Flour is made from grain that is ground into a fine powder. When you buy flour it is always in kg, lbs or oz and not in liters, quarts or gallons. That's because the flour grains are very irregular in their shape. So it can be very different how much room flour take up.

Just think of a pile of bricks. If they are just thrown in a pile they take up much more space than if they are stacked neatly up on one and other.

It's the same thing with flour. If one "packages" flour tightly, it will take up much less space than if it is packed very loosely.

Here are my attempts to show how big the difference is, and I actually think it will surprise most of you.

I made two attempts, where I used the same method both times.

1. container (left)

In that I poured the flour straight from the bag into the container. After which I shook it, banged it lightly into the table, etc., so the flour is as tightly packed as possible.

2. container (middle)

In that I just poured the flour straight from the flour bag into the container and shook it lightly once, so that the surface was flat enough for comparison.

3. container (right)

In that I sieved the flour through a fine sieve into the container, so that the flour was as airy and fluffy as possible. This makes it take up as much room as possible. I lightly scraped the peaks to obtain a flat surface for comparison.

