While most cooking recipes will have exact measurements some time you will find that the cook who wrote the recipe used some loose terms that can be interpreted in a lot of ways. In order to come close to the taste that was intended by the original cook you should know what to do with those not so exact measurements.

The most problematic cooking measurements are the non-specific ones. We will explain some of these so you have a good understanding of how much of the ingredients should be used when these measurements are talked about in the recipe. The next few measurements show what the difference is when they would be taken literally.

A Dash

Some cooking measurements call for a dash of pepper or a dash of cinnamon. For those who have no idea of the exact measurement of a dash, they will presumably give the pepper container or cinnamon container a quick dash over the food. If the holes of the container are big, then a lot of the spice can go to your food, while smaller holes will yield less spices. In actuality, a dash measures about ¼ of a teaspoon.

A Pinch

A pinch of salt gives you an impression of you manually getting salt with your fingers and pinching both thumb and forefinger. These kinds of cooking measurements can have different amounts because everybody has different size fingers and different ways of pinching. A pinch is actually just 1/8 of a teaspoon.

A Stick Of Butter

A stick of butter is often called for in baking recipes. Just like the other cooking measurements, this can be confusing and not accurate. In baking, cooking measurements must be accurate to achieve the right taste and rise of the food item. Some supermarkets sell sticks of butter which differ in weight. Therefore, they will most likely have different measurements. A stick of butter is actually ½ cup of butter.

Juices Of A Lemon Or An Orange

Another one of those cooking measurements that can be so confusing is “Take the juice of a Lemon” (or Orange). Since we don’t know what size of orange or lemon the original cook had or how much juice was in them it would be hard to use this as an exact measurement. You would be save to use three tablespoons of lemon juice or half a cup of orange juice.

So these are just a few examples of confusing cooking measurements you could find in a lot of recipes. In the end it’s always up to you, the cook, how much you use or need.