Pleasant Living: WEIGHTS AND MEASURES

WHAT FANNIE FARMER TAUGHT ME

Mrs. D. A. Lincoln set in type some sage advice in her 1884 cook book Mrs. Lincoln's Boston Cook Book "It has been said that good cooks never measure anything. They do, they measure by judgement and experience. And until you have a large measure of both of these essential qualities, use your spoon and cup or scales." Mrs. Lincoln's book was the official textbook of the Boston Cooking School established in 1877 and is considered the first U.S. school of real consequence devoted to the art and science of cooking.

Fannie Merritt Farmer graduated from the school in 1889 and was asked to stay on as assistant principal and head instructor. In 1891 after the death of Mrs. Carrie Dearborn the third principal of the school Fannie became principal and in 1896 published her first version of the school's cookbook.

She is believed to have introduced the first system of standardized measurements for cooking in the United States and because she insisted on scooping and leveling ingredients she has been dubbed the "Mother of Level Measurements". Before this advent cookbooks instructed such measures as "a walnut size knob of butter, four fingers of marzipan and a handful of sugar". However Miss Farmer's system of kitchen measurement was not globally embraced since it is based on volume. Europeans and most of the world depend on the more precise system of weight.

If you have ever delved into a British cookbook you will not find instruction containing a cup of anything rather ingredients are measured in the metric system of grams, liters and milliliters. Just dial up an episode of the Great British Baking Show and watch the contestants pull out their scales to weigh the ingredients for a dozen identical biscuits or a dozen petit fours.

However I am a true red-blooded American completely incapable of sifting though the conversion from grams to ounces so I'll stick to my cups and spoons. Compounding my mathematical deficiencies, I'm embarrassed to admit, I can never remember how many ounces in a pint, how many pints in a quart, how many quarts - well you get the picture. So I'm here to tell you after cooking for most of my life, acing culinary school at Peter Kump's New York Cooking School and even assisting Peter for almost a year, to bastardize Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire famous line "I rely on the kindness of measuring cups, spoons and scales".

So don't be embarrassed to refer to the ever helpful Charts of Weights and Measures found in many a cookbook cuz god knows I unabashedly do! As proof of this just look at the mini chart I proudly display on my kitchen counter for all to see and me to use.

Still there are a few things to know and do to insure more accurate measuring. Equip your kitchen with both dry and liquid measuring cups. For dry ingredients Miss Farmers advice to scoop and level is sound advice indeed. When using brown sugar or any moisture containing ingredient make sure you pack it because moisture can create air pockets resulting in inaccuracies.

Measuring flour is very different, you want it light and fluffy and most recipes even recommend sifting before measuring.

Finally, cooking is very different from baking. In cooking you can easily riff on a recipe making it your own using your fingers to measure quantity and your nose to detect proportions.

Baking is an exact science, so exacting that if you want to be a failsafe baker, even if you're an American baker, you need to invest in a kitchen scale to make sure that your puff pastry is flakey and layered and your biscuits have the right density and rise.