Press Release:

The Perfect Accompaniment To Mary Berry's New Foolproof Cooking Programme - ‘How To Measure Up' by Shirley Bond (Given the seal of approval by Mary Berry no less!)

Monday 25^thJanuary 2016: Cookery programmes continue to pull in huge audiences and show no sign of losing appeal, as can be seen by ‘The Great British Bake Off' winning at the recent National Television Awards. Although these cookery programmes are very enjoyable to watch, many people think that because they have been cooking for years they can use any combination of the ingredients and hazard a guess at quantities. It is all too often presumed that it is acceptable to throw together a cake, pudding or pie without bothering to weigh out the ingredients or check that the size of equipment used (such as cake tins or bowls) provide the correct measurements. While this guesswork might have worked in the past, it is now far more difficult to achieve success without taking more care. Why? Author of How Do You Measure Up? Shirley Bond explains: "Ingredients are now sold in metric measures, so although one could use half a bag of something like flour or half a block of butter, the actual weights of these and most other items are now impossible to judge. The type of ingredient used is also now more important to check. Types of fat can vary greatly in the way they react in a recipe so it shouldn't be presumed that any fat will do."

How Do You Measure Up? is based on the decades of experience Shirley Bond has as a food writer, dietician and nutrition lecturer.

Taking the confusion out of cooking

Traditional recipes passed down through the family may be written in Imperial measures and need to be converted to metric and then weighed out carefully for a recipe to work. New recipes are usually written in metric measures, which can cause confusion, and guess work is impossible if a successful result is to be obtained. We have ready access to recipes from all around the world including the United States and Australia where measurements are typically in cup sizes and need translating before use in the UK. Cup capacities vary between countries and even the pint is different in the UK to the USA. For instance do you know what weight 1 USA cup of currants is in the UK? Australian recipes use metric measures, but their translation of an ounce to Imperial weight is 30 grams while the UK use a 25 gram ounce. This can also lead to disaster if care is not taken. Converting recipes for success cannot be a straightforward mathematical exercise. Some books and magazines include a small conversion chart, but many of these have been found to be inadequate and unreliable resulting in mistakes being made and the recipe not being a success.

Sizing up your equipment

Shirley Bond explains: "Equipment sizing is also very important. When making a sponge cake, if the recipe states to put the mixture in a 20cm tin of a certain depth, how do you know whether the tins you have in your cupboard are suitable for the quantity of recipe you are making? Too large a tin will result in a cake that is too thin and overcooked, while a small tin will result in a mixture that overflows during cooking and ends up raw in the middle and looking awful. Mistakes like this can be expensive as well as upsetting. If you are making a birthday cake and you want to make a square cake instead of the more usual round cake how do you know how much mixture to make to fit in the square tin size you want? And what temperature is a moderate oven?"

Award-winning AND celebrity chef approved!
So to guess quantities, or think that any type of a certain ingredient will do, is no longer reliable and it is important to buy wisely and weigh all ingredients carefully to be sure to get good results. This is what Mary Berry is suggesting in her new TV programme - Foolproof Cooking. Mary, along with Phil Vickery, and affiliates of the Guild of Food Writers, cookery schools and Women's Institute members to name a few, believe that Shirley Bond's book, How Do You Measure Up? is essential for foolproof success in the kitchen.

How Do You Measure Up was voted the fourth most useful book to have in your kitchen (The Best British Cookbooks). It enables all cooks - wherever they live - to enjoy cooking, entertaining and healthy, enjoyable, successful meals at home.

Notes To Editors

‘How Do You Measure Up' is available from York Publishing Services, price £7.99 + £2.75 postage and packing or from www.ypdbooks.co.uk or order from any good book shop ISBN number 978-0-9558911-2-0 and online via Amazon, Waterstones and other book shops. Press copies can be organised via info@literallypr.com or helen@foodanddrinktowers.co.uk.

Review by Foodepedia.co.uk:

‘How Do You Measure Up?' doesn't mince its words, so don't expect romantic prose or shots of an ample-bottomed yet alluring kitchen goddess carefully balancing an artfully-rusted set of retro scales. Instead, author Shirley Bond has concisely grouped various weighing and measuring issues into chapters covering abbreviations, foreign equivalents, cooking equipment and cooking methodology. And nothing more...