How do you measure your dry ingredients for rubs? NOT FOR BREAD.

[DWCowles]

[MBMorgan]

FWIW I answered "by weight" only because that's most consistent with the way I tend to think (silly old retired scientist that I am). In my mind, measuring by weight has absolutely nothing to do with rubs, per se ... it's just about one (of many?) very consistent system for measuring (and scaling if needed) ingredients whether wet or dry. If I'm baking bread, I'm very precise about measuring ... for things like rubs, not so much. If I'm within a few (or more) grams of a rub ingredient's target weight ... that's perfectly ok. After all, rubs in particular don't tend to be too sensitive to overly exact measurements, whether by weight or by volume ... and I'm not above tweaking by feel in either case. In my tiny world, I've found that ingredients by weight (even for things like fried chicken ) are generally most effective ... and I'm quite sure that many others feel the same about ingredients by volume ... and I say more power to us all!

[MBMorgan]

... as far as "difference in taste" goes ... there better not be (that's not the objective)
or "quicker" ... I've seen no evidence to either support or deny that one ...

[DWCowles]

Thank you! MBMorgan

[Skip]

I pretty much agree with Mbmorgan. Both ways work.

[Marauderer]

Wow MBMorgan really got into this. I measure almost all my recipes by volume except Ernest pie crust recipe as he did it by weight and it is soooo good I wouldn't want to mess it up by changing it to volume. MBMorgan was correct in his analysis that by weight is more precise than volume for the most part. There are some variable like with flour how much moisture has been absorbed but, I think that is negligible for the most part..

[FireMan]

I'm not a scientist & I don't make bread, so tbsp, tsp, & cups are ok for me. I feel with a rub or marinade, exactness is not needed.

[martybartram]

My answer to the poll question is, "whatever the recipe calls for". I am not doing any conversions I don't have to.

[RonB]

Bread by weight and most everything else by volume. And when measuring by volume, absolute precision is not necessary.

If you have ever seen a pro chef making just about anything on tv you will see that they might say a teaspoon of the and a tablespoon of that, but they just dump whatever in without measuring.

There used to be a small Chinese restaurant near us, and if you stood at the counter you could see into the kitchen and watch the chef cook. He worked by himself and cooked every dish to order. He never measured anything and used his wok tools to "measure", (read that as simply scoop), ingredients, and he did everything quickly and without hesitation. The food was always great. Watching him helped me get over my OC with measuring cooking ingredients. OK - just a little - maybe.

[Steve R.]

For stuff like rubs, I'm barely to the level of even trying to get the volume measurement correct. I'll get it close, but the units of measure give me an idea of the relative proportion of the ingredients more than anything.

My wife loses her mind watching me mix up a batch of MMD, but then it ends up tasting just like every other batch. Go figure.

[HouseHomey]

Wow, MBMorgan just dropped the hammer. Hard to add anything to the above but.... the question was for "Rubs." With that in mind I have found most are written for volume so I go with volume but I don't really use the spoons for anything. I "Eyeball." I'm sick of washing dishes. The liquids easily convert Without thinking such as 1 T=1/2oz etc... like was said above is an extra Tbsp or so really gonna make a difference in MMD?

I will admit I prefer to scale but I don't want to spend all day converting recipes but I have in the past. I'm used to standardized recipes but not really for BBQ or grilling at home. I love the recipe Breadhead scaled for MMD. This is MHO

[Craigar]

The more I think about MBMorgan 's philosophy the more I like it. All I have to dirty up would be one mixing bowl and maybe a utensil, instead of 3 or 4 measuring spoons and a couple, 3 measuring cups along with the aforementioned bowl and utensil. So all I have to do is just plop the bowl on the scale and hit tare after each ingredient. I'm really liking this idea.

[Ernest]

You are missing "By eyeball"

[Jerod Broussard]

6 tablespoons is needed. 1/3 Cup = 5.3 tablespoons. 1/3 Cup gets a heaping eyeball.

[EdF]

I haven't!

[gcdmd]

I agree with the thread that says for rubs, being super precise is not necessary. So, do whatever is easier. For small amounts, volumes, such as tsp. and tbsp. is fine, unless you have a scale that measures in fractions of a gram. The Chinese cook story illustrates the difference between cooking and baking. That cook had probably made those dishes so many times he could eyeball it and come out the same every time.

Bakers use weights, at least for flour and other high volume ingredients, largely for ease and reproducibility. I've never bought the water content explanation for using weight. Humidity probably affects density, and therefore weight, more than it affects volume. The problem with using volume is that how you scoop from one time to the next and how someone else doing the same formula scoops can be highly variable. Baking recipes are actually called formulas and don't allow for a lot of variation in key ingredients. Breadhead has posted excellent explanations of Baker's Percentage; so I won't go into that.

[vrinner]

For my rubs I actually first measure by volume on a scale to get the weight. Write down the weight then use the weight method going forward. And by volume I really mean by eye sight. 1 pile of this spice to 1.5 piles of that spice so on an so forth.

My wife then takes those measurements and prints them out on a label maker and sticks them to a large empty spice container. So next time it's empty or even just getting low, I put the entire container (empty or partially empty) on the scale, zero out my scale then just put the weight of spices into the container.

Consistent results every time.

[Huskee]

I feel like a scientist when I drag a butter knife over the top of my cup of sugar to level it.

[Jerod Broussard]

Spinaker can appreciate me using a serrated knife so it looks like I ran some vibrashanks

[Spinaker]

I do indeed! Gets me everytime! Jerod Broussard

[FireMan]

After further thought, I take a cafaberstat & fill it to a precise dimension, then I take my wife and shake her round a bit. With that done I take all above ingredients, oh what the heck, AND the below ingredients, & throw them in a box. I then measure an exact amount with a 12" ruler, then tape the ruler to the box. Ship it UPS to the Philippines and see how long it takes to get there, cost is of no consternation. When it has landed we then will see what jumps out. I stand by my measuring & have not been drinking.

[Mudkat]

That's what I do too!

[CaptainMike]

Having been raised around Italian grandmothers we learned the exact measurements of a bit of this, a dash of that, a smidgeon or more of the other, and you can never have too much garlic. Except for apple pie, who in their right mind puts garlic in an apple pie.

[FireMan]

Emiril Legasse once said, "if a recipe calla for "such amount of garlic, double it". It has always worked for me.

[CaptainMike]

That works well FireMan. We did that until the Master Gardener started growing her own. I never thought one could over garlic, but man that stuff is powerful!

[FireMan]

Ah yes, I ran into the same thing with some home grown by a friend also. Hers I use cautiously.