Do professional cooks use measuring cups and spoons?
I watched some TV shows showing cooks working in their restaurants. I use measuring cups and spoons when cooking almost everything, but do not see any of the TV cooks measure anything. They mostly just grab things and throw them in.
Do skilled cooks have no need for these tools?
Best Answer
Much more often, expert chefs will use an accurate digital scale, particularly for baking. Cups are OK for liquids, and most people use spoons for small measurments like salt or yeast, but scales are accurate for everything from flour, to honey, to water, to softened butter.
Plus, since you can generally tare scales, you don't have to wash anything out but the big bowl you're mixing everything in! Trust me on this one, a good digital scale is an awesome way to spend $16 - $25.
If you're not baking, chances are you don't need precision. You rarely need to measure ingredients, except for baking, once you're pretty competent.
EDIT: Just a note, I bake all my own bread and I always do it by weight. I use spoons for the yeast and salt, the scale for everything else. I have a habit of using a Pyrex measuring cup to nuke cold water, I stick a thermometer in it as it cools, and start mixing when it reaches 110F. So at that point, it gets poured from the cup to the mixing bowl. That has given me many opportunities to note the accuracy of the cups (my scale is very, very accurate, I test it all the time). Even standard Pyrex measuring cups, used properly (eye level, on a level surface) will give erroneous results. For 1 cup (237ml), you can do everything right with a measuring cup and still be off by as much as 20ml either way. That's over 8%. So I recommend weighing everything but tiny spoon quantities. Sometimes, I'll even break out my gram scale to weigh salt, but I have to find the recipe pretty intimidating to go that far.
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Quick Answer about "Do professional cooks use measuring cups and spoons?"
Yes they do; mostly for baking and pastries where precision is more important.Do chefs use measuring?
There is more to measurement in cooking than some might think. Not only do chefs deal with precise measurements when following a recipe, but they must also deal with vast quantities (of patrons and of food packaged in bulk). Chefs are also responsible for measurement when planning menus and purchasing food.What measuring spoons do chefs use?
The Takeaway. For the best measuring spoons overall, choose Spring Chef. They won the day with their generous array of measurements, sturdy weight, comfortable grip, and a narrow shape that allowed access into spice jars even with the smallest openings.Why do Americans use cups instead of weighing?
That's because English recipes tend to give ingredients in weights, like grams or ounces, rather than in cups, American style. But it's not just Brits who prefer weighing out ingredients. Professional bakers in the U.S. go that route as well. This is because weights are more accurate, and they produce less mess.What is the way that most bakers and chefs measure?
It's Not All About Precision, Either While cups are the standard measurement for most U.S. recipes, European recipes use weight instead (thank you, Mary Berry!). Different recipe sources will also use different methods, so the only constant is weight. Using weight also makes it easier to scale your recipes up and down.HOW TO USE MEASURING CUPS AND SPOONS BEFORE BAKING
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Answer 2
Yes they do; mostly for baking and pastries where precision is more important.
For other types of cooking, precision is not that important.
Experience play a role when knowing the quantity needed for a recipe.
Also, most of the time, we see chefs (on TV or in real cuisine) handling small containers of prepared ingredients, and those are measured when they are doing "mise en place" before service begins.
Answer 3
In 3 years of working at a restaurant, I think I only saw measuring devices used by the pastry chef, and maybe the head chef when he was attempting a new creation.
After you have seen ingredients measured out hundreds of times, its get pretty easy to eyeball a teaspoon of salt or a cup of water. Measurements are very important for baking, but in most other cooking they are more of a guideline. So unless you need to be precise, an experienced cook is usually safe skipping the measuring device.
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