Why Do Recipes Always Specify 'Pour Wet Ingredients into Dry'?
I often mix my dry ingredients directly in a large measuring cup, then pour the dry ingredients into the wet, thus leaving me with only one gunky bowl to wash rather than two. Does the method of combining really make a difference when baking muffins, for example?
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12 Comments:
Interesting--I always assumed that the wet/dry separation was to ensure correct sifting of both (so people didn't throw everything willy-nilly and have a lump of baking soda sitting at the bottom of the bowl or a half-beaten egg that encouraged them to over-mix the batter). Also, so that the ingredients made the right chemical interactions at the right time (flour hitting the fat and leavening, for example).
I think for most people it is easier to fold the wet into the dry in a way that does not generate overmixing and toughness--if I did it your way, being a klutz, I'd probably end up 'fluffing' the flour as I poured it, as well.
HeartofGlass at 8:22AM on 01/17/09
This in baking parlance is known as "The Muffin Method" it is one of two ways of mixing ingredients together.... the other is known as "the creaming method".... the muffin method is usually quicker and easier.
Pavlov at 9:09AM on 01/17/09
In the creaming method you would cream the fat (shortening, butter) with the sugar until light then add the rest of the ingredients. With the muffin method you mix the dry ingredients and then the wet ingredients seperately then pour the wet into the dry and mix until just combined.
Pavlov at 9:13AM on 01/17/09
^ I always thought that some recipes like muffins didn't call for creaming because that would put too much 'air' into the mixture, and make them too light and fluffy for things like muffins, where you want a more dense mixture.
I never heard it called the 'muffin method'--interesting!
HeartofGlass at 9:18AM on 01/17/09
I almost always pour the dry into the wet, but I'm a real daredevil that way. Haha.
lexophile at 9:44AM on 01/17/09
I thought:
Dry goes into wet if it gets incorporated in batches (like cake and cookies).
I thought all of wet into all of dry was to keep down the powder dust factor when pouring, but I do the opposite - why get another bowl messy?
p.s. I'm a super-amateur baker, so don't go by me.
PerkyMac at 10:18AM on 01/17/09
I assume you are asking about the merits of wet into dry vs. dry into wet, not about muffin vs. other batters.
I've never tested the difference side by side, but I almost invariably go dry into wet, originally for the same reason.
To defend it on higher principles than laziness, it also has the advantage of ensuring i don't end up with a big patch of dry ingredients at the bottom of the bowl. But some people might be more prone to get a cloud of flour in their face, which might explain the preference to pouring the wet.
Considering that the muffin method really is the least-mixing, most deliberately incomplete way of mixing a batter, I can't see any reason for it to make a difference.
renzata at 10:25AM on 01/17/09
Alton Brown went into some depth about this on one of his shows, and he had a good scientific reason for doing it one way or the other. He does have times when the opposite method is preferred, though. At this moment, I can't tell you what his reasons were, but at the time it made perfect sense. Whether that translates to an actual difference in the results in the real world, I have no idea.
As far as gunky bowls, I'd still wash the one with the dry ingredients, so the difference isn't one more bowl, it's a bowl with wet stuff vs. dry stuff. And it's not that much harder to clean batter out of a bowl, as long as it's not left to dry before washing. And if it's going into the dishwasher, there's no difference between the wet bowl and the dry one, really.
dbcurrie at 1:37PM on 01/17/09
The only time I incorporate dry ingredients into wet is if I'm adding the dries into a running blender with the wets already in it. If you incorporate dry into wet, the wet forms an instant "skin" around blobs of the dry ingredients. This is less likely pouring wet into dry.
therealchiffonade at 2:43PM on 01/17/09
You use more strokes to stir dry into wet. Wet into dry is supposed to mix better with the weight of the wet onto the dry and also keeps down the cloud of flour.
yankeesgal at 6:02PM on 01/17/09
I didn't make this up... you learn it in culinary school..... Muffin method and creaming method.... two kinds, no idea why or how.... I just followed the "man"!
Pavlov at 6:14PM on 01/17/09
@Pavlov-you are correct...the "man"is always right!
dmcavanagh at 10:32PM on 01/17/09