Basic Measurement in Cooking & Baking

 Measuring ingredients for cooking is one of the important steps in every new recipe. Our moms and dadi-nani’s managed without any standard measurement system, but in today’s fast paced life measuring and laying out ingredients beforehand only speeds up the process & also gives you confidence.

There are two main systems for measurement used; the Imperial system and the Metric system. Most countries including India use the Metric System, which uses the measuring units such as meters, ml and grams. In the US, I found that Imperial system was used where things are measured in feet, ounces, inches and pounds. 

Given below is standard size conversion that you can use. These came handy to me when I started cooking. I even printed these out and hung them in my kitchen.

Liquid ingredients measurements:

If you have to measure liquid greater than a cup, you can use the measuring jug with measurement marking or use the cup multiple times according to need. 

If you have liquid measurements less than a cup then you can use teaspoons and tablespoons and other smaller cups.

Dry ingredients measurement:

The right way to measure dry ingredients is to fill the cup or tablespoon to the brim and level it using the back edge of knife or spatula.

Now ingredients like flour (atta, maida), cornstarch or besan can vary a little in measurement from that given in the recipe according to the powder coarseness whereas when it comes to ingredients like granulated sugar, rava, rice and dals weighing doesn’t vary much as they are not compressible. When measuring other foods like chopped vegetables or shredded cheese it will vary in large as it depends on the size.

Here is a list of approximate measurements of few common ingredients:

Cups to Teaspoon & Tablespoon Conversions

The standard measuring cup set consists of 4 pieces i.e. 1/4 cup, ½ cup, 2/3 cup and 1 cup and similarly the standard set of spoons is 1 tablespoon, 1 teaspoon, ½ teaspoon and ¼ teaspoon.

In my house this set never remains complete, one or other spoons/cups gets lost over time (p.s. it’s also my toddlers favorite play thing).

So, rather than buying a new set each time, I found this chart that helped me use my existing equipments and cook easily.

Happy cooking everyone.☺