Arri London wrote:
> Bobo wrote:
> > ChattyCathy wrote:
> > > blake murphy wrote:
> > > > what with the discussion of the butter bells or balls or bongos or
> > > > whatever they are, i thought this product from kitchenart might be of
> > > > some interest:
>
> > > > <http://www.amazon.com/KitchenArt-Buttermate-Measure-Dispense/dp/B0002...>
>
> > > > your precise pal,
> > > > blake
>
> > > I'll pass. Butter is like garlic - you can never have too much - IMHO,
> > > of course.
>
> > I agree, except in baking. There, you need to be relatively precise.
>
> Not true, of course. People have been baking perfectly good breads,
> cakes, pies/tartes and pastries for centuries without ever measuring
> anything precisely. Quite often I've made baked goods with the remains
> of a packet of butter. It *might* have been the amount needed but was
> probably a little less. Structure and taste of the final products are
> always as expected. For many things the amount of sugar is reduced from
> what is stated in the recipe and the amount of salt is reduced or
> eliminated entirely. Stuff wtill works and still tastes excellent. No
> precision there.
>
> Given that I currently live in a very dry climate (often need more
> liquid than stated) at high altitude (may need to adjust oven temp,
> cooking time and occasionally add a bit more flour), following most
> baked goods recipes in a 'relatively precise' manner is guaranteed to
> fail often. It's easy enough to learn what textures a baking mix should
> have and get there without measuring anything precisely.

Precisely. Of all cookery baking requires the *least* precision.
People like to think precise measuing is important for baking because
those are the people who don't understand the concepts involved, and
therefore are frightened, really *ascared*. The methods employed and
of course ingredient quality/freshness are far more important aspects
for sucessful baking. And in all cookery experience trumps measuring
every time... anyone who needs to cook with precise measurements is
not an accomplished cook... if after one's first month in the kitchen
they are still using measuring spoons they will never know how to
cook, not ever... following a recipe is not cooking, that's like paint
by numbers is art. Professional bakers do all measuring by eye,
hand, and interpolation... no scales either, because they can read the
weights printed on the packaging. It's actually stupid to accurately
measure ingredients for baking especially, because many ingredients
used for baking are simply not consistant. Accurate measuing doesn't
gaurantee success because unless one possesses the experience/ability
to make adjustments for inconsistances they are guaranteed to fail.
When people harp on precise measuring for baking you can bet your
bipee they are the ones who only bake box cakes, make pizza from
frozen dough, and have a freezer filled with Pillsbury dough boy
tubes... yes, with premixed baked products you sorta hafta gotta
follow the directions fairly accurately... but even with box cake no
one can tell if you added two eggs instead of three... I got yer
accuracy, even the dumbest dago mixing c-ment doesn't measure... yo,
carmine, make a more juicy.

At a real bakery you'll never see two loaves of bread, two cakes, two
pies, etc. exactly precisely alike... when you do then you're in the
prepackaged baked goods aisle of the stupidmarket... Wonder bread is
measured.

Sheldon