I'm certainly no chef, but I've picked up a few things in the kitchen over the course of the past year. Through trial and error - sometimes a very messy error indeed - I'm gradually learning some of the tricks of the trade that most 1940s housewives would have learned as children watching and working in the kitchen with their mothers and grandmothers.
My mom was a great cook, bless her heart, but she did all the work for us when it came to meal preparation. Once in a while, she brought us into her domain to help with a batch of cookies or salad or something, but we were children of the '80s. Moms of that era probably wanted to believe that their daughters wouldn't need to know all this "mundane" stuff. That by the time we were women, technology and modern industry would have replaced the need to prepare three meals a day from scratch --- and clean up after them, too!
So I'm starting a little late.
At any rate, one of the things I've discovered about baking is just how important it is to sift your dry ingredients. It's such a simple step and yet so key to getting great results. Taking a few extra minutes to sift together all your dry ingredients - flour, salt, sugar, baking powder, spices, baking soda, etc. - can make such a difference. Thoroughly blended ingredients make for a muffin or cookie or cake with a more even texture and flavor. And you never have to worry about biting into one of those dreadful baking soda clumps again! I always used to skip this step, thinking I could blend the ingredients just as thoroughly by mixing them with a spoon, but I've changed my mind after having some great successes with baking this last year.
One of the little treasures in my small vintage cookbook collection is a late 1930s booklet called Clabber Girl Baking Book, probably a promotional giveaway for customers of Clabber Girl Baking Powder. The author of the booklet writes that flour should be sifted in order to get a more accurate measurement: "Always sift the flour before measuring, and then dip it lightly into the measuring cup. Do not pack the flour into the cup." Some modern baking tipsters online recommend sifting as critical when using finely ground ingredients that tend to clump: baking soda, confectionery sugar, cornstarch, cocoa, and cake flour. Some people point out that sifted flour makes for lighter, fluffier results. Others tell us that sifting is archaic. Important in the days when flour wasn't as finely milled as it is today, but you can get the same results by mixing dry ingredients with a fork or a wooden spoon.
What do you think? Is sifting a must in your kitchen when baking - or did you leave it behind in Home Ec class?
11 comments:
Sifting is important in order to make sure there are no lumps in your dry ingredients but you don't have to actually use a sifter. I whisk does the job perfectly and is easier to clean.
I have my mom's old sifter, probably was brand new when she was married in 1952. That said, it's more of an antique relic to me than something I use. It's been years since I baked from scratch but I want to get back into it, so maybe the sifter will see the light of day again soon.
I have 3 sifters - one that is about a cup and half size that "you" shake back and forth, one like you have pictured, and a larger one with a squeeze handle. I prefer the crank handle. The large one gets heavy and my hand gets tired.
Yes, I use them, but it depends on what I'm making. If I'm baking a cake, I sift. If I'm making bread or cookies without spices I don't always. I often whisk or let the mixer do it. If I'm making ginger snaps, I sift so that the spices are evenly distributed. I *always* sift baking cocoa and powdered sugar (too many disasters!).
One sifter is used only for flour and the "dry white stuff". That one seldom gets washed and is stored with the flour in the big flour can. That's what my grandmothers and my mother and aunts and older cousins did/do, so that's what I do. (A small canister of flour is on the counter handy for making gravy or thickening. I keep a small strainer in that canister.)
Sift. Even though the flour is very fine now and triple sifted or whatever, it still gets packed down in shipment. After you have cooked for a while you will learn by sight, feel, etc. whether you have enough or too much flour in what you are making. It just takes practice.
Oh, for you younger cooks - today's flour is different than it was even 25 years ago. So, if you are baking yeast bread, always use bread flour. You will get a much better end product.
I have to once again agree with packrat. I only use bread flour for bread and if I sift it depends on what I am making ( If you cannot decide always sift )I have a squeeze handle that I hate it is to hard to clean so I use the old sift with a crank handle (somethings are better left the orginal way) small strainers work great too. I love to bake My patron saint is St.Elizabeth she is the saint of bakers. I have a very very old picture of her near my stove it was my MIL ( it might have been her mothers it is old German)I hope St. Elizabeth watches of yours and your readers kitchens.
That is supposed to be watches OVER your Kitchen. Tuesday Nov. 17th was St. Elizabeth's feast day.I was busy at work and I forgot so maybe now I will go play in my kitchen in her honor.
Sifting is important - but not as much as even when I was growing up. Flour is much finer now also. Sometimes instead of sifting I will take my wire whisk and fluff up the flour before measuring from the cannister - and also will fluff the dry ingredients together in the bowl instead of sifting them together. Gives the same effect and is faster - though I do enjoy using my old fashioned sifter too.
I tend to just whisk everything together as well. If my baking powder or soda is really clumpy, I have a small strainer in my box of measuring tools.
I just saw a pastry chef on Martha that says whisking is just as effective. I hate sifting but now that I know about the whisking I will probably do that from now on depending on what I'm making.
Carey
It sounds like you gals have just as many takes on sifting as the online tipsters do! I haven't used a sifter when measuring my flour --- but I can see how that might be a nice extra step when making something as delicate as a cake. I do use a small sieve/strainer thingie just to give a through blending to all my dry ingredients.
Packrat, I like your thought on sifting especially when you're using a number of spices. Even distribution when it comes to things with a real bite to 'em - like ginger or nutmeg - has got to be a good idea. That said, I don't own a stand mixer or anything, so maybe that could do just as good a job at blending.
Mrs Tailleur, what a stroke of luck that your patron saint is a baker! You must have had some great successes in the kitchen... I'm coming over to your house for Christmas cookies!
I'm a lazy cook... I never sift! And my cookies and breads and cakes seem to turn out just fine!
You're very lucky! Not even the stray baking soda clump?
Post a Comment