People cook everyday. For achieving the good taste and flavor of dishes, people pay much attention to the choice of ingredients, time of cooking and cooking measurements. In fact, cooking is not an exact science, but many facts show that proper using of cooking measurements can achieve the right taste.
Different measurement systems are used in different countries, for example, cooks in the United States tend to measure all ingredients by volume, while it is common in Europe to measure dry ingredients by weight. Cooking measurements are sometimes exact while at other times they can be loose terms which will depend on cultures even on the certain cook. The concept of cooking measurements is different depending on different cultures. In the European countries, especially in Germany, people have accustomed to using cooking measurements in daily cooking. Usually, the standard of measurement is also exact in the form of unit and number, for instance, 1 tablespoon, 1/4 cup, 1 quart and 16 ounces, etc. These are just a few cooking measurements that one needs to know about to be able to meet the standards of the recipe. On the contrary, in Asian countries, especially in China, it is totally not the case. Chinese like using approximate terms to measure during the course of cooking. They would like say: “put some salt and add more sugar.” For the European cooks, those non-specific terms are really confusing. It is wise for the Chinese recipe writer to give the cook a clear idea of just how much the measurement should be.
As for the specific cooking measurements of Chinese, here some basic ones will be introduced as follows. These cooking measurements are also on the top list that can confuse you. The first one is a dash. A dash of pepper or a dash of cinnamon is usually used as one of cooking measurements. For those cook who have no idea of the exact measurement of a dash, they will take for granted that it is right to shake the pepper container or cinnamon container a quick dash over the food. If the holes of the container are big, then a lot of the spice can go to your food, while smaller holes will yield less spices. In actuality, a dash measures about a teaspoon. Next one is a pinch. A pinch of salt makes you have the idea of getting salt with your fingers with a pinching of both thumb and forefinger. These kinds of cooking measurements can lead to different amounts because everybody has different size of fingers and different ways of pinching. A pinch is actually just 1/8 of a teaspoon.
Cooking measurements are usually important for a good cook. Measuring accurately is probably the most important cooking skill for some people. For others, they can do well without considering any of these measurements. No matter what kind of system or method of cooking measurements you would like to use, the best result is cooking the delicious food. In a word, you can adjust these cooking measurements according to your own preferences and tastes.