Most dry ingredients are pretty refined, but we're sorry to tell you there are two items you should still pass through a sieve.

Dry ingredients can also compress and form lumps over time. If your flour has been sitting in your pantry for several months, you’ll want to sift before adding it to a recipe.

You don’t always need to sift dry ingredients like your flour or cocoa powder, but there are certain cases in which you should pull out your sifter or fine-mesh sieve. Here’s why recipes call ...

You may be familiar with the kind of hand-cranked sifter you see in the photo at the top of this story. If you have one, great. Otherwise, “you don’t have to buy anything special,” Sheehan says.

I’ll admit it: Every time a recipe demands that I sift an ingredient like all-purpose flour, I raise my eyebrows. Do I really have to break out an extra tool that’s notoriously tricky to clean ...