What's a pinch?
A pinch is about 1/16 of a teaspoon, or the amount that you can hold between your thumb and forefinger.
Weight is a fundamental element that we use in our lives. It is sometimes necessary to convert pounds to kilograms, which can be done using a calculator. Although people in some countries use pounds, the SI unit for weight is the kilogram.
This isn't meant to be a precise measurement (whereas tablespoons and teaspoons are more exact). That's because when a pinch is called for in a recipe, it usually means "to taste" or something similar. If a recipe calls for a pinch, you can assume that accuracy is not important. Add a pinch of seasoning, taste it, and if you think the recipe should call for two pinches, go for it.
Some older sources say that a pinch is equal to 1/8 of a teaspoon. If you are cooking from a very old book, you might want to make your pinch a little bigger.
How do you know how big a pinch is?
To measure a "pinch" of something, like salt, just put a pinch between your thumb and forefinger. Anything that fits between these two fingers is a pinch!
If you can't stand the idea of cooking without exact measurements, you can buy measuring spoons that go down to 1/16th of a teaspoon!
What's a dash? And A Smidgen?
Most of the time, a pinch is used to measure dry things, so it is the amount you can pinch between your fingers. Most of the time, a dash means a wet ingredient. In cocktails, the dash is a common way to measure. Most of the time, a dash is equal to 1/8 of a teaspoon. This means that a dash is equal to two pinches.
The smidgen is another approximate unit of measure. It is usually thought to be 1/32nd of a teaspoon, so a pinch has two smidgens. Some sources say that shake and smidgen are the same thing.
Again, none of these are easy to measure exactly, so they can all be done "to taste." Keep in mind that when the recipe writer wrote in a pinch, dash, or smidgen, she probably wasn't using a precise measuring tool. Instead, she was probably cooking to taste.
How many ounces are there in a gallon?
Have you ever tried to double or half a recipe, only to find that you weren't as good at measuring on the spot as you thought you were? Likewise. Even though it's easy to mess around with most recipe conversions, some ingredients need exact measurements. If you know how to do quick conversions, cooking will be easier and the food will turn out better.
We're going to break down how many ounces are in a quart today. Even though the answer is simple (a quart is 32 oz, or 1/4 of a gallon), this measurement has a lot of information behind it.
How much is one ounce?
The Roman word "uncia" is where the word "ounce" comes from. What's an uncia? It was one-twelfth of a Roman bar of copper. These bars were used as rulers to figure out how long an inch was and how much an ounce weighed.
Even though the word "ounce" comes from Rome, the way we measure weight and volume in ounces today comes from Britain.
First, let's talk about fluid ounces. A fluid ounce is 1/16 of an Imperial Pint and weighs 28.3 grammes, which is 1/16 of a pound. In the system used by apothecaries, an ounce was equal to 480 grains or 1/12 of a pound. Does it come as a surprise that Britain switched to the metric system?
The only three countries that still use Imperial measurements are the US, Liberia, and Myanmar (and thus, the quart).
What is a gallon?
The word "quart" has a clearer history than "ounce." The word "quart" comes from the Latin word "quartus," which means "a fourth," and the French word "quarte," which means "a quarter of a portion." This is the same as 1/4 of a gallon in terms of liquids.
Like other units of measure, not every quart is the same. A quart in England is 38.43 ounces (unlike ours which is 32 oz). But when you think about the fact that their gallon is 153.72 oz, this makes sense (versus our 128 oz).
Even though a quart is 1/4 of a gallon in both cases, the measurements are different because gallon sizes vary (similar to litres in a gallon).
Both the Imperial and Metric systems agree that 1 quart is equal to 2 pints. Today, the quart is rarely used as a unit of measure in England, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand (unlike the pint, which they use frequently for ordering beers). All of these countries have switched to the metric system. The litre is the closest thing to a quart in the metric system.
International Ways to Measure an Ounce and a Quart
Now that you know how many ounces are in a quart, let's look at how a quart is measured in different parts of the world.
As we've already said, a quart in the United States is 946 ml.
A quart is equal to 40 imperial ounces in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. This is the same as 38.43 fluid ounces in the U.S., so it is a bit different from the quart in the U.S. Briefly:
- 1 fluid Quart (US) = 38.4 fluid Ounces (US)
- 1 fluid Quart (UK) = 40 fluid Ounces (UK)
Wet Versus Dry
Wet and dry ingredients are so different that you can't measure them the same way. They have different densities, so the volume is the best way to compare them.
Liquids take up more space than solids because they are less dense. This is why a quart of liquid has 32 oz and a quart of dry has 37.23 oz. Here are the conversions from ounces to cups for some common ingredients.
Fluid Ounces (Fl Oz) and Dry Ounces
The different ways to measure liquids and solids is also true for ounces. Here is a table that shows how many liquid and dry ounces are in one quart:
Quart Liquid Ounce Dry Ounce
- 1/8 4 4.65
- 1/4 8 9.30
- 1/2 16 18.61
- 1 32 37.23
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