Cooking the perfect pot of grains is all a matter of using the proper ratio of liquid to grains. Getting it right is the difference between light, fluffy forkfuls or a pile of glop.

Carefully measuring the liquid is key: Too much makes grains (especially rice) mushy. Too little, and they won’t cook through. For the water, use a liquid measuring cup, observing it at eye level.

But for the grains, we found measuring by volume imprecise, often resulting in surprising variations.

We solve for this by measuring dry ingredients by weight, not volume. It’s more precise—and more convenient, too, as you can measure grains directly into the pot before adding water. Simply set the pot on a digital scale, hit tare (zeroing out the pot’s weight), then add the desired weight of grains. And to rinse your rice, it can be weighed in the pot, rinsed, strained and returned to the pot.

For our chart, we tested 14 common grains to find their weight in grams per cup.