2.05C Measuring Tools and Procedures Key
Directions: Have students read the following pages in your textbooks and use the information to fill in the blanks to complete the statements below. After reviewing, have students to place the completed worksheet in their academic notebook.
Adventures in Nutrition – pp. 130 – 133 and 197 – 199
Food for Today – pp. 322 and 355 – 358
Guide to Good Food – pp. 186 and 239 – 240
To get the best results from recipes, you need precise/accurate/exact amounts of ingredients.
Coffee mugs, flatware spoons, juice glasses, etc. vary in size and cannot give the needed accuracy.
Remember to not measure over your mixing bowl since you cannot remove excessive ingredients.
Measure ingredients using dry measuring cups, liquid measuring cups, measuring spoons, and scales. Ingredients are measured in volume, weight, or units. Volume is the space an ingredient occupies and is measured using dry or liquid measuring cups and measuring spoons. How heavy an
ingredient should be is measured by weight, using either spring or digital scales. Units indicate how many of an ingredient one should use, such as 2 eggs.
Liquid measuring cups have handles and spouts for pouring. These are usually made from clear glass or plastic with measurements in fluid ounces and fractions of cups marked on the sides of the cups. While liquid measuring cups vary in size, the most common sizes are 1-cup, 2-cups, and 4- cups. These cups are used to measure ingredients like water, milk, vegetable oil, and syrups.
Dry measuring cups are made of metal or plastic and are usually sold in sets. Standard cup sizes include ¼-cup, 1/3-cup, ½-cup, and 1-cup. These measuring cups are used to measure dry and solid ingredients such as flour, sugar, shortening, and peanut butter.
Measuring spoons are made of metal or plastic and are sold in sets. Standard measuring spoon sizes are ¼-teaspoon, ½-teaspoon, 1-teaspoon, and 1-tablespoon. Measuring spoons are used to measure both dry and liquid ingredients that are less than ¼ cup.
2.05C Measuring Tools and Procedures Key (page 2)
The steps to measure are dry ingredients are:
1. Place a piece of waxed paper under the measuring cup to catch any extra ingredients.
2. Spoon ingredients into the measuring cup or fill measuring spoon with ingredients to overfilling.
3. Drag the straight edge of a metal spatula over the cup or spoon to level off the ingredient.
Let excess ingredient fall onto waxed paper and return it to its original container.
Special treatment is given to flour and brown sugar when measuring. Flour should be stirred with a spoon, fork, or whip/whisk to loosen it before measuring. If the flour is lumpy or the recipe calls for sifted flour, put it through a metal sieve (sifter) before measuring. Powdered sugar is measured in the same way. Do not scoop flour or shake the cup of flour, as it causes the flour to pack down. This will cause one to end up with too much flour, making the food too dry or tough.
When measuring brown sugar, pack it into the measuring cup or spoon until it is full, then level with the straight edge of a metal spatula. When it is removed from the measuring cup or spoon, the brown sugar should hold its shape. If it does not, it was not packed enough.
The steps to measuring liquid ingredients are:
1. Place the liquid measuring cup on a level surface. Do not hold it in your hand.
2. Bend down and look at the measurements on the sides of the cup at eye level.
3. Pour the liquid into the cup until you have the desired amount.
Solid fats are usually measured either by the stick method or by using dry measuring cups. When measuring a stick of butter or margarine, one will use the markings on the wrapper, cutting through the wrapper at the desired amount with a serrated knife. The wrappers are marked by tablespoons and fractions of a cup. Shortening, however, is pressed/packed into dry measuring cups to eliminate space and air bubbles before leveling it off with the straight edge of a metal spatula. A
rubber spatula is used to remove the shortening from the measuring cup.
When measuring by weight the weight may be the package size in which the food is sold (a 10- ounce package of frozen vegetables). If using a kitchen scale to measure the ingredients, remember to adjust the scale by subtracting the weight of the container to find the weight of the food alone.