Unit Conversion

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

It’s the classic volume vs. WEIGHT cooking puzzle: You have a recipe calling for three cups and a one pound box of powdered sugar sitting before you in the pantry. Sixteen ounces, according to the label, but no dice; there’s nothing left in your measuring cup except doubts. Powdered sugar is anything but watery. Depending … Read more

Why do most home cooks mess up rice? Because we don’t measure accurately; we eyeball amount. We’ll read a recipe calling for two cups, then grab a heaping scoopful out of a drawer and dump it in the pot. The rice is sticky. The rice are crunchy. The water ratio is wrong and weight is … Read more

For home bakers, weight is law; volume is only a suggestion. Depending on your humidity and how you scoop or pack flour, your cup of flour might not match someone else’s. And then there is powdered sugar: the extreme version of this issue, because it are made to be full of air. Unsifted powder (a … Read more

Using starch can change consistency of your soups and sauces. Thicken with cornstarch; simmer; success! Or fail. Whether or not that happens may depend on no more than several teaspoons of cornstarch. And your skill at incorporating them in the broth. That’s where many cooks turns to the calculator rather than guesswork, because a little … Read more

The last part of most pot roasts. Thickening the gravy, can make or break it all. It’s all that good braising liquid in the pan and only a few spoonfuls of some sort of starchy thickeners can turn it into a proper spoon-coating sauce instead of thin jus. Flour makes a roux that requires time … Read more

So many recipes begin this way: Simple enough on paper, then baking begins to go wrong. Chocolate chip cookie batter spreads out too much in the oven. The dough’s so dense you think maybe it’s the butter that wasn’t soft enough or the type of vanilla. That is not quite the case. It was probably … Read more

To a pot of soup, some tomato paste can make all the difference. Simmering flavors and adding that to the pot help improve the flavor. A lot of people put it in out of habit, but that means they’re guessing and you could end up with an overly flat soup or one with a bitter … Read more

Water weighs about eight ounces to a cup, right? That’s the handy little rule of thumb that stays in your brain like a piece of candy. Being not quite correct or just barely incorrect can mean the difference between precision of a careful chemical mix or the fine balance of a finicky sourdough starter. Plug … Read more

Sour cream makes scrambled eggs richer, but it doesn’t turn them into a sauce. The fat in sour cream holds moisture in protein and carries flavor so you end up with a better texture (not just dry curds). It works like butter or cheese does; people do that with their eggs to keep them from … Read more