MsElui

harping on the sifting the flour bit.

The act of sifting the flour introduces air into the flour. Typically needed in baking as you want the bread or biscuit or pastry to be light and airy. You will often find that once the flour is sifted - you 'fold' it into the wet mixture in order to try and keep as much of the air in ( as opposed to beating or stirring it in which loses a lot of the air youve just sifted in- same principle with adding meringue - you fold it into the rest of whatever your making to keep the air in the beaten egg whites).

so i would never sift the flour into the measuring cup - i would sift the flour after measuring and patting it down/levelling, as i then want to add it to the recipe to get the most air in and keep it in. And if the mixture just wants you to beat / mix it in - its probable that you dont need to sift it anyway.

RickWG

I may have to look into this sifting flour business, may explain why my attempts at Yorkies resemble pancakes

MsElui

a lot of 'culinary' tradition is there for a reason - we just dont understand why so often dismiss it a rubbish. For instance - making tea. They always say use freshly boiled water. Scientifically each time the water is boiled it loses some of its oxygen content. That helps create movement in the water that moves the tea leaves around and makes a better brew. If its lost some of the oxygen already by being previously boiled the leaves dont move so much and the brew is weaker. Same thing for warming the pot (or adding milk to the tea before its brewed) - the movement drops as the temperature decreases so the tea doesnt brew as well.

Leslie

I don't think anybody was saying that you shouldn't sift flour but rather that a decent recipe will (1) tell you how much flour you need and then will (2) tell you whether or not you need to sift it.

Bill_S

The last person I saw using a flour sifter was my grandma, and that was about 40 years ago

Sally Redux

I do

Rete

I do as well

RickWG

I use the term "sieve" which my kid will finish with 'ter".

Tried explaining the diffence between a sieve & a sifter..& it;s not a 'sieveter" etc got nowhere.

Now call it "the bowl shaped mesh thingie"... goes with the "metal shovellly thing with holes" that I use to lift eggs from the fryng pan...

Bill_S

I'll have you all know that I never sift flour and am locally renowned for my baking

paddingtongreen

I don't know about recipes today, but one time you had to watch out, some recipes called for a cup of flour, sifted; while others called for a cup of sifted flour. This is where the advantage goes to measuring by weight.

Malashaan

When I used to bake with my Mum as a kid my favourite part was sifting the flour

MrEmjoy

With modern milling techniques, you could make a cake side by side with sifted and un-sifted, and probably see no difference these days. I guess it depends who the mill is as well and the protein content of the flour along with the hydration of the formula.

I had an amazing three milk cake yesterday!

meauxna

Por favor, "Tres Leches".
(aka 'to die for')

hamlrt

Hello there
You are right its not one of THE actual mother sauces , but it is kind of ...
as its a base for many other dishes (mainly dessert type ones)........

Have you read Kitchen Confidential by Alan Bourdain...he is a famous american chef i believe ....its also a bloody good read

MrEmjoy

Anthony Bourdain I think you mean, if so I've not read any of his books, I have watched a few of his shows though. A friend of a friend worked with him for a bit