Damaeus wrote:
> I've seen recipes calling for "sifted flour". Would someone mind telling
> me what good it does? I can honestly tell no difference in the final
> recipe whether the flour was sifted or not. Furthermore, I look at flour
> in a mixing bowl, then sift it, then run my hand around in it and it looks
> again like it's never been sifted.
>
> So why do people sift?

Most flour theses days is pre-sifted so it isn't always necessary. In
the old days when flour was ground by mill stones you sometimes got
little rocky surprises in the flour. Sometimes there are little lumps
in the flour and sifting breaks them up or leaves them behind. Flour
sometimes settles and gets packed a little tighter, and sifting aerates
it and fluffs it up a bit. In theory, using sifted flour will result in
a more consistent measurement, though measuring by weight accounts for
differences in density.

FWIW.... when a recipe calls for a cup of sifted flour it actually
means that you should sift the flour and then take the one cup measure
from that, as opposed to putting a cup of flour in the sifter and using
what comes through.