Editing Cooking weights and measures (section)

== Special instructions ==
Volume measures of compressible ingredients have a substantial measurement uncertainty, in the case of flour of about 20%.<ref name="usda_ars41">{{Cite report |url=http://catalog.hathitrust.org/api/volumes/oclc/2989337.html |title=Average weight of a measured cup of various foods |last1=Fulton |first1=Lois |last2=Matthews |first2=Evelyn |date=1977 |publisher=United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service |location=Washington, D.C. |volume=41 |pages=26 |language=English |oclc=679940334 |last3=Davis |first3=Carole A |last4=United States |last5=Agricultural Research Service |access-date=16 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210816224937/https://catalog.hathitrust.org/api/volumes/oclc/2989337.html |archive-date=2021-08-16 |series=Home Economics Research Report |url-status=bot: unknown }}</ref> Some volume-based recipes, therefore, attempt to improve the reproducibility by including additional instructions for measuring the correct amount of an ingredient. For example, a recipe might call for "{{not a typo|1 cup}} brown sugar, firmly packed", or "2 heaping cups flour". A few of the more common special measuring methods:

;Firmly packed
:With a spatula, a spoon, or by hand, the ingredient is pressed as tightly as possible into the measuring device.
;Lightly packed
:The ingredient is pressed lightly into the measuring device, only tightly enough to ensure no air pockets.
;Even / level
:A precise measure of an ingredient, discarding all of the ingredient that rises above the rim of the measuring device. Sweeping across the top of the measure with the back of a straight knife or the blade of a spatula is a common leveling method.
;Rounded
:Allowing a measure of an ingredient to pile up above the rim of the measuring device naturally, into a soft, rounded shape.
;Heaping / heaped
:The maximum amount of an ingredient which will stay on the measuring device.
;Sifted
:This instruction may be seen in two different ways, with two different meanings: before the ingredient, as "{{not a typo|1 cup}} sifted flour", indicates the ingredient should be sifted into the measuring device (and normally leveled), while after the ingredient, as "{{not a typo|1 cup}} flour, sifted", denotes the sifting should occur after measurement.

Such special instructions are unnecessary in weight-based recipes.