How do I measure without scales?

Cooking tolerates approximation and baking does not. Knowing which side of that line you are on decides whether an estimate is fine or whether it will produce a flat cake.

Step by step

1. Decide whether precision matters.Soups, stews, sauces, curries and roasts: approximate is fine. Bread, cakes, pastry and anything with raising agents: weigh it, or accept an unreliable result.
2. Learn the common spoon weights.One level tablespoon: flour about 15g, sugar about 20g, butter about 15g, rice about 15g, oil about 14g. A teaspoon is a third of a tablespoon.
3. Use a mug as a rough cup.A standard mug is roughly 250ml. Flour about 125g per cup, sugar about 200g, rice about 200g, liquid 250g. Approximate but consistent if you use the same mug.
4. Use the butter wrapper.Most blocks are marked in portions. A 250g block quartered gives 62.5g pieces — accurate enough for almost anything.
5. Measure liquid in a jug or by weight.1ml of water weighs 1g, so a measuring jug and scales are interchangeable for water, milk and stock.
6. Use the palm and pinch method for seasoning.A pinch is roughly a quarter teaspoon; what fills your cupped palm is roughly a tablespoon. Consistency matters more than accuracy for seasoning.
7. Level, do not heap, unless told otherwise.A heaped tablespoon can be double a level one. Recipes assume level unless they say otherwise, and this is a large source of error.
8. Buy scales.They cost very little and remove all of this. For anyone who bakes at all, they are the single most useful piece of kitchen equipment.

Tips

• Cup measures vary by country and by ingredient density. A cup of flour scooped straight from the bag can be 20% heavier than one spooned in and levelled.
• If you are improvising a bake, ratios are more forgiving than absolute quantities. Equal weights of flour, sugar, butter and egg makes a cake.
• Water is the easy one: 1ml equals 1g. Any measuring jug becomes scales for liquids.

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