2. Measuring Cups and Spoons

Measuring cups and spoons are among those tools so familiar that you never stop to think how important they are. Before measuring spoons, grandma’s handwritten recipe would tell you to use a pinch of this and a dash of that to make her lemon pound cake extra special. We can credit Fannie Farmer, the author of The Boston Cooking School Cookbook, for inventing measuring cups in 1896. She helped standardize the measuring of ingredients.