Measuring Ingredients
While measuring ingredients may seem simple, the working of some recipes can be confusing and the best technique for measuring ingredients may not be clear. Here are a few tips to help you.Measuring Liquid Ingredients
Always measure liquids by volume, expressed in teaspoons, tablespoons, cups, litres, and millilitres. The number of millilitres of volume is the same as the number of grams in weight. Place a clear glass or plastic spouted measuring cup on a flat surface and bend down so that you're at eye level with it. (Holding the measuring cup up tends to make the liquid slosh around.) Pour in the liquid until it rises to the appropriate mark. For spoon measurements, hold the measuring spoon flat and pour in the liquid until it just reaches the top. Use liquid-measuring cups for thick liquids such as honey and treacle too.
To Measure Viscous, Sticky Liquids
To accurately measure honey, treacle, golden syrup, maple syrup, or jelly, lightly oil the measuring cup or spoon first. Or, if the recipe calls for oil, measure the oil first in the same measure. Then, every drop will slide right out.
To Measure Dry Ingredients
Use a metal or plastic dry cup, or graduated measuring spoons. Rather than dipping the cup or spoon into the ingredient, which compacts its volume, spoon the dry ingredient (such as flour, sugar, cornflour, or baking powder) into the cup or measuring spoon until it's overflowing. Then, level off the ingredient with the flat side of a knife or a spatula. If the dry ingredient seems packed down in its container, fluff it gently with a spoon before measuring. Ingredients such as rice and nuts can be levelled off with your fingers instead.
To Measure Brown Sugar
Gently or firmly pack the sugar into a dry measure according to the recipe directions, then, level it with a straight edge. Brown sugar should hold its shape when emptied from the cup or spoon. For Absolute Accuracy with Dry Ingredients If the recipe lists both weights and volumes, go with the weights and weigh the ingredients on a kitchen scale. Dry ingredients have a different weight-to-volume ratio than liquid ingredients. For instance, 1 cup of flour may weigh as little as 185g or as much as 250 g, depending on how much flour is compacted into the cup.
To Properly Interpret Recipe Measurements
In an ingredient listing, any instruction that follows the comma should be done after measuring. For example, if a recipe calls for "1 cup sifted flour," sift the flour before measuring. If it says "1 cup flour, sifted," measure the flour first and then sift it. If the recipe uses weight instead of volume, it doesn't matter when you sift. 250 grams of flour will always weigh 250 grams whether it's sifted or not; only the volume will change.
To Easily Measure Sticky Solid Ingredients
Use the displacement method. That is, if you need ½ cup peanut butter, fill a 2-cup liquid measure with 1 cup water. Add enough peanut butter to the water for the liquid level to rise to 1½ cup. Pour off the water before using.
To Accurately Measure both Wet and Dry Ingredients
Keep 2 sets of measuring cups and spoons: one for dry ingredients (such as baking powder) and another for wet ingredients (such as vanilla extract). This saves time washing and drying as you assemble your ingredients. If you have only one set of measuring cups and spoons, measure dry ingredients first. Once a measuring vessel is wet, dry ingredients placed in it will stick to the cup or spoon, making it useless for accurate measurement.
To Accurately Divide Dough's or Batters into Equal Parts
Use a scale to measure the total weight and then, accordingly, the divided weight. For instance, to divide dough into thirds, measure the dough's total weight, divide by 3, and divide the dough into 3 parts with equal weight.
Tip: A 1-cup dry measuring cup has the exact same volume as a 1-cup liquid measuring cup. It's the nature of the contents the fluidity (and spill-ability) of liquid ingredients, and the challenge of levelling off dry ingredients-that makes the two different types of measuring cups useful and necessary kitchen tools.
To Avoid Losing Track of What You've Measured
Place unmeasured ingredients to the left of your workspace and move to the right as they are measured. It also helps to count out loud while measuring.
To Keep Track of the Number of Eggs you've Cracked
Move the exact number of eggs you need to one side of the egg carton and proceed to crack. Or, if the carton is full when you start, it's easy enough to keep track by the number of emptied cups.
To Avoid Spilling Ingredients into a Mixing Bowl
Never measure over the mixing bowl. Measure over a piece of paper towel, baking paper or waxed paper, so that you can pour any spills back into the ingredient box or container.
To Measure Salt without Spilling all over the Bench
To catch spilled salt, hold a larger measuring spoon under the spoon into which you are measuring. Any overflow will cascade into the larger spoon. Or, if you tend to measure a lot of salt, store it in a lidded container or salt box so that the pouring dilemma is eliminated. All you have to do is dip in with a spoon.
To Save Time Measuring Flour and Sugar
Keep a ½ cup measure in the bin. That way, you'll always have an easily multipliable measure ready. For measurements of less than ½ cup, use spoon measures.
Eyeballing Measurements
Except in baking, where the structure of the finished product is dependent on an exact ratio of ingredients, precise measurement is not always essential in most recipes. Experienced cooks learn to approximate small measurements, such as teaspoons and tablespoons, by eyeballing them, a practice that is worth learning because it can greatly speed up the assembling of ingredients.
To learn to eyeball measurements, measure a teaspoon of salt or sugar and pour it into your hand. Observe it and try to remember its shape and mass, feel how much it weighs, and notice what area it takes up in your palm.
Now, try pouring that much salt directly into your hand from a container. Test your accuracy by pouring the contents of your hand back into a measuring teaspoon.
