Goomba38 said...

Muddle wrote:

If your going to bake you have to weigh the ingredients.
Most people think a pints a pound the world around.
A pint of flour is never a pound of flour. You can throw together
biscuits or pasta that way if you'd like, but little else.

I've never heard anyone suggest to thinking such a thing...?


What Goomba38 said!

Andy

"Andy" q wrote in message ...
Goomba38 said...

Muddle wrote:

If your going to bake you have to weigh the ingredients.
Most people think a pints a pound the world around.
A pint of flour is never a pound of flour. You can throw together
biscuits or pasta that way if you'd like, but little else.

I've never heard anyone suggest to thinking such a thing...?


What Goomba38 said!

Andy

592,000 hits on goolge for the phrase, "a pint's a pound the world around"!
A pint is 16 ounces of volume, while a pound is 16 ounces of weight. The
popular rhyme "A pint's a pound, the world around" can help you remember
this, but keep in mind that they're not really equivalent, especially when
applied to anything other than water.

"Muddle" wrote in message
et...
If your going to bake you have to weigh the ingredients.


Don't be silly. You don't have to weigh anything to bake. Baking is NOT
precise! Compare recipes from different sources for the same thing and
you'll find all kinds of variations. If you had to be precise there
wouldn't be dozens of variations for the same thing.


Ms P

"ms_peacock" wrote in message
...

"Muddle" wrote in message
et...
If your going to bake you have to weigh the ingredients.


Don't be silly. You don't have to weigh anything to bake. Baking is NOT
precise! Compare recipes from different sources for the same thing and
you'll find all kinds of variations. If you had to be precise there
wouldn't be dozens of variations for the same thing.


Ms P


Ask anyone who actually bakes for a living! The only time they don't weigh
flour etc. is when the recipe they use calls for a 5 lb. bag which has
already been weighed. If you want to make a consistent product you have to
weigh the ingredients.
It's the reason your banana nut bread comes out perfect one year and sags in
the middle the next, while using the same recipe, oven, temp and time
settings.
Take two small bags of flour and dump one unsifted into a container, then
sift the other into a container and you'll see the difference. Other
factors can be the moisture content in the flour or the banana's moisture
content or the size of the banana etc.
I'm a male and took Home EC for males called Singles Living, because I was
going to college and even I learned that fact over 30 years ago.

ms_peacock wrote:

Don't be silly. You don't have to weigh anything to bake. Baking is NOT
precise! Compare recipes from different sources for the same thing and
you'll find all kinds of variations. If you had to be precise there
wouldn't be dozens of variations for the same thing.


Yes and no. In a professional bakery, ingredients are weighed. It
would be foolish to try to get a volume measure on 30 pounds of flour
and 20 pounds of sugar. If they did measure in quarts or gallons, they
would expect the quality of the product to be poor.


At a home kitchen (in the U.S.) most of us measure in cups and get good
results. After a few tries with the same recipe, you get good at
knowing what the batter or dough should look and feel like. You adjust
the amount of flour or liquid ingredients accordingly. That's certainly
imprecise.


(I made the banana cake recipe from Silver Palate cookbook last week,
didn't weigh my ingredients, and was pleased with the results-- though
it didn't taste strongly of banana. I had extra cream cheese frosting
and have been putting in on all manner of cookies and desserts.)


--Lia

Muddle wrote:
"Andy" q wrote in message ...
Goomba38 said...

Muddle wrote:

If your going to bake you have to weigh the ingredients.
Most people think a pints a pound the world around.
A pint of flour is never a pound of flour. You can throw together
biscuits or pasta that way if you'd like, but little else.

I've never heard anyone suggest to thinking such a thing...?


What Goomba38 said!

Andy

592,000 hits on goolge for the phrase, "a pint's a pound the world around"!
A pint is 16 ounces of volume, while a pound is 16 ounces of weight. The
popular rhyme "A pint's a pound, the world around" can help you remember
this, but keep in mind that they're not really equivalent, especially when
applied to anything other than water.

Also depends in which country, a pint in the US is less than a pint in
Canada.

Anyways, professional bakers do too weigh dry ingredients, and measure
wet ingredients by volume, ie. a gallon of fresh whole eggs
(professional bakers do not count eggs). But most times they don't
weigh or measure anything, or hardly anything... their recipes are
based on full package size, ie. 50lb sack of flour... typically a
commercial bakery recipe will call for multiple 50lb sacks of flour...
therefore the sugar will be in multiples of say 5lb sacks. shortening
in multiple #10 cans, and so on... most commercial recipes use the
entire container... it's no coinsidence that many basic ingredients are
packaged in stardardized sizes (especially canned goods)...
professional cooks and bakers instituted those amounts. Which is why
home cooks/bakers have so much trouble with measuring, their recipes
use *******ized quantities which are difficult to eyeball....
professionals don't use measuring cups/spoons, they don't even have any
in their kitchens. Professional cooks and bakers when they do measure
use the cans their ingredients come in, ie. a 6oz tomato paste can can
be used to scale both six ounces and three ounces... when the can is
tipped until the ingredient just touch the upper inner bottom and the
lower outer top then that is a half can or 3 ounces.... and so on with
8oz cans and other sizes. Bakers especially do not measure to minute
amounts, that's why many recipes call for "bench flour", professionals
always hold back some of each dry ingredient... they intuitively know
that they can always add more but can't take any out. And for small
quantites, like salt, baking powder, spices, they use their hands...
how do you think the bra cup size was instituted... it's not highly
accurate, does anyone really care that it's a C and1/2! hehehe

Sheldon

"Julia Altshuler" wrote in message
. ..
ms_peacock wrote:

Don't be silly. You don't have to weigh anything to bake. Baking is
NOT
precise! Compare recipes from different sources for the same thing and
you'll find all kinds of variations. If you had to be precise there
wouldn't be dozens of variations for the same thing.


Yes and no. In a professional bakery, ingredients are weighed. It
would be foolish to try to get a volume measure on 30 pounds of flour
and 20 pounds of sugar. If they did measure in quarts or gallons, they
would expect the quality of the product to be poor.


At a home kitchen (in the U.S.) most of us measure in cups and get good
results. After a few tries with the same recipe, you get good at
knowing what the batter or dough should look and feel like. You adjust
the amount of flour or liquid ingredients accordingly. That's certainly
imprecise.


(I made the banana cake recipe from Silver Palate cookbook last week,
didn't weigh my ingredients, and was pleased with the results-- though
it didn't taste strongly of banana. I had extra cream cheese frosting
and have been putting in on all manner of cookies and desserts.)


--Lia


"though it didn't taste strongly of banana" Freeze your bananas before
baking with them. The result is an over ripe banana which has more flavor
and is not rotten. The outer skin turns black when frozen.

"Muddle" wrote in message
. ..

"ms_peacock" wrote in message
...

"Muddle" wrote in message
et...
If your going to bake you have to weigh the ingredients.


Don't be silly. You don't have to weigh anything to bake. Baking is NOT
precise! Compare recipes from different sources for the same thing and
you'll find all kinds of variations. If you had to be precise there
wouldn't be dozens of variations for the same thing.


Ms P


Ask anyone who actually bakes for a living!

It's true. My mother was a superb baker, and the one thing she
told me she attributed her success to was careful measuring.

Muddle wrote:

"though it didn't taste strongly of banana" Freeze your bananas before
baking with them. The result is an over ripe banana which has more flavor
and is not rotten. The outer skin turns black when frozen.


Hmm. Interesting idea. How do I thaw the bananas for baking?
Microwave? Leave overnight in the fridge? I'd been thinking that some
sort of banana oil extract was in order. Then I realized that all I
wanted was a good cake, and I got that. No one needed to know it was
supposed to taste of banana.


--Lia

"Muddle" wrote in message
. ..

"ms_peacock" wrote in message
...

"Muddle" wrote in message
et...
If your going to bake you have to weigh the ingredients.


Don't be silly. You don't have to weigh anything to bake. Baking is NOT
precise! Compare recipes from different sources for the same thing and
you'll find all kinds of variations. If you had to be precise there
wouldn't be dozens of variations for the same thing.


Ms P


Ask anyone who actually bakes for a living! The only time they don't
weigh
flour etc. is when the recipe they use calls for a 5 lb. bag which has
already been weighed. If you want to make a consistent product you have
to
weigh the ingredients.
It's the reason your banana nut bread comes out perfect one year and sags
in
the middle the next, while using the same recipe, oven, temp and time
settings.
Take two small bags of flour and dump one unsifted into a container, then
sift the other into a container and you'll see the difference. Other
factors can be the moisture content in the flour or the banana's moisture
content or the size of the banana etc.
I'm a male and took Home EC for males called Singles Living, because I was
going to college and even I learned that fact over 30 years ago.


So. We weren't talking about a bakery either. *I* can bake just fine
without weighing anything. People baking at home do not *have* to weigh
anything nor do they have to be all that precise to have good results.

I'm a female and have been baking since I was 16 and have never weighed a
damn thing.

Ms P

"ms_peacock" wrote
I'm a female and have been baking since I was 16 and have never weighed a
damn thing.


OH, now I get you. You weren't saying you don't have to measure, just that
you don't have to WEIGH.

Of course you don't!

Julia Altshuler wrote:
Muddle wrote:

"though it didn't taste strongly of banana" Freeze your bananas before
baking with them. The result is an over ripe banana which has more flavor
and is not rotten. The outer skin turns black when frozen.


Hmm. Interesting idea. How do I thaw the bananas for baking?
Microwave? Leave overnight in the fridge? I'd been thinking that some
sort of banana oil extract was in order. Then I realized that all I
wanted was a good cake, and I got that. No one needed to know it was
supposed to taste of banana.

Freezing won't make bananas riper, in fact freezing will keep bananas
from ripening further. If you're going to be using bananas in a few
days and they are becoming too ripe too quickly then place in the
fridge, unpeeled... then they won't need to be thawed. But frozen
bananas are good too... peel, dip in chocolate and roll in chopped nuts
if you like, or leave plain and then wrap in waxed paper twisting both
ends like a giant hard candy. Frozen bananas will keep for many
months. They are eaten frozen,like an ice cream bar, but contain far
fewer calories, contain practically no fat and no salt.... frozen
bananas make a great healthful snack... and a stash of frozen bananas
are very handy for when making smoothies.

Sheldon

"cybercat" wrote in message
...

"ms_peacock" wrote
I'm a female and have been baking since I was 16 and have never weighed a
damn thing.


OH, now I get you. You weren't saying you don't have to measure, just that
you don't have to WEIGH.

Of course you don't!

You definitely don't have to weigh ingredients and measurements don't have
to be precise either. Recipes for baked goods didn't start having exact
measurements until cookbooks started becoming common around the beginning of
the 1900s. Before then people used what ever was handy to measure with. If
you'll read really old cookbooks the measurements will be things like a
"teacup" or a "knob of butter."

Ms P

Oh pshaw, on Mon 13 Nov 2006 01:07:43p, Julia Altshuler meant to say...

ms_peacock wrote:

You definitely don't have to weigh ingredients and measurements don't
have to be precise either. Recipes for baked goods didn't start having
exact measurements until cookbooks started becoming common around the
beginning of the 1900s. Before then people used what ever was handy to
measure with. If you'll read really old cookbooks the measurements
will be things like a "teacup" or a "knob of butter."


On the other hand, we don't know how those early recipes came out. It
is possible that a number of those cakes were runny on the inside or too
dry. Maybe a sauce came out perfectly one time and a disaster the next.


I'd like to draw a distinction between measuring precisely with a
kitchen scale or measuring cups and measuring by eye and feel. Those
can be precise too. Someone who is experienced at making a particular
recipe might not bother getting out a scale to weigh a pound of flour or
might not bother dirtying a measuring spoon for a teaspoon of cinnamon,
but they might be using exactly a pound or a teaspoon because the amount
"just looked right." In other words, there's not necessarily a
distinction at all. Using scales, cups and "what looks right" can all
amount to the same thing.

That's absolutely true. I watched my grandmother make cakes and breads
many times without using any instrument of measure, and her results were
absolutely always wonderful. I measure precisely for baking cakes, but
rarely for breads, pies, or pastries. I rarely ever end up with anything
that isn't as good as I expect.

--
Wayne Boatwright @¿@¬
_____________________

ms_peacock wrote:

You definitely don't have to weigh ingredients and measurements don't have
to be precise either. Recipes for baked goods didn't start having exact
measurements until cookbooks started becoming common around the beginning of
the 1900s. Before then people used what ever was handy to measure with. If
you'll read really old cookbooks the measurements will be things like a
"teacup" or a "knob of butter."


On the other hand, we don't know how those early recipes came out. It
is possible that a number of those cakes were runny on the inside or too
dry. Maybe a sauce came out perfectly one time and a disaster the next.


I'd like to draw a distinction between measuring precisely with a
kitchen scale or measuring cups and measuring by eye and feel. Those
can be precise too. Someone who is experienced at making a particular
recipe might not bother getting out a scale to weigh a pound of flour or
might not bother dirtying a measuring spoon for a teaspoon of cinnamon,
but they might be using exactly a pound or a teaspoon because the amount
"just looked right." In other words, there's not necessarily a
distinction at all. Using scales, cups and "what looks right" can all
amount to the same thing.


--Lia