alt Hacker NewsYes but the packing density of flour varies cup to cup, within the same measuring cup, resulting in different amounts of flour.
> J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, the managing editor of the blog Serious Eats, once asked 10 people to measure a cup of all-purpose flour into a bowl. When the cooks were done, Mr. Lopez-Alt weighed each bowl. “Depending on how strong you are or your scooping method, I found that a 'cup of flour’ could be anywhere from 4 to 6 ounces,” he said. That’s a significant difference: one cook might be making a cake with one-and-a-half times as much flour as another.
So you have to carefully scoop precisely the same way every time to even be close to accurate??
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You'll know if you need to add more flour when it comes time to knead. There's no such thing as accuracy in cooking, and especially not baking.
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> So you have to carefully scoop precisely the same way every time to even be close to accurate??
Technically you’re supposed to sift your flour before measuring. This removes clumps and also helps you get consistent packing. I think in ye olden days it also got rid of any leftover wheat husks that made it through.
My point wasn’t that you get the same amount of flour every time. You get the same ratio of ingredients today.
Ime people way overthink home baking. If you’re not trying to make 500 perfectly identical units, you really don’t have to sweat the measurements so much. Make the dough or batter then adjust until it feels right. Having good pictures (or experience) for different stages of a recipe is way more important than detailed measurements.