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I just recently bought a kitchen scale (Typhoon brand, off of Amazon), and I'm excited to start baking products using weighted measurements rather than cups, mostly because I've heard how much more accurate weighing ingredients is, and that what I bake will come our the same every time, rather than sometimes being a bit dryer, sometimes being a bit wetter, etc.
Has anyone else here converted from cups to weights? Did you find that it actually did make a difference? Is it more of a pain, or easier than cups?
I'd also love some great cookbook recommendations that use weights instead of cups. I've ordered the cookbook from one of my YouTube favorites (Cupcake Jemma), but that's all I've currently got that doesn't use cups.
EDIT: I put this under "recipes" because I'm looking for good cookbooks that measure by weight. But Mods, if this is the wrong place for this thread, then please feel free to move it where it should go.
Weighing is definitely more consistent for everything. I've been using a scale for about 15 years and love it. One of the best things is that you don't have all sorts of measuring cups that need to be cleaned - just add what you need to and then zero the scale to add the next ingredient. I prefer to work with grams if possible, since it's much easier to scale things up or down. I also use my scale 3 or 4 times a week to make brines. If you want a 5% brine for a chicken just add 20g of salt to 400g water. It's a lot more accurate than measuring cups or spoons, and explained some issues I'd had with brined foods being too salty.
I think I need to return my scale. It measures in grams, ounces, and pounds, but it's analog. I decided to get that after reading that some digital scales stopped working. That's fine and all, but when I had a recipe yesterday that called for 85 grams of flour, I couldn't measure for 85. I basically just had to get the needle in between 75 and 100 grams and hope for the best (which didn't work, although I think that's actually a problem with the recipe, not the scale, ultimately).
I don't know - maybe I'll keep it and get a digital as well, but like Attrill said, I'd like to add an ingredient to the bowl, zero out, then add another, etc. With this one, I can zero out, but it means twisting a little dial with my fingers, which isn't very comfortable.
I just recently bought a kitchen scale (Typhoon brand, off of Amazon), and I'm excited to start baking products using weighted measurements rather than cups, mostly because I've heard how much more accurate weighing ingredients is, and that what I bake will come our the same every time, rather than sometimes being a bit dryer, sometimes being a bit wetter, etc.
Has anyone else here converted from cups to weights? Did you find that it actually did make a difference? Is it more of a pain, or easier than cups?
I'd also love some great cookbook recommendations that use weights instead of cups. I've ordered the cookbook from one of my YouTube favorites (Cupcake Jemma), but that's all I've currently got that doesn't use cups.
EDIT: I put this under "recipes" because I'm looking for good cookbooks that measure by weight. But Mods, if this is the wrong place for this thread, then please feel free to move it where it should go.
Find a copy of "The Cake Bible" or subsequent books by the same author. Book has an extensive and very exact section listing conversions of most common baking items from volume to weight. Also listed are the weights for various baking or cooking items such as one cup of various flours, cornstarch, etc... along with eggs, milk, butter etc....
Have been baking by weight for years now and once you get the hang of it tis streets better than measuring out cups and so forth. For one thing you can simply pour/measure out things into various bowls and such or depending upon one's skill and the recipe everything into the same bowl.
Using a scale is invaluable for scaling a recipe up or down if you want to make more or less of something.
If you are going to purchase a new scale look around for a real good one that has functions you will need such as "tare" (zero out).
Thank you for the suggestion. I just bought that scale in the white/chrome version. I think using a digital scale will be much easier than my mechanical one.
For the last few years I've been using this scale and have been very happy with it. It goes up to nearly 20 Lb.s, which is nice if you're using a heavy bowl to mix ingredients.
A really great book for baking by weight is The Bread Baker's Apprentice, it's probably the best bread recipe book out there.
For the last few years I've been using this scale and have been very happy with it. It goes up to nearly 20 Lb.s, which is nice if you're using a heavy bowl to mix ingredients.
A really great book for baking by weight is The Bread Baker's Apprentice, it's probably the best bread recipe book out there.
I agree with the Bread Baker's Apprentice! Love homemade breads and pizza but DH is counting carbs so I don't get them as often as I would like.
Any other recommendations for digital scales? As I recall, America's Test Kitchen did some studies on them but I can't find their articles at the moment.
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