Wet/Dry measurements

I think 'real' chefs just do it by feel...

I always weigh out flour/fat for pastry, (in imperial)...

For rice pud it's tablespoons and pints of milk....

Must other stuff it's just guesswork...spaghetti by the handfull.

A few years back we had a big family do...(my 50th) by Mum was going to peel some spuds...she showed me a handfull and asked 'is this enough?'...I laughed and said...'Well it's plenty for me but not 12!'

She'd forgotten how much her 3 son's can eat...

I hate it when the kids can't tell you if they are eating or not, so one minute you are cooking for two...next thing you know it six ...but hey, just open a bottle or two, make more salad and who cares?

Del

Dry measure used is used to measure dry bulk items like grain, produce and fruit. Dry measure volume is slightly greater than liquid measure. The variance as the measure gets smaller is negligible for cooking. Usually cooking recipes are compiled for taste as the author sees fit. They were adjusted for standard cooking measuring devices.

Mite be something to worry about if you where a large bakery. I do remember though that the recipes in Army Bakery units cook book dry items are measured by weight.

A spoon, cup etc are ok. But what does a dash look like?

To taste is also a bit vague.

Who of you have tried to put a recipe for a concoctions on paper?

But what does a dash look like?

It's a wee bit more than a soupçon but less than a splash .

Who of you have tried to put a recipe for a concoctions on paper?

I 'ave never tries ze recipe en papiollot, I use ze wok n'est ce pas!

(Sorry Hendrik... sometimes I'm so witty I just make myself larf...[not today, obviously])

Del

Ah, yes. I do cook a lot when not on a job. This is my favorite time of year. It's just about time to do some baking. I especially like the Whiskey Cake recipe that goes around this time every year. You know the one...where you end up caking the bake in a cound take rin, and throw the woons out the spindow.

Hendrik: A dash is 6 drops of a Liquid. (Former Chef)

Thanks - No wonder my attempts always was a wee bit overpowered. How much is that in metric?

I also thought liquid (or is that liqueur?) is measured in doubles

My wife had a shoulder replacement and I am due to make breakfast now. I will sure find something to add 6 drops of liquid to. (she can't hit me with her arm in a sling - she had a torn muscle as well)

Sorry, Don't know how much that is in Metric. Had a bit of a look on the web and definitions change alot. One Web site said a Dash is two drops but that doesn't make sense. What I've been taught is that a dash is a quick shake. For example, Anything that requires a Dash will be a potent concoction. i.e. Tabasco Sauce. You are more likely to get 6 Drops from a shake than two. How's that for solving a problem. Another web site said that there were 151 drops in a teaspoon and another said 60.

Who cares you always go by taste. If it's not a strong enough favour just add more, it's not rocket science as some Chefs want you to believe ( Jamie Oliver). Says that it's as easy as pie then confuses the bejusus out of most people. Crikey, some of his recipes are bloody hard, but makes out that anyone can do them that's not a chef with 10 years experience. I know, I'll get a bit of flak for beseeching the famous Oliver. He seems like a nice bloke and is a damn fine chef but some of those recipes, would tear out your hair in frustration.

Reminds me, about time for a double Vodka.

P.S. Ouch. Shoulder replacement. Tell her the World of Free Thinkers is thinking of her.

Watch out for her other arm and feet. If she's like my beautiful wife she will remember every single thing and repay you 10 fold and remind you for another 20 years. My wife still reminds me about forgetting to take the rubbish out for pickup one Thursday two years ago.

Try scrambled eggs with a dash of Tabasco and some spring onions.

Hello Igotmine,

Unfortunately there has been no standardisation of common measures used in food preparation.

This non-standardisation extends to many dry and wet measures = US/Imperial gallons etc.

Breakfast Cups/Cups

Tablespoons/Spoons/teaspoons

We thought here in New Zealand what with metrication and all that went with it, our troubles would be over.

Earlier this year we purchased a Breadmaker (We do not appreciate the almost universal use of toxic Canola in commercial bread), and I became the chief bread baker.

However, try as I might, the bread never turned out correctly, and so on the grounds the Breadmaker was faulty, we had it replaced by the retailer.

Unfortunately the new Breadmaker gave a similar result as its predecessor, at which point I started to blame myself.

My long-suffering wife took over the home bakery, and had no better results.

This culminated in toll calls and faxes to the importers of the Breadmaker, who arranged for their representative to collect it, and send to Auckland NZ for them to test it.

They also had similar troubles to ourselves, and could not figure out why.

After I contacted the Sydney Manufacturers, the Auckland importer then contacted their Sydney Supplier in Australia, and it was discovered the Breadmaker was now being made in China, rather than Australia where it had been successfully made over a number of years.

Further research showed that the NZ users of that Breadmaker had been supplied with an Australian Recipe book, reprinted to show it was of NZ origin.

It turns out that the Australian and NZ metric teaspoons are different in quantity: 1 tablespoon Aust = 20ml while a New Zealand metric tablespoon holds 15ml - quite a difference when talking about yeast and "bread improver".

The NZ importers then rapidly printed off a NZ supplement, and returned the Breadmaker, which has since enabled us to achieve our own finely made bread.

I have since been relieved from my home bakery, since my wife so enjoys the pleasure of manufacture, and I am now still working outside the bakery department, enjoying the pleasure of eating the bread.....Yum.....

Bread eh? I'm with you on loving the stuff.

Amazing that throughout the world we manage to make a huge variety of delicious stuff under the heading 'bread' from basically some sort of flour plus water and a dash of this or that. fresh from the oven it beautiful...but even if it's a bit stale...rub a splash of oil tomato, garlic, cheese, etc on it and it great.

When I was a student I lived on toast & marmalade.

Del

Evidently you are a "Marmalade Cat"......

I am surprised at the lack of a universal system. Way to hang in there to get to the bottom of the problem! I love breadmaking. I received a bread machine as a gift one year, and have enjoyed it exactly one time. Did a fine job, but I think the act of making it by hand was as important for me as the finished product, be it the nostalgia, therapy, ability to master something so tempermental, etc.

It just seemed odd to me, given the emphasis they (bread books, chefs...) place on using the proper type of measure, that there is never any mention of this in any measure of the "spoon" type. While some ingredients may seem negligible, yeast most certainly does not, to me anyway. Just one of those things that always bugged me, and had to ask. Thanks for the input. All the best wishes to you and yours, and enjoy that fresh baked bread!

Nothing like the smell of freshly baked bread.. Yummy.

Canola toxic?

I have found this URL to be helpful. It is cooking specific:

http://www.onlineconversion.com/cooking_volume.htm

Many thanks. That'll come in handy.

IGOTMINE saw a bumoer sticker in PA said "I'd rather hunt with Dick Cheney than ride in a car with Ted Kennedy."

My wife's grandmother left her a bunch of handwritten recipes on index cards. Her terminology was to put "enough" of this ingredient with "enough" of another ingredient. In some cases, the terminology for the ingredients isnt always clear either. I prefer to think this style of cooking should be better termed "qualitative" cooking.

Yeh..well...she sounds very sensible....after all, you wouldn't want to put 'too much' in would you?

Dry measure by volume, as in a cup of flour, is very inaccurate as it depends on whether the flour is packed or sifted. Dry measure should be by weight [grams] for anything over a few tablespoons. Liquids should be by the spoon or the liter or other measure of volume. When a recipe calls for 500 grams of flour I can get the same amount every time. Baking recipes are like chemical formulas and minor changes can result in disaster.

I like using German recipes for that reason. My only problem is that they use spoons that are not the same sizes and call for a "Paeckchen" without any specific weight or volume. Am looking for a German measuring spoon set.

Nigella Lawson's television programmes feature food concoctions where ingredients' measures are simply referred to in the dialogue; not a single measuring device is seen in any shot. Jamie Oliver's are not much better.

Other aliquots to be found in cooking programmes:

• "Dollop"
• "Squeeze"
• "Splash"
• "Squirt"
• "Smidge"
• "Handful".

Try converting those to consistent units!

I feel you are labouring under some sort of missaprehension...I don't think Nigella's prog has anything to do with food...

In response to the original question, I am surprised nobody has posted an answer yet. My home economics teacher back in high school taught us that the important part of measurement is the method of measurement. That is why there are "dry" measuring cups for dry ingredients. It's taken for granted that users of cook books know all the techniques. For example: brown sugar must be packed into the measuring cup to correctly measure, then the excess is skimmed off the top of the cup with a flat spatula. This would be difficult to do in a "liquid" measuring cup where the graduations are down inside the cup. Another example: flour should be sifted and then lightly filled into the measuring cup, and the excess skimmed off - not packed in.

You could use a "dry" cup to measure a cup of liquid, it's just not as easy, and it doesn't have a spout to pour neatly. The tablespoons and teaspoons are small enough to eliminate the variations in technique so both liquids and dry ingredients are measured in the same utensils. On the other hand, I have a small liquid measuring cup that holds about 2 tablespoons and is graduated for fractions of a teaspoon. It is easier to measure small quantities of liquids in this cup.

Nobody has answered the Q yet because we all realise that a heaped teaspoon of milk just inn't going to happen .

O.K., you got me rollin' on that one!

I guess most liquids in these amounts are neglibible, as someone stated. I mean, the things that matter most, like baking soda, baking powder, yeast, etc. are all dry. It's not like you're gonna be using liquid yeast, eh?

There's an old saying that rings true. That cooking in an art, and baking is a science.

When concocting something in a skillet or roasting pan, it's easy enough to add dashes, bits and handfuls to your heart's content. You can make a dish that would make Picasso proud. You could leave entire ingredients out, just as you could leave the burnt umber out of your creation on canvas.

While baking, on the other hand, deviating from the "formula" in such an artistic way is more often than not going to produce something that does not act as it's supposed to. Baking requires a specific reaction and interaction between your ingredients. Otherwise you will not arrive at the correct answer. Just like what would happen if you left out a pair of parentheses in your proof to your theorem. This is when you need to keep your measurements precise.

Hello Out of Box Experience,

"just as you could leave the burnt umber out of your creation on canvas"

I'm struggling with that phrase, wondering what a burnt out car has to do with creation on canvas

The Humber car was manufactured over many years in England by the now defunct Rootes Group.

There were many folks born in the hearing range of the "Bow Bells" in London, known as Cockneys, who called that make of car an "Umber".

Kind Regards.....

Did I say burnt Umber? My apologies. I meant to say a burnt Mini Cooper.

Some of these things need to be taken with a pinch of salt <groan>.

I would happilly measure Nigella by the handfull

Very, very naughty kitty!

Hello PW Slack,

It appears that your system does not have a proper "Groan" available.

Just for you, or interested others, here is a pair of useful small graphic indicators

From himself.....