Look for European (ETA: Or I should probably just say non-US) recipes. They tend to list dry ingredients by weight, and wet ones by volume (which can pretty much be translated into weight, as 100 mL of water is 100g.)
Here’s a sample one from the BBC, for instance. Also, American recipe makers are getting better about listing weights of ingredients, in my experience. It’s still not the usual way American recipes are printed, but it’s getting a lot better.
Be still my heart. Please don’t tell me about the mustard.
Totally. Goya and Badia for the win.
That’s what I mean, though. For maximum consistency, weight alone isn’t good enough. If your 8000 kilograms of flour is 7% moisture content instead of the expected 5%, there’s 160 kilograms of water already in the dough before the water valve is even opened. The manufacturer must reduce the added water to end up with the required ratios.
There are also pricing implications. No one wants to pay flour prices for 160 kilos of water.
Swad is a great source for cheap spices from the subcontinent but make sure the store has good turnover.
Ah, yes, yes.
I like Swad, as well. For that matter, I find Middle Eastern and South Asian shops just to be fantastic for spices. I find the quality consistently high and the prices low. Also, online, The Spice House or Penzey’s. (Or their brick and mortars if you happen to be near one.)
Yup. Great buys and you can find some stuff you won’t find elsewhere.
My ah-ha moment came when my partner got me a set of the first good pans I’d even had. Holy smokes, I can cook stuff now that I never thought I could.
Everyone else probably already knows this, but I just started putting coals on one half of the Weber instead of at both ends. Made cooking the tri-tip much easier.
better yet, you don’t want to get those pans. You do want to get pans that can be heated scorching hot.
But be careful with weighing flour and brown sugar.
Flour varies in weight spending on how humid it is, enough to change the consistency of your cookies. You can adjust by using a smidge more flour if it’s very damp.
I weigh my ingredients if I’m making a large batch, but for a smaller recipe is generally use volume. I get very consistent results if I fluff up my flour before I measure it. (Easier than sifting.) I turn the flour canister upside down and let the flour fall, then right side up, then upside down again, then I right it and gently scoop it into measuring cups. This only works for recipes that called for sifted flour (most old recipes) but it works surprisingly well.
Brown sugar can absorb a lot of water, or dry out completely, and the difference in weight is huge. You can end up with vastly more sugar than you want if you weigh dry brown sugar. (The difference in moisture is negligible compared to the difference in sugar.) Measure brown sugar by volume.
I got a recipe to make whip cream and the author said you can use honey or any type of sugar you like. It did not turn out well, since it stayed very thin. Later on I read the comments and one of them was like “Wait, don’t tell people that - you have to use confectioners sugar, not granulated.” Yeah, that works much better.
I sweeten whipped cream with granulated sugar all the time. It works fine. I’ve never tried confectioner’s sugar, though. Are you trying to make something that has to keep, like frosting, or just have some whipped cream to serve with your berries or chocolate roll? We make whipped cream several times a year. You need to get it fluffy and whipped before adding the sugar. I’ve never tried honey, but I’d be surprised if that didn’t work. I would drizzle the honey in slowly, though.
Learning I can prepare most excellent curry gravy, in a large batch, and then freeze it like spaghetti sauce, has CHANGED MY LIFE !
Now, I have a freezer filled with five servings for two, of TWO different kinds of curry! Yummy from scratch curry.
All I do is chuck in whatever veg I have, in the right order, plus a protein! It couldn’t be simpler or easier. Doesn’t take much longer than the rice cooker making the rice.
I adore having my freezer filled with stuff like this. Especially this time of year when I’m spending my days in the garden, or during the summer and thinking about a yummy dinner on the way back from the beach!