I found a recipe in English that mentions a "pinch" of something. English is not my first language, and Google shows that "pinch" has many meanings. Do I have to pinch it with my fingers, or can i find a suitable amount of milliliters to use?
A 'pinch' is the amount of powder/whatever that can be trapped between one's thumb and fore finger.
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I am using this recipe for pizza dough, and I received some seasoned advice from other members of this site to use a precise kitchen scale for weighing the flour and water. The question is, if I already precisely measured for weight ie 1LB flour and 11 oz water - do I forgo following the direction to add more flour as needed?
As you knead, add more flour or water as needed to produce a ball of dough that is smooth, supple, and fairly tacky but not sticky.
Once you have learned to recognize good dough consistency by feel, you might decide to add more flour. This is because even when you weigh, your texture can be influenced by small changes in the gluten content in your brand and batch of flour (it is a natural product after all, and the difference between 11 and 11.5% is already noticeable) and by the humidity of your storage room. Before you have learned to recognize the perfect texture by feel, only use additional flour to prevent sticking to utensils, unless it feels terribly wet and flows everywhere (but then you probably measured wrong).
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I think I know the answer to this and realize that it is similar to this question about nuts, but I wanted to verify my instinct. When a recipe calls for 1 ½ cups cooked X, is that recipe calling for that ingredient measured before or after cooking?
Recipe-speak is very particular about order.
Obviously there's no difference between 3 carrots, roasted and 3 roasted carrots. Nor between 2 eggs, hardboiled and sliced and 2 hardboiled sliced eggs. And in many cases the volume of things isn't much affected by cooking. In some cases it is easier to measure before or afterwards, and the recipe-writer wants to point you in the easier way. But in some it really matters. Rice, for example. 1 cup of raw rice yields roughly 3 cups cooked, so recipe writers need to be super clear which you are measuring.
In your example, 1.5 cups cooked X, you cook it and then measure it.
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We've talked about methods for sifting flour (http://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/5364/how-to-make-sifting-palatable), and the purposes of sifting (http://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/5273/sifting-dry-ingredients).
How can I tell whether a recipe specifies sifting for aeration? How can I tell when to bust out the food processor? In what kinds of recipes will I see a better result by fluffing those dry ingredients?
For example, when I make cookies, I do just whisk the flour, salt and baking soda together in a bowl, and they turn out just fine.
Cakes are where sifting can make a significant difference. See Shirley Corriher's BakeWise book, she goes into it in detail.
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Most recipes that call for Bisquick have volume measurements, but I've read it's better to measure most dry ingredients by mass (not to mention more convenient and less messy). So what is the proper conversion factor for Bisquick (i.e. it's density)?
I assume it's close to that of flour, but different types of flours have different densities and I wasn't sure which one to use or which one the Bisquick manufacturers assume when developing their recipes.
Do you have a scale and measuring cup? Weigh a cup of Bisquick.
Also, this site has a line for Bisquick, but I'm not sure how trustworthy it is, being from a "forgotten source". Anyway, the site says Bisquick is 130g/cup, and also lists the conversion in a number of other units.
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I don't have a measuring glass. I just have a tablespoon (15 ml). Can 1 tea spoon be considered half of 1 table spoon?
One tablespoon is three teaspoons, so no, it can't be considered half a tablespoon because it's one-third instead :)
You can use three teaspoons to measure out one tablespoon, but it might be tricky to measure the other way: as Rumstacio said below, the 1/3 is by volume, and it can be difficult to eyeball the volume of a semi-sphere (1.3 the height of the spoon is not 1/3 the volume because it's wider at the top).
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I've been baking bread for years and no longer really measure the ingredients. But I'm no expert on the science of what I'm doing. I add fat (lard) because I've always added fat.
What job does the fat do? And if I have long been using too little or too much fat how would this affect my loaf?
And then, writing this up, I'm also wondering about yeast. I guess if I use too little yeast I am going to get a loaf which rises insufficiently. But what would be the consequences of using too much yeast?
Amongst other things, fats help moderate/impede gluten development, by not allowing water to activate the proteins.
Too much yeast and your dough will be flabby and over-risen.
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I recently made macaroons for the first time and followed the instructions to the T and they were perfect! The recipe called for exactly 90 grams of egg whites..
I then made them again but the egg whites i used added up to slightly over 90 grams (about 3 grams over) - i tried to remove the extra 3 grams with a spoon but nothing has ever been so difficult! They are just a mass of goo which is so hard to separate.. whenever i got any on the spoon it just slipped off again! so in the end i just gave up and obviously the macaroons were ruined!!
So my question is - is there a method of getting precise measurements of egg whites? something i could add to make them less gloopy so i can remove the excess with a spoon? How do people normally do this?
3 grams (contingent on the relative weight of the rest of the recipe) is not a big deal.
But, since egg whites are such a pain to measure, it's very simple in recipes like this. Beat your egg whites slightly, then weigh and remove three grams. Much easier.
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I see in several recipes for spice cake to do things like "combine dry ingredients through cloves" or "add flour through cloves". What does that mean? I'm looking at this recipe. It calls for 1/2 tsp - can I use ground cloves instead of whole cloves?
It means to combine the things listed up to and including the cloves, as in "combine ingredients 4 through 11". In that recipe it's just a helpful hint to tell you where the dry ingredients stop.
The recipe is already calling for ground cloves - it mixes them into dry ingredients as-is. When using whole cloves, if you don't immediately just grind them, you generally cook them in something liquid then strain them out later. (Similar to cinnamon sticks or whole allspice.) The cinnamon and nutmeg in the recipe are also ground, not whole. If a recipe wants whole cloves, it will explicitly say, and often count them: 10 [whole] cloves.
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A recipe calls for a can (15oz) of cooked beans. How many cups or oz's is that to dry beans? Is this conversion even possible to estimate given that beans differ in amount of water absorption?
According to the Kitchen Companion, a terrific general handbook which I recommend, 1 lb (about 2 cups) of dried beans is roughly 6 to 7 cups cooked beans, and one 15oz can of cooked beans is roughly 1.75 cups drained, making it equivalent to 1/4 to 1/3 lbs ( or 1/2 to 3/4 cup) dried.
Per my personal experience, dried beans increase in volume from 2.5X at the low end (red lentils, mung beans, etc.) to 5X at the high end (garbanzos). 3X or 3.5X is a good median value for this.
So what kind of beans are we talking about?
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I would like to try some baking recipes where the flour is specified by volume, with no alternative measurement for weight. Do recipe authors generally assume that I'll sift the flour to measure it?
In all the recipes I've followed with a cup measurement (volume) of flour, it is unsifted.
From what I've read, if a recipe calls for sifted flour there's two ways to do it: If it calls for "sifted flour" you sift the flour first, then measure it. If it calls for "flour, sifted" you measure first, then sift it.
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It's gospel among serious bakers that measuring by weight is far more accurate than measuring by volume. However, I'm not sure that measuring by weight helps at all when you have varying humidity levels. It seems to me that, if the recipe author has much higher or lower level of humidity in their kitchen than you do, measuring by weight would tend to make differences in water balance even worse.
For example, I recently made the same pizza dough recipe in my apartment (65F, 80% humidity) and at my in-laws (75F, 35% humidity). Getting the same texture of dough was a difference of 2/3 of a cup of water, or around 6oz of weight. This water already was clearly in the flour in my apartment, adding to its weight but adding somewhat less to its volume. This means that if a recipe was written by someone in Tuscon and I made it in San Francisco, I'd get a sticky mess of a dough without enough flour.
Unfortunately, I'm not in a position to make repeated experiments in measurement at different humidity levels to see if weight or volume is more accurate when the hydrometer is going up and down. Is anyone?
Changes in the weight of ingredients due to humidity are very small compared to changes due to how loose or tight your flour gets packed into the measuring cup.
Weighing the ingredients eliminates one (major) source of measurement error. You'll still have to compensate for other things on your own.
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Once I have made a recipe a couple of times, I tend to follow my instincts rather than strict portion sizes.
When following a new recipe, however, I have often wondered about how an ingredient's weight should be interpreted.
For example, if a recipe calls for 500g of pumpkin, diced into 1cm cubes, does convention expect me to use a 500g cut of pumpkin, that I then de-seed and dice, or 500g of 1cm pumpkin cubes pumpkins?
In your example, it means 500g pumpkin before preparing.
In general, you might see this two ways:
The first option refers to the weight before prepping while the second refers to the weight after prepping. In general, the second one is far more exact for the actual recipe while the first one is more exact for shopping. I assume ease of shopping plus presumption of yield is why the first one is so often used, although in high end cook books (Grant Achatz, Thomas Kellar, etc) the weights are often given post prep for precision.
You will see the same thing for volume measurements (i.e. one cup of nuts chopped vs one cup of chopped nuts).
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I found an old cookery book while on holiday at the german coast, it was published by Peter Pauper press, Mt. Vernon, New York in 1959.
All recipes that use tomato paste just say "1/2 can tomato paste (italian style)" without giving any weights or other measurements.
So, did tomato paste only come in one size in the 1950s? If so, which size was it? And would "italian style" denote anything special like it containing herbs or anything like it?
(I'd like to try some of the recipes at some point, but currently I've got no idea how much to use and if it should be anything other than plain tomato paste...)
From: http://www.ellenskitchen.com/pantry/cansize.html
Can sizes change over time, important if you are adapting an older recipe. Prior to 1980's), #303 was the popular size for most fruits and vegetables.;
No. 303 = 16-17 oz.(1 lb.-1 lb.-1 oz.) = 2 cups = 4 servings;
Principal size for fruits and vegetables. Also some meat products, ready-to-serve soups, specialties.
Tomato paste has, as far as I know, always come in size 1/2 (6 ounce) cans, at least since I began using it, starting in the mid 1960s.
Think this is what you are looking for.
There are lots of information bits on line, search; 'can sizes'.
cheers
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Let's have a single question giving the conversion between cups, ounces, teaspoons, and gallons, just to have one convenient reference.
US Measurements:
Metric conversion:
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I am trying to create written instructions for making stir fry for some rather inexperienced cooks to follow. One dilemma that I'm having is describing the amount of sauce to use. How would you quantify the best ratio of sauce to vegetables? For instance, how many cups of sauce to coat 10lbs of vegetables?
If we were going to keep the sauce to reuse at a later date, I would just make a big batch and then having the cooks use their judgement on how much to use. We can't really keep the sauce, however, and I'm not sure I necessarily trust the cooks' judgement either (sadly!)
The "best" ratio of sauce depends on:
I've made some stir fries with no sauce at all (technically a stir-fry only needs oil) and some with extra sauce, particularly if they're intended to be eaten with bland white rice. I know you say you can't trust their judgment, but to some degree, you're really going to have to, because there are too many variables to pin it down to a golden ratio.
At the end of the day you're trying to get an even coat on the vegetables (or meat, or whatever) - the thickness of that is again dependent on personal preference. But even if you make that decision for them, the main ratio affecting the end result isn't based on the weight of the food, or even its volume - it's based on surface area, which is nigh on impossible to measure and guaranteed to be inconsistent between specific preparations.
Stir-fry sauce is extremely cheap to make. It's pennies per cup. If you make too much, you can always cook it down, so if you have to pick a number, it's better to err on the side of caution and make too much as opposed to too little. You can always supplement the real sauce with soy sauce, teriyaki, etc., but that's not the same as a proper stir-fry sauce thickened with tapioca and flavoured with sesame oil and so on.
So pick a number that seems a little high, and instruct the cooks to let it reduce if it seems watery. They'll be using high heat, so it won't take long to reduce, and the net effect is positive anyway (a stickier, more flavourful sauce).
Personally, I always find 1 generous cup of sauce to be more than enough for a standard-size (14") wok filled with meat and vegetables, assuming it's the kind of stir-fry that you want to be reasonably "saucy", and also assuming it is thickened properly; if you dump a full cup of pure soy sauce in there, you'll just end up with vegetable soup. I literally use a coffee mug and never measure any of the ingredients, and the difference between one preparation and the next isn't particularly noticeable.
So start with that as a guideline and test the recipe yourself, if you can. Unless you have extremely precise control over the quantity and quality of the raw ingredients in addition to a precise and well-tested sauce recipe, you won't be able to come up with a reliable ratio. It's not a question of trust, just practicality; Asian cooking is (at least in my experience) very loosey-goosey and doesn't lend itself well to precise recipes - or inexperienced cooks.
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I want to use a recipe that gives ingredient measurements based on the spice seeds. My local grocery store does not have at least half of the ingredients in seed form. But the store does have them pre-ground. How can I translate this recipe's measurements into something I can actually buy?
Ingredients:
Read More http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2011/07/chipotle-rub#ixzz1Qo0PBoPp
Converting whole spices to ground spices is not as simple as matching up the weights. Ground spices have a distinctly different flavour from the whole. The freshness of the grind will also affect the taste quite considerably as well as how carefully they have been stored. When the spice is freshly ground it will have a very strong intense flavour, so you would reduce the amount you use slightly. However, ground spices rapidly loose parts of their flavour. The taste changes and you may find you will end up using more than the recipe states in order to get a similar taste. However, you'll never get exactly the same taste, grinding changes the spice.
The best solution is to try to get an supply of the whole spice from an online store. You can then use them whole or grind them yourself, fresh, as the need arises.
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EDIT: I welcome recommendation of scales and alternatives to weigh the ingredients.
I don't have a single tools to measure the weight of ingredient.
I came across recipe with different weight:
1/4 cup olive oil
1 pound dried spaghetti
2 tablespoons butter
4 ounces Pecorino Romano cheese, finely grated
1 1/2 teaspoon finely ground black pepper
Salt (optional)
There are already 5 units, how do you measure them seperately? If you use a scale, do you translate the unit?
Also, do you have any picture for the size of cup/tablespoon/teaspoon/etc? I have spoons in different size. And cup, to me, is also unknown in size.
This is something that really puzzled me when I went living in an English-speaking country. Having grown up in Italy, where recipes tell you "Put 120g of this then add 250g of that", I've always used a scale. The first time I saw I recipe with cups and teaspoons I said: yeah, but I've got 10 types of cups in the kitchen... which one should I be using?
Then someone told me that they were real unit of measure and introduced me to measuring spoons (something that in Italy would be very difficult to come by).
So, going back to your question:
1) I strongly second @Adam's opinion of buying a digital scale: they're cheap and do the job (personally, I would not spend more than $30-40 on it, but you can find $300 ones if you wish).
2) If your recipe calls for teaspoons, cups, etc. then you can:
Buy measuring spoons/cups (you can find a complete set for $10, for instance this)
Convert them to g (or whatever your scale measures) using an online calculator. If you google for "teaspoons to grams" or "cups to grams" you'll find plenty.
You can even get an app on your phone, I use this which works pretty well (I'm sure there's a similar thing for iPhone, but I don't use Apple products, so I can't help there).
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