Serious Eats
Gear: Measuring Up
After decades of Pyrex primacy, the last ten years have seen some advances in liquid measuring tools. The arrival of the angled "view from above" measuring cup spared home cooks the neck-craning, easy-to-mess-up chore of eyeballing the level. The innovation was cause for much rejoicing, and if you haven't bought one for your kitchen yet, you won't regret springing $7 on the OXO Angled Measuring Cup with its rubberized handle. Along similar lines, the narrow base and wide mouth of Emsa's Perfect Beaker makes smaller liquid measurements easier to accomplish.
On the dry-measure frontier, things aren't quite as rosy. There is plenty of variety in dry measuring cups and spoons but really no clear-cut quantum leaps. Not to say that kitchen suppliers aren't trying. I recently spotted a set of collapsible silicone measuring cups that pop up for use and snap flat for storage. It's an interesting idea that might benefit the cook whose kitchen drawers are too shallow for the ubiquitous stack of plastic measures. Williams-Sonoma is marketing the brightly colored cups as a tool for teaching your kids about working in the kitchen, although it's hard to see the benefit that makes the $20 price tag justifiable.
What's your favorite measuring tool? Anything revolutionary out there on the horizon?