Cooking Terms: Measuring Equipment and How to use it
Check out this video for visuals! Measuring Terms and Equipment
Check out links at the bottom for some of my favorite products for measuring.
Measuring incorrectly or inaccurately is one of the biggest causes for recipes “not turning out.” I am a firm believer that anyone can cook, it’s just a matter of having a very basic set of skills and the ability to look things up. A simple understanding of basic measuring techniques along with knowing what cooking terms mean, will allow any home cook to prepare any recipe. A little patience doesn’t hurt either. A series of videos and blogs on basic cooking terms is coming very shortly, but we will start with measuring.
Read your entire recipe before measuring anything. This will determine the order of measuring and what you will put your ingredients in.
There are 3 type of measurements that are important in cooking: volume, weight, and temperature.
Volume
In cooking in the U.S. we mainly use volume for measuring in recipes. This has set us up for failure in many cases. Many items that are measured by volume like flour and cheese can be measured drastically differently based on packing level. It is possible to have recipes turn out by using volume, but there are some important things to do when measuring.
General tips
Use dry measuring cups for dry ingredients not liquid. Liquid ingredients overflow the cups and if you don’t fill to the top, you aren’t going to be measuring the amount that the recipe calls for.
Use liquid measuring cups for liquid ingredients and not dry. Dry ingredients don’t self level like liquid, so its impossible to level them properly because you can’t sweep a flat blade across it and get rid of excess. You can tap it on a surface to flatten it, but that would compact your ingredients, so it’s still inaccurate.
With liquids, if a measurement in a recipe is written for a volume measurement, it will be accurate. Liquids don’t change density in the temperature range that are standard for each ingredient, so they can be accurately measured by volume. If they are listed in a recipe by weight, weigh them because the density, how heavy it is by volume, changes based on the liquid. Liquids with higher levels of fat are less dense than those with higher levels of water. Levels of sugar, salt, and other components affect density as well. Water’s density in fluid ounces, and ounces is the same, but other liquids it changes.
Dry Ingredients measured by volume
Flour- Flour should be spooned into the cup and then leveled off. Most recipes are formulated for this way of measuring. Some sift flour before measuring because an older person taught them to cook. This separates granules and means you have more air in between them. It means the final amount of flour is different. Flour today doesn’t need to be sifted like flour did in the past. Our milling is finer and so there are less clumps that need to be sifted out. So sifting before measuring is not helpful unless the recipe states “1 cup of sifted flour.” This means you sift before measuring. “1 Cup of flour, sifted,” however means you don’t sift until after it’s measured.
Sugar- Sugar doesn’t pack so scooping and leveling is just fine.
Brown Sugar- Brown sugar should always be packed since the moisture in it makes the granules able to stand apart from each other.
Cheese- Cheese can be packed tightly or lightly in a cup and vary a lot in volume. I usually estimate cheese amounts by looking at the packaging. 2 cups is about 8 oz. of cheese. But if I’m really being honest, who measures cheese? I always add more. Amount does become important, however, when making things like biscuits or anything baked. The amount of fat in cheese can drastically change the formula if too much is used.
Weight
There are lots of recipes formulated for weight. If you want a consistent measurement for any pastries, cookies, and cakes, look for recipes with weights.
Digital Scales can get less accurate as the batteries wear out, so I check mine every once in a while by putting a cup on the scale, hitting the tare button to zero it out, and measuring 8 fluid ounces of water. If the scale reads 8 ounces, then I know its ok.
Balance scales are the most accurate long term, but can be expensive. If you are baking a lot with weights, it may be helpful to get a balance scale.
If you need to weigh something like shortening or peanut butter, weigh your dry ingredients, hit tare then add the shortening, etc. If you need to cream the shortening or mix it with different ingredients from the dry, just lift it off the top of the dry ingredients, the small amount of flour or whatever, won’t make a huge difference. If you are creaming together fat and sugar, just measure the sugar and then the fat. This keeps you from having to wash the shortening or butter out of the bowl which is always tough.
You don’t have to separately weigh dry ingredients that will be mixed together. Just hit tare on your scale and add each ingredient. Read your directions on your recipe carefully, however, because the order of ingredients in some mixing methods is important. Some are creaming recipes, meaning sugar and fat are mixed together until fluffy, then add eggs, then add the rest of the dry ingredients. There are a few different ways of mixing yeast breads as well. Read your directions fully before even starting measuring.
Temperature
With digital thermometers, make sure you check if your desired temp is in Celsius or Fahrenheit. If your intended temp is Fahrenheit and your thermometer is set to Celsius, you will seriously overcook your food.
When checking temperatures of meat, these are the temperatures you need to reach
Fish and shellfish- 145° F for 15 seconds
Whole cuts of Beef and Pork like steaks and chops- 145° F for 15 seconds
Large cuts of beef and pork like roasts- 145° F for 2 minutes
Ground meat (except ground poultry like chicken and turkey) like sausage, burgers, and ground fish - 155° F
Any type of poultry including ground, (chicken, turkey, duck) - 165° F
Below are some links to measuring equipment that I recommend. These are affiliate links that I will gain a small commission from. This helps me maintain my blog.
Volume measures
Weight Measures
Thermometers
Check out the video for demonstrations on how to use all of the measuring equipment.