precision

[cellio]

I frequently hear the advice that when baking, you need to follow directions exactly. While ordinary cooking does fine with the "handful of that, pile of that, a little of this" approach, baking is different. Or so I'm told by people who probably know what they're talking about.

So why does every cookie recipe contain a phrase such as "drop on cookie sheets 2 inches apart"? 2 inches on center, or 2 inches edge to edge? Dammit, it matters.

There, I feel better now.

(I always interpret it as edge to edge, and then usually end up spending more time baking than I needed to because I can fit fewer cookies on a sheet.)