The right small tools make cooking consistent and precise. They cut down mistakes, let you keep a record of what you did, make the work easier — and mean you can follow any recipe book and get what its author intended.


Recipe books usually work in grams, and for smaller quantities measuring spoons are the simplest answer. A set has four sizes: tablespoon, teaspoon, 1/2 teaspoon and 1/4 teaspoon. Powders and liquids alike should be levelled off. Heap a little mountain onto the spoon and nobody else will build the same mountain — and then it is not a measurement at all.


Measuring cups are graduated, and the standard mark is usually at 200 cc. Fill one to the brim, though, and you are well past that — closer to 240 cc.

Measuring with a bowl and a soup spoon is the least reliable of all, because bowls and spoons these days come in every imaginable size. Use digital scales wherever you can, then measuring cups and spoons, and try not to use bowls and soup spoons as units at all.


Rough conversions:

1 cup ≈ 1 rice bowl ≈ 236 cc

1 tablespoon ≈ 1 soup spoon ≈ 15 cc

1 teaspoon ≈ 5 cc