Cooking For Engineers

[Guest]

When a recipe calls for flour, if a method is not specified must one assume to dip the measuring cup into the flour and level it off or to spoon the flour into the measuring cup and level it off.

Also, with baking powder and baking soda should you press it into the measuring spoon before leveling it off.

[katja]

I prefer to scoop until full, medium tap 2x on hard surface and check fill line. If over -> scoop off excess, under -> toss in a little more.

This is why european cookbooks are very handy as they give the dry weights and liquid measures of ingredients thus eliminating the differentials from density/powder grades etc.

[GaryProtein]

In American cookbooks, a cup of flour means a cup of sifted flour, not a cup of packed flour as it comes out of the bag. Even "pre-sifted" flour should be sifted before volumetric measuring.

[DrBiggles]