I do a little cooking (most of the cooking in our house). As with most things, I've just figured out what what I can make work without learning the right way. Usually when I measure flour, I pour it out of the bag and tamp it down into the measuring cup. When the recipe calls for sifted, I then pour the measured flour into the sifter. It never occurred to me to do otherwise.

Probably the answer is obvious, but I don't know. If a recipe calls for a cup of sifted flour, should I measure before or after sifting? Does it matter?