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A hundred years ago, most home cooking was accomplished using a handful of this, a pinch of that, and a walnut-sized piece of something else. Although measurement tools were available then, they weren’t often used by the home cook, who learned about meal preparation from her mother and grandmother.

In the 20th century, mass-produced cookbooks began to appear and, in order to have the recipes turn out the same for all cooks, standardized measures were used, such as a cup of rice or a pint of milk. After all, listing a “fist-sized piece of lard” would mean different things to different size women.

While using Imperial measurements like teaspoons, tablespoons and cups worked well for most recipes, it still led to inconsistencies in measure. This is because most recipe measurements are meant only for liquid ingredients. They are measures of volume, not of mass.

For many recipes, this really doesn’t matter as dry ingredients maintain a similar mass when measured. Take rice for example. If you measured out ten separate cups of rice carefully and then counted the grains of rice in each cup, you would come pretty close to them all being the same.

Flour, on the other hand, is an ingredient that does not take well to volume measurement. If you scooped a cup of flour from the bin and compared it to sifting flour into a cup until it was full, you would have two very different masses of flour. The flour in the bin is more compact and you would end up with more flour per cup. The sifted flour is full of tiny air pockets and therefore takes up more volume for the same mass.

Flour is also one of the most important ingredients to be exacting with. In baking, especially, the proportions of flour, liquids and yeast have to be exact to get consistent results. That’s why many chefs weigh their flour and most other dry ingredients rather than using volume measures. Many high end recipe books also call for weights on dry ingredients- sometimes including a roughly equivalent volume.

In order to properly weigh dry ingredients, you need to start with the right kitchen scale. Forget about using the cheap one from the discount store. It likely works on springs and will not be calibrated for fine measurements. A digital kitchen scale works well and is relatively inexpensive. A good quality scale can last you many years so take the time to invest in the right one. Stainless steel is easy to clean and presents an elegant look on your kitchen counter. Digital kitchen scales are usually calibrated to be accurate to 1 gram and they automatically deduct the weight of a bowl or container that your food is in.

Weighing your dry ingredients when you cook elevates your cooking to the next level. You will get professional and consistent results every time.