What is the difference between measuring and mixing utensils

Dry ingredients like flour and sugar are best measured in dry measuring cups. There are many methods for filling a dry measuring cup—sifting, spooning, scooping—and believe it or not, the method by which you fill a dry measuring cup can seriously alter the mass of the ingredient you're measuring more on that in a moment.

At Serious Eats, our standard technique is called the "dip and sweep. To do it, have your dry ingredient in a wide-mouthed bag or jar. Dip your dry measuring cup into the container and lift it out, letting the dry ingredient overflow from the top. Use a straight edge, like the edge of a butter knife, a chopstick, or a bench scraper to level off the top of the cup. A properly measured dry cup of flour should have a flat top surface that is level with the brim of the cup.

When it comes to measuring dry ingredients by volume, the difficulty lies in the compressibility of the ingredients.

For example, flour—be it all-purpose, cake, or bread flour—can easily be compressed as you spoon, scoop, or pack it into a measuring cup. Even when using the exact same method, the amount of flour in a cup can vary.

In the next two photos you see two cups of flour, measured using the same dip-and-sweep method. I was very light handed when I scooped out the first cup, while I was a bit rough with the second.

A lightly scooped cup of flour weighed grams about 4. A firmly scooped cup of flour weighed grams about 5. That kind of difference can spell the difference between success and failure in a recipe. After many tests with various bakers and home cooks, we've found that the dip-and-sweep produces the smallest variation from cook to cook and that the average cup of flour measured using a dip-and-sweep weighs in at about five ounces grams.

This is the equivalency we use in all Serious Eats recipes. You may find that other sites or cookbooks use a different method for measuring flour. Make sure to check the equivalency charts of whatever source your using for accurate measuring and if the site doesn't offer equivalencies, consider heading to a different source! If you insist on measuring dry ingredients by volume, the trick is to make sure to practice until you can accurately scoop a cup of flour that weighs the same five ounces each and every time.

I'd recommend using the dip-and-sweet method to scoop flour into a bowl set on a scale a few times in a row until it becomes second nature. You may have noticed that when a Serious Eats recipe calls for flour, the amount called for is almost always given in both cups a measure of volume and ounces a measure of weight.

This equivalency approximates what the average cook will get using the dip and sweep method. Ounces are a unit of weight. Fluid ounces are a unit of volume. If measuring water, one fluid ounce weighs exactly one ounce of weight, however this ratio can change depending on the density of what you are measuring.

The good news is that most of the time, one fluid ounce of any liquid you'd use in cooking will weigh close enough to an ounce that it shouldn't throw your final results off too much. Our friend Stella Parks has this to say about ounces vs. We concur. It can be very confusing.

If a recipe calls for eight ounces of chocolate chips, is that eight ounces on a scale weight , or a one-cup dry measure filled with chocolate chips volume? The convention in the US is this: If a dry ingredient is listed in ounces, it's a unit of weight and should be measured on a scale. If a wet ingredient is listed in ounces, it's fluid ounces and should be measured in a wet measuring cup.

Chocolate chips, oats, flour, pasta, and rice are all things that would be listed in ounces weight , while water, stock, milk, cream, honey, or oil would all be listed in fluid ounces volume. The exception to this rule is when a baking recipe very clearly lists weights before volumes. In that case, every ingredient should be measured by weight on a scale. At Serious Eats, many of our serious baking projects are listed in this manner.

This is because we feel very strongly that using a scale and measuring ingredients—wet or dry—by weight is the best, most accurate way to guarantee consistency in your baking projects.

Perhaps you should look for a different recipe! You want to get serious about baking? With time you will become intimately familiar with the types of spices, seasonings, and other ingredients — and their quantities — needed for your recipe. There are good reasons for this. For one, patrons will expect a meal that always tastes the same.

Restaurants become well-known and well-loved largely because of the consistency they provide to their customers. Many of the offerings on a restaurant menu come from years of work and experimentation. Most of all, it was a concentration on technique. Also, it provided the opportunity to work in a team environment with a bunch of other chefs to put together a meal.

Often, the practice of mise en place , something most chefs learn via their culinary education , is a primary way that chefs can succeed in their early careers. Having everything in its place and being able to access what you need when you need it is an excellent strategy for keeping the kitchen operating smoothly even during the busiest times. You may even be weighing and measuring ingredients prior to the restaurant doors opening for the day, just to be as prepared as possible when the orders start rolling in.

For many chefs who work in restaurants, their home kitchen is where they get to scratch that itch to try new culinary creations. But it still takes experience and trial-and-error to do effectively. With this in mind, work carefully and add sparingly, a bit at a time.

For liquids, stick to a liquid measuring cup. By Elizabeth Laseter July 16, Pin FB More. Credit: Amazon. Eating healthy should still be delicious. Sign up for our daily newsletter for more great articles and tasty, healthy recipes.

Credit: Randy Mayor. All rights reserved.