Heart Shaped Measuring Spoons
Exact measuring is not always necessary in a recipe. If you are cooking a soup, stew, or stir-fry, it usually doesn’t require exact measurements. Sometimes in cooking you will hear non-technical terms such as: dash, pinch and smidgen. Traditionally, these were known as very small amounts, although, exactly how much they equaled we didn’t really know.
Since then, these non-technical terms have come to be more uniformly defined. A smidgen is ½ pinch or 1/32 teaspoon. Two smidgens equal one pinch.
We generally know a pinch as the amount you can get between your thumb and forefinger; however, now a pinch is ½ dash or 1/16 teaspoon. Two pinches equal one dash.
Originally, a dash was a term used when measuring liquids. Now the term has come to be used with both liquid and dry ingredients. A dash is 1/8 teaspoon. Eight dashes equal one teaspoon.
If these non-technical terms appeal to you, some companies do sell measuring spoons that measure a dash, a pinch and a smidgen.
