apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

The reasoning behind the electric flour sifter is that if you baked in quantity or made desserts every day or two, using a hand sifter for all that sifting left your hands sore, as well as being unbelievably tedious. Remember, back then, all flour had to be sifted to get the right measurement. It wasn't optional, as it is now.

I remember sifting flour for sugar cookies -- I was young enough that squeezing the handle that made the sifter screens sift the flour through was very adult and exciting -- and the thrill of sifting usually wore off slightly before adequate amounts of flour were sifted. That was just for a batch of cookies. You could give yourself blisters doing enough sifting for a large bake of holiday cookies.

What wende said, except she gets up earlier than I.

Now you see people just tapping the flour through a fine-mesh sieve, but I doubt that would have been efficient with 1950's flour. I, myself, preferred my grandmother's sifter that had a handle you turned and turned and turned and ...

Wow - very interesting! That does put it in a different perspective. I have a hand crank sifter and a handle squeeze model too, from my grandmother. The latter is too difficult to use - I can't imagine using it for that long!

With the electrical sifter you can mix the batter while adding the flour that will just rain from the sifter. It's not that bad :)