106 Part I: Eating Right with Every Bite
Having more than one set is a good idea. Having to stop where you are to
wash and dry measuring cups when you’re cooking is real hassle.
Following are some tips for measuring common foods:
✓ If the recipe calls for a raw protein food to be cooked, the weight in the
ingredient list refers to the weight before cooking; for instance, 8 ounces
boneless, skinless chicken breast.
✓ If the recipe calls for cooked meat, like in a salad, the weight given refers
to after cooking; for example, 8 ounces cooked chicken breast.
✓ Check the form of the food. The smaller the pieces, the more that fits
into the cup. For example,^1 ⁄ 4 cup of walnut halves is fewer nuts than^1 ⁄ 4
cup chopped walnuts.
✓ Recipes call for level measurements, so when you fill the cup with a fine
ingredient (such as sugar or flour), take a table knife and run it across
the top of the cup to make the food level with the top of the cup.
✓ Flour gets packed down in the bag, so it needs to be stirred up in the bag
or sifted before measuring. Measure flour by spooning it from the bag
into the measuring cup.
✓ Brown sugar is measured either unpacked or packed. Unpacked means
you can just scoop it out with the spoon or cup and level if off. Packed
means you need to put it into the cup or spoon and pushed down to
pack it tightly.
✓ Anything semi-liquid, like peanut butter, sour cream, or cottage cheese,
gets measured in measuring cups unless the recipe specifies weight.
Choosing and using a food scale
If you have a food scale stuck in the back of your cupboard, dig it out, blow
off the dust, and put it to use. You may think weighing out food is a hassle,
but it’s a skill worth developing. People are not born knowing what 3 ounces
of chicken looks like, and the way to learn this is to weigh chicken a bunch of
times. The more you use the food scale, the better you become at eyeballing
portions.
You have a wide choice of food scales available at department stores and
home specialty or kitchen stores. Smaller scales can measure up to 16 ounces
and are used mostly for determining portion sizes. Home kitchen scales can
weigh foods up to 10 pounds or more and are great for cooking measure-
ments. Make sure your scale has a function to set the scale to zero weight, or
tare. Some scales give you a reading with a moving pointer and others have
a digital screen. Digital scales weigh out in fractions and the display may be
easier to read than scales with a pointer.
