Food Wishes Recipes - How to Measure Flour - Using a Digital Scale for Baking

[2000hahahas]

so you dont need to buy the cups and instead the a scale??

[WilmasLegacy]

Lol @ "that is why your cupcakes were dry". So true but so funny!!!!!!! I need to send my cake students here so they can realize, I am not making this stuff up!

[rasoros]

Very, very true but there are some chefs that compress their flour and then write cookbooks based on this.

The only answer? Violence.

[LuisPenseQue]

lol 4.20

[billymanbelbrot]

I usually measure 5.0oz for a cup for a recipe in cups and it doesn't steer me wrong, especially for breads. When I started out I used 4.25oz for each cup, and I always had to add more flour for the consistency to be right.

[bhyqs]

Thank u Chef John for pointing this out. I always thought I was a lazy cook. I measure everything I can with a scale, even water (1 g per ml) - I just put mixing bowl on the scale then set it to zero before adding anything in (so that I don't have to wash measuring spoons :p). I felt a bit guilty about it because I don't seem to be a meticulous and responsible person in kitchen, but now I feel better because scaling everything is the correct and guilt-free way! Yay!!!

[SkankinLozer]

Almost 420 everyone, planning on choosing some of chef johns recipes this year i know they will all be amazing, if i cook them correctly haha.

[teddybabear]

is it all the same with cocoa powder?

[MacsCanfly]

never thought of that

[Tubeglowfun]

I discovered this a few years ago and it has made all the difference. I usually weigh my flour now. When I make bread I don't even get out the measuring cups anymore. I use ratios for my bread recipes and it is remarkably consistent.

[Kerfik]

OR IS IT?!?!? ._.

[kokoka852]

lol enjoy wat da flour

[witerainbow]

vdo takes me to amazon and makes me order a scale!!!

i hope my baking improves considerably!!

[PatOst100]

Wow ...who knew?! Chef John...do you know the meaning of life too?

[Gene756]

Great Information Chef John, five star ...!

Gene..

[snowblazer12]

i find it funny that chef john had to make a video on how to measure flour...i didnt know that, that many ppl did not know how to measure.

maybe chef john will need to make one on how to measure brown sugar next :o

[ubpost]

I voted for you sir

[jakamneziak]

Thing is, i have an old analogue scale where it has a bowl on top of a pressure pad which sends a dial round. All i do is fill that until i get the desired weight. No cups for me regarding flour (apart form making it easier to get out of the bag.) But i use the scales as weight rather than volume. I just wonder, does this apply to other products such as sugar as well or is it specifically flour?

[thedonmarlo]

I wish you could teach me how to cook chef john, the teachers at FCI are really giving me a hard time !

[dazigg]

Alton is hard core about weighing ingredients too.

[psychonavigator]

Wow thanks, now I want to go and convert every recipe! Awesome.

[secretwmp]

ooo

[8927653]

I never knew this..makes sense!

[itsageoffrushthing]

Thanks, good tip.

[Suitaful]

I have a bunch of scales I use for other substances but never used them for cooking

[barkpeeler2000]

@Suitaful  lol i bet

[psychonavigator]

Duh, nobody cooks with a scale... that's what pans are for!

[1105196]

OMG! why did I never think of that! just a little tid bit that opened my eyes! and duh!!, I have a scale and never use it!

[Necrokutan]

That sound effect freaked me out.

[ElMojadoTriste]

really cheap now a days

>25 bucks

Really? . .thats cheap?

[Robb0h]

I imagine he's speaking in relation to how much it used to cost to find a digital scale... you used to not be able to find them for less than 3 times that much.

[deepakjindal070]

1150 INR, in my currency, its hell expensive.

[lowdown3007]

nice tip

[rhettnyedotorg]

420lol

[Poonard]

@rhettnyedotorg i saw that.....im telling ;))

[basilwhite]

I took a dessert class at the John C. Campbell Folk School and converted several of my fellow students to weighing flour on a digital scale. I also weigh the container of flour or sugar, zero out the entire container, and get a negative count for the stuff I remove.

[iml109]

oh wow, thank you for this tip! no wonder my choc chip muffins are so dry!! :((

[fujicity]

菓子作るときは測るのが原則と、フレンチシェフから言われたもの­ですわ。

[foxisstupid]

Great video, chef!

Someone asked about humidity. A humid day will not add enough weight to be significant.

Then there are the folks who act like basic instructions like how to weigh flour are stupid. These poor people are just insecure and wish to demonstrate knowledge. It's hard not to get angry at them, just try to remember that they have this sad need to show everyone that they know something. This probably comes from emotional abuse in childhood. They are more to be pitied than censured.

[MayhamInc]

i need one of these scales... good for weed

[HeavenlyMakeUp]

i see alot of recipes that call for x cups or x oz of flour and always wondered what a cup SHOULD weigh. thanx for the tip. now i just need to find good recipes that tell me weight rather than cups. all my bread maker recipes are cups, and i find it's a 50-50 chance if my bread actually makes it out as light fluffy bread.

[basilwhite]

@HeavenlyMakeUp You can't trust a cookbook to tell you how much your flour or sugar weighs. The nutrition facts on the flour package will tell you how many grams are in a volume serving, like one serving = 1 tablespoon (15g), so 1 cup of flour = 16 tablespoons * 15 g/tablespoon = 240g. This works for sugar too.

[jagwio]

@basilwhite not to mention seasonal variation in humidity and temperature will affect how much a cup of flour will weigh

[wen2669]

but if the air is humid the flour picks it. so then the flour would be heavier.

[bibbeny]

I had a chef hand me a recipe that called for 5 scoops of flour. It did not say what size scoop to use. After many failed attempts I had to look at a simular recipe to get a ratio of sugar to flour in weight. Only then did the recipe come out great. I never told him the ratio so when he tried it, FAIL! One of the worst chef's I ever worked for.

[nozdoz160]

Thank you chef

[meknewxenu]

Great video, I started doing this about a year ago and has made all the difference.  This is a great explanation and illustration of your point. I am going to recommend this video to many friends.

[bouncerjens]

i'm sorry chef john.. usually i like watching you videos, but that.. are you serious with that?

i mean.. it never came to my mind to bake without using a scale - isn't that essentially for baking? i don't want to offend anybody, but it is totally logic that you don't get the right amount of flour when you just use a cup, isn't it?

hmm but this obviousness can also be connected that i am from germany - i don't really know how you bake there where you live :D

anyway.. kind of senseless

[BramleyAppleFun]

chill out man

[rainbowicecreampie]

there are alot of people that dont think this is so very obvious, because maybe they havent learned what you have, so dont call it pointless, he is doing it for the people that dont know these things

there was a time when u were a beginner, so dont be a smartass

[bouncerjens]

oh i don't wanted to be a smartass. i forgot to mention that watching this video was senceless for me - and i guess also for a lot of other people - though there are truly also a lot of them who liked it. and to be honest.. i would call myself a beginner.. maybe a little more. but the thing is that i just never used a recipe with 'cups' - and i didn't know that such a bunch of people just use cups to measure their flour, but thats ok :D now i'm wiser xD

[Jealkeja]

here in america, most home cooks don't use a scale for ANYTHING, it's really shocking.

I have a german friend who has scolded my american friends for not using a scale, haha.

[anarchyangel202]

uhhh how bout european standard is done with weight for dry ingredients. Seeing as chef john is american and many of his viewers are american, where it is extremely uncommon for households to have scales and instead measure by cups and the such, this video makes sense for his american viewers who would have no idea how or why scales work or are better.

[thefinewino]

Oh no! People don't bake like you! You should post here and be a giant downer about it! Excellent job.

[AbstractMan23]

i totally agree.

[opeth84]

Awesome tip John!

[oOpsychochickOo]

Beginner baker here. Thanks for the tip!!!

[BrokeToeProductions]

You got my vote amigo

[VAStudi0z]

thanks

[NightWind420]

Wooooo!!

4.20!

my bday =]

[gozosa1980]

that's what my momma taught me! mommas are always right!!

[pablolankenau]

Good information to be honest. Thanks chef John!

[llollercoaster]

My food wish is for a hooker to jump out of a cake at me.

[houchi69]

ya good luck finding any American recipes that actually give you the weight.

this is the problem with America, the stupid "American style" unit measurement...while everyone else in the world uses metric systems.

[AbstractMan23]

as a passionate home baker, i think the "cup" is the most stupid and impractical way of measuring flour - or anything.

ok even worse is the "1/3 cup"... arghhhh

it's highly inaccurate.

just go with grams and you cannot go wrong!!!

message to all chefs: please stop publishing books and recipes in "cups" and go with grams :-)

[houchi69]

ya good luck with that.

[BlissfulWishes]

@AbstractMan23

I have an electronic scale and my country uses metric but I still like the cups and spoons. They just make things simpler. Easier to memorize recipes. Sometimes, u don't have a scale but still want to bake something from scratch. So, the cups come in handy. I've even used tea cups :-) Besides, I don't think 20-30g of flour difference in a regular size cake will alter anything much.

[prettyinpunk666]

This is one of the most useful tips I've ever seen.

[DEADMAN780]

ive been telling people this for years maybe they will listen to you.

great job

[jkshoujk]

Whoa weird. There's only 2 related videos.

Or are there? O.o

[DeadEye1968]

thanks for that info chef - awesome stuff

[001q2w3e]

yeah chef...the only thing i ever "packed" was brown sugar

[sunshinelyy]

Great tip. Thanks a lot!

[IJest]

This is an incredibly helpful video. Thanks Chef John!

[troglodyte3344]

cool video. anyone know where to get the piano music from?

[jaycherith]

iMovie. It's called "Buddy".

[Sarah1627]

wow great tip...

thx

[absolutblue]

thanky you for the info

[LadyofTheSummer]

I did not know that! Thank you for the tip, now my cakes and things won't be dry.Especially since I don't have a scale.

[FantasyAngel707]

you're a great chef. No doubt about it. Thank you so much for everyting!

[cyoohoos]

Alton Brown recommended this on his show on the food network.

[houchi69]

ya he just copied it.

[tofuEtr]

Is it 4.3 oz's for one cup of any flour or just for all purpose?  I'm wondering because I use a couple different kinds of flour for different things I am baking.

[houchi69]

just dont press down your flour when you measure it, you should be ok. also, if you sift the flour, you will actually lose a little bit of the flour. so also want to adjust for that.

[blackhat47]

Thanks Chef John, I now know why my Scones and Mini Dampers are so dry and crumbly.

[houchi69]

scones are usually dry just because they have less fat in it too, not necessarily means they have too much flour.

[Teldara]

Ive been always told to sift the flower for baking. Sift a bunch then just scoop up the flour.

[AngryLlamaz]

i use this scale to weigh marijuana

[Jophie12]

Voted

[bubbles02010]

nice tip! this is sooo true!

[collegebrat122088]

too much...me and my fam is old school and our cakes and pies come out just fine without weighting our stuff

[simpathy232]

lmfao 420

[Julianhache]

420!

[lauweroos]

i hate the cup measurements... i prefer grams as a european :-)

[Ramsez]

are you a dealer, john?

[TheUnknownDungeon]

HAHAHA

[psyslo]

Voted for you Chef John, good luck!

[test804]

OR IS IT !!!! >:O

[MrsRandomMadeMeDoIt]

woooow.. it tells u grams AND kg .. cus douing the math from grams to KG is JUST TO HARD FOR PPL.. WTF...

[morph5690]

.....Words.

[andersbrtlsn]

"Only in America..."

No offense, but the "cup-measuring" is just stupid :)

[daniellexylena]

Ok, totally random, but where did you get the flour canister?? I've been looking for one exactly like it!!

[janaswang]

Chef John has all the best kitchen equipment, how I envy him. :(

[faylinameir]

@janaswang i dont see anything super fancy, you can buy stuff just like that at walmart.

[jlite]

I vote for you Chef :o)

[iamafractal]

I've been meaning to ask you this, Chef John. Can you show us a recipe for no knead/no baking powder/soda yeast only chocolate chip cookies? I just made the bittman no knead bread and was very pleased, so now I want to see how this can apply that kind of simplicity to chocolate chip cookies...

[montaramike]

No wonder i am always having to adjust the amount of water in my bread recipe!

[imtang0708]

Thanks Chef John! BTW the smothered pork chops are awesome!

[Fatcaesar]

Good video, what most people don't think of is that bakers, they ALWAYS weight their ingredients.

It's very important.

[srm8ib4]

that sound effect scared the hell out of me.

[YaoMingLily]

Omg me too! when the video went up to 46 seconds. And it was much louder than the rest of the video.

[regamom3]

Thanks, I bet that's why sometimes I like my cookies better than others!!!

Does that hold true for brown sugar, or should you pack it????

[Jeetard]

@regamom3

normally you would pack brown sugar because it's i guess u can say..

rough?

[4MidnightBreeze]

I have the same question

[speckalou]

Ok... I NEED you to do some cast iron cooking... Please, I just got a dutch oven and I can't get anything to work for me??

[Kashmir2000is]

@speckalou Curious, what problem(s) you are having?

[speckalou]

Sticking... It is seasoned and I'm not using high heat...  I just don't know???

[xixit]

I do wonder why people don't use more precise measurments like ounces or grams, and not cups.

As you just demonstrated it's not exactly precise depending on how you pack the cup. ;-)

Doesn't help when you live in a country which do not have anything similar to a cup...

Still, thanks for the info.

[wafflethug]

hmmm white powder... scale. You sure that's flour?

[DeeHong]

it an be starch :P

[pubtor]

diff between pro and noob

[Titan001]

perfect analysis

[sostav]

Chef, thanks!!!! you're awesome.

[EccentricPuzzle]

IM FAMOUS lol

[EccentricPuzzle]

ooo we have those stainless steel cups lol

[mickysantos]

I was always told that the only think you that you should press down when measuring w/ cups and whatnot is brown sugar

[fannypenis]

yea