It’s another one of those questions that you might not have thought about, but it could make that next great recipe taste just right. It deals with cooking and measurement. In many cookbooks (especially the older ones), the recipes called for measurement of ingredients as a dash, a pinch, or a smidgen. What was a cook to do to know the difference between those amounts?
Well, help has arrived. The exact measurements are as follows: a “dash” is 1/8 teaspoon, a “pinch” is 1/16 teaspoon, and a “smidgen” is 1/32 teaspoon. There are two pinches in a dash and two smidgens in a pinch. There are even spoons measuring a “tad” and a “drop,” though there doesn’t seem to be a mutual agreement for what these exact measurements would be. There’s even the elusive “dollop,” but it too doesn’t seem to have an exact measure.
At least there seems to be agreement on what a “pinch,” “dash,” and “smidgen” is, so another one of life’s great questions has been answered. Many companies are now selling measurement spoons with the exact amounts for these terms. Cooks everywhere are breathing a sigh of relief.
Source: Accuracy Project, Lifehacker
