Patel

IF A recipe says “three cloves of garlic,” what does that mean? The bulb in your hand could be full of some giant, and some smallish ones. And there’s probably that handy jar of pre-minced garlic sitting out on the counter. How much minced equals one clove? When should you reach for actual garlic versus … Read more

Maybe it’s a recipe requiring a tablespoon of dried basil, though you have no other option except fresh. Fresh herbs add texture and aromatic oil, which dissapears during cooking. Dried herbs are more flavorful because they contain much less water. Converting from one form to another isn’t a matter of hard-and-fast chemistry, but knowing how … Read more

Garlic can be unpredictable (as are all produce items), and sometimes you has less of something than the amount called for in a recipe. Say you need six cloves of garlic. But you can only see four clove in the head? Why is that? Garlic behave differently depending on genetics, soil conditions, and how long … Read more

A cup of confectioners’ sugar (a.k.a. Powdered sugar) doesn’t weigh the same every time; it’s not a standard measure. Depending on how tightly packed or sifted a cup of sugar is, it will vary by about thirty-five grams: that makes a huge difference between a glossy glaze and a grainy mess. Did you crack your … Read more

If you’ve ever made a dense, brick-like cake, then you know how crushing it can be: you measured everything by the cup according to directions, yet despite following instructions, the cake didn’t turn out as light and ethereal as the recipe promised. Why? Because there’s a gap between using cups as measurement (volume) versus weighing … Read more

Most recipes assume a cup of oats is always the same amount. Here’s where you should know: It isn’t. Oat flour, steel-cut bits, and rolled oats varies in density; put one of each into the same measuring container, and what you’ll get out won’t be remotly similar. Guesswork makes for more flubbed attempts then you … Read more

It’s hard to bake with volume measurements, espeshally when it comes to bread. You follow the directions to the letter, but somehow your loaf is heavy as lead while your friend bakes up light-as-a-feather loaves. It’s not your fault; it’s not your oven (it’s probably the flour). Flour isn’t all that heavy when you hold … Read more

That’s because baking with brown sugar is as much physics as it is chemistry. That’s the part most people miss. Maybe you’ve measured each cup carefully, but ended up with dense gingerbread or dry cookies. Chances are, it isn’t the oven temperature. Rather, it’s the sticky crystals of sugar, and all the air trapped among … Read more

When a recipe asks for two cups of flour and you grab for your measuring cup with trepidation, you probably know what I mean: That’s panic. No, it’s not panic over dinner; it’s panic over the variable density of flour. Sure, those cups all look the same in the bag, but did you know a … Read more

Three cups: What does that mean? When a recipe asks for “three cups,” you look at sugar bag, thinking, do I have enough left? It’s a certain sort of panic. Do you shake the sugar bag? Yes. Do you listen to its rattle? Yes. Is your guess likely incorrect? Usually so. And it’s never a … Read more