Weights and Measures

[Dean Torges]

Fanny Farmer invented the modern cookbook: "A teaspoon of this, two cups of that, a quarter pound of &c." Before that, everyone communicated recipes like my mother cooked: "Some of this and just enough of that."

Question: How do you approach your WSM as revealed through your method of measuring out rub ingredients? Triple beam scales and leveled measuring spoons and cups from an exact list, or by the guesstimate of pinch-and-grab according to what's available? Toward which pole, which extreme do you gravitate?

I'm attracted to the low tech, elemental world--cooking with iron, smoke or fire, hunting with a wooden bow, fishing with a tight line, measuring close cuts by eyeball and final fits by hairs. I like calculating chances and possibilities based upon experiences and available resources. The closer accuracies and the better results, it seems to me, are achieved from this direction, and certainly the greater satisfaction.

I'm no Luddite, though. Have hired out a Polder or two and I put the cups and measuring spoons back when I'm done with them, but my goal is to gain the experience and the confidence to create rubs from circumstances and to cook by the shine of the meat, the touch and smell of the WSM, and the twist of the bone. After all, when I'm cold, I don't look at the thermometer on the wall to tell me how much wood to put in the stove. Know what I mean?

So, how about you? How do you measure ingredients, and why do you do it thataway? Tell me your story.

 

[DaveMcK]

Hey Dean,
Good post! I've always cooked by feel. If it seemed right, I added it...enough of it for the mood. Basic good home cookin'. Then I tried that in competition, after all it's not a religeous crusade -it's BBQ. Same stuff I've been cooking and enjoying for years. Then one time you get lucky, the stars align, the planets configure and you actually have the BBQ Gods shine their shaft of light down upon you and you are given the Holy Blue Ribbon Grail-o-BBQ. No day will compare or will any day be the same again. But there's a reason it will never be the same...'cause there a aint a hope in .... that you will ever be able to recreate that piece of magic, you didn't measure or record what the heck you created.
Now what I do is record and measure. If I want to change something or if friends say they would like more or less of a flavour, I've got something to go on. Not just "I'll use a tad less of a pinch or a hair more of a clump".
By no means am I prfessing that this is better -just more consistant. If you want the same taste of the ribs I did on August 12th in Pender Harbour...close your eye's and I'll take you there.
Dave

 

[Matthew Appler]

For rubs and sauces, I measure them using measuring spoons and cups. However, I don't bother leveling off the ingredients or anything like I would for a cake. Reason: there is no chemistry going on like there is with baking. A little extra or less of this and that and it won't matter.

That said, I'm not cooking in competition. I'm in the backyard. If it tastes good...I make it again!

-Matt

 

[Rick Jones]

I've had similar experiences to Dave. I have no problem throwing together whatever spices I have on hand in what seems like reasonable amounts at the time, but it's nice to be able to make those "best ever" ribs more than once.

That being said, I find the more I cook the simpler I make it. Salt, black pepper, cayenne, garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder, sugar, and paprika seem to be about all I use anymore. Maybe a bit of seasoning salt if I like the blend, maybe a little mustard powder. If I can't make something taste good with some combination of those ingredients, then I feel like something is seriously wrong.

Rick

 

[Guest]

I made up a rib marinade once combining whatever I could find in the kitchen from two or three different recipes and adding whatever else I thought would go along. It was a rather odd combination of things -- some cheap Trader Joe's wine that was undrinkable, some unsweetened marmalade with a high pucker factor, soy sauce, oil, and I don't remember what all else. Didn't write any of it down. Turned out to be some of the best ribs I ever made. I really wish I'd at least written down all the ingredients.

I prefer to weigh ingredients rather than measure, particularly when putting together enough for a rub. Weight is always consistent. Volume can vary. Because of my marinade experience, I usually write down ingredients and quantities.

 

[Doug D]

I wish I had a gram scale-- for baking, so that I could follow recipes to the letter, regardless of how well I had sifted the ingredients. But, when it comes to BBQ, I think variation can be a good thing, leading to discovering new flavors that might not have otherwise occurred strictly following a recipe.

 

[Konrad Haskins]

For the BBQ sauces I sell I use exact weight to 0.1 gram resolution. Volume is easy but not exact, density varies in powders and liquid density varies by temp.

For rubs I use volume.

I like to cook by feel and use a pich of this and a palm full of that at home and for a consistant commercial product I use recipes and digital scales.