> the use of imprecise cup measurements rather than weights

It really does not matter. Both because variation doesn't matter and because weights vs volumes are not going to give a big enough variation to really be detectable.

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chickensong 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

It doesn't matter for small items like salt or baking soda, but you can get pretty different results scooping flour depending on how compressed the flour storage is, and how much the scooping packs down that flour.

There's a reason that every bakery measures by weight. If you value consistency, and recipes should be consistent, you go by weight. You can say it doesn't matter, and in some cases it might not, but the entire baking industry doesn't agree with your statement.

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3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

[deleted]

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moron4hire 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Flour is always the canonical example and I flat out reject it. It's not true. If you think it's true, you've convinced yourself it's true to avoid addressing other problems in process you have.

Here's a thing: a given measure of flour (by any means, volume or weight), a single one kept in a cupboard, not remeasured, is going to have a different weight on different days that have different ambient humidity levels.

The tools of the kitchen are imprecise. The environment is not well controlled. And human taste is robust against micro variations.

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chickensong 42 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

I started out baking measuring by volume, and it's not like it doesn't work. You can make amazing things basically measuring by handful, pinch, and feel. I think technique and ratio are more important than careful measurements.

Everything else is optimizing for consistency, which might not be important to everyone. If you care about it, measuring by weight is more accurate. The undesirable variations aren't usually taste, but structure and texture, which can be noticeable.

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jtbayly 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Flour absolutely matters. Some flours are very “thirsty.” Having thirsty flour and compressing it during measurement makes for way too dry cookies, pancakes, etc. We’ve experienced this multiple times in our house.

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smallerize 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

A given weight of flour will have a different weight on a different day?

	▲	moron4hire 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		As it absorbs more or less moisture from the air due to ambient humidity changes, yes. The same reason your wooden furniture will also significantly change in dimensions such that there's no point in being more than 1/16th of an inch precise in your measurements; your design and construction technique is far more important.

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gbear605 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

It certainly can matter for proper baking (which this recipe seems to be?), though for traditional pancakes I would never bother. But there's a reason that bakeries weigh their ingredients. It's more consistent and allows for different people to get more similar results.

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moron4hire 3 hours ago | parent [-]

The baking industry isn't really measuring by weight, they are measuring by bag, which happens to be delineated in weight.

Look, this is arm chair, YouTube cooking. There is so much variation in recipes that 10% here and there is not going to make or break any recipe.

There is zero ability to make a "universally better" version of a recipe by micro optimizing ingredients. For one thing, you can't easily control temperature and humidity variations on your environment. If people think 2% difference in flour content is going to make or break their bread recipe, then daily humidity variations will definitely have an impact. But it doesn't, really. It's the sort of thing people blame when they don't have good process or good technique.

For another thing, there is no way to evaluate the outcome as "better". Better for you, perhaps, but even then, it's mostly psychosomatic. I've doubled the amount of baking soda in a recipe before and it has had zero impact. I've never measured flour by weight and my cookies come out exactly the same as my wife's when she breaks out the microscale

I've been cooking for a long time. I have family members who refuse to come to Easter Dinner unless I'm the one cooking. I barely measure anything, ever. Even when I'm baking. It matters to have things in the right ballpark, but 5% variations don't matter.

	▲	gbear605 14 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		The difference between weight and volume measurements could easily be a 20% or 30% gap. I’ve measured two of my cups of flour before and they were off by roughly that amount. Maybe I’m just bad at measuring, but it’s a lot more than 5%.