining. There are several size plates and bowls among other things no longer made today.
There were bowls made for every type of soup and more:
.
cream soup (includes an underplate)
rimmed soup
chowder bowl
lug soup bowl (has a cover)
chili bowl
cereal bowl
fruit bowl
large oatmeal bowl
small oatmeal bowl
individual covered casserole (has a lid and handle)
Cups came in various sizes depending on the occasion and use. Most cups had saucers.
Dinner coffee cups
After dinner coffee cups (2 different shapes)
Jumbo coffee cups
egg cups
custard cups
pudding cups
Coffee Mugs came in 2 sizes as well. There is also a larger mug, not for coffee but for beer.
Serving bowls and platters came in several sizes and shapes depending on what you were serving. All of this is part of one set of dishes which could be purchased at any department store.
This is what a cream soup bowl looked like in 1934
Last edited by marino760; 04-27-2023 at 05:13 PM..
I actually find the cereal/soup bowls that come with dish sets to be too small. I like plenty of space between the food and the rim, so the liquid doesn’t slosh out.
My favorite mugs are my Moorland mugs from England. I bought 2 over there, and loved them so much that I paid a fortune to get a few more. I don’t thing there’s a US source for them.
They’re the perfect size, very sturdy, microwaveable and have cute sheep in “jumpers” and sayings on them.
I have a set of dishes made in CA in 1934-1940. It's amazing how important dishes were back then. These were made for everyday use for families. They are for casual dining. There are several size plates and bowls among other things no longer made today.
There were bowls made for every type of soup and more:
.
cream soup (includes an underplate)
rimmed soup
chowder bowl
lug soup bowl (has a cover)
chili bowl
cereal bowl
fruit bowl
large oatmeal bowl
small oatmeal bowl
individual covered casserole (has a lid and handle)
Cups came in various sizes depending on the occasion and use. Most cups had saucers.
Dinner coffee cups
After dinner coffee cups (2 different shapes)
Jumbo coffee cups
egg cups
custard cups
pudding cups
I think we've lost something with modern place setting. Although I doubt most people even sit down to eat nowadays.
My cereal bowls are the same size as a serving of cereal -
I actually find the cereal/soup bowls that come with dish sets to be too small. I like plenty of space between the food and the rim, so the liquid doesn’t slosh out.
My favorite mugs are my Moorland mugs from England. I bought 2 over there, and loved them so much that I paid a fortune to get a few more. I don’t thing there’s a US source for them.
They’re the perfect size, very sturdy, microwaveable and have cute sheep in “jumpers” and sayings on them.
Check dollar tree for mugs or thrift stores. I like a big mug of coffee in the morning. I think mine is 16 oz. but I usually only have 1 a day.
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Solly says — Be nice!
There is another thread here on how to eat less ice cream, and to your point - if you dish out the ice cream into a cereal bowl, you'll probably eat a lot, but if you dish it out into a little glass sherbet dish, it may help you to eat less - still need some will power of course, but it's a device to help you enforce some self-discipline.
