Pinch (cooking)

A pinch in cooking is a very small amount of an ingredient, typically salt, sugar or spice. Traditionally it was defined as "an amount that can be taken between the thumb and forefinger".^[1] Historically the pinch was more precisely defined by some U.S. cookbooks as approximately ¹⁄₈ teaspoon.^[2]

In the early 2000s some companies began selling measuring spoons that defined (or redefined) a dash as ¹⁄₈ teaspoon, a pinch as ¹⁄₁₆ teaspoon, and a smidgen as ¹⁄₃₂ teaspoon.^[1][3] Based on these spoons, there are two pinches in a dash and two smidgens in a pinch.

One pinch of fine salt is approximately ¹⁄₄ gram (20–24 pinches per teaspoon), while one pinch of sugar is ¹⁄₂ – ¹⁄₃ = ¹⁄₆ gram.

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Rowlett, Russ (December 2003). "P". How Many? A Dictionary of Units of Measurement. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/dictP.html. 
2. ^ Rowlett, Russ (December 1998). "P". How Many? A Dictionary of Units of Measurement. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Archived from the original on December 03, 1998. http://web.archive.org/web/19981203094034/http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/dictP.html. 
3. ^ "Pinch, Dash and Smidgen Measurements". Internet Accuracy Project. 2009. http://www.accuracyproject.org/pinchdash.html.