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Kitchen Scale Pulls its Weight
Sep. 21st, 2021 10:09 amRecently I was talking about cooking and dieting with one of my sisters. "It's such a pain to measure how many ounces or grams everything is," she complained. "Fortunately I've gotten better at estimating so I'm not overeating constantly."
"Do you have a digital kitchen scale?" I asked. "They make it so easy to measure everything, and they're inexpensive, too!"
She was still working with an old analog scale, so I explained what a difference it made when we bought a modern, digital scale (pictured) several years ago. The differences were like night and day. One, the nearly flat surface is easy to put both small and large things on. Two, the digital readout is accurate and so easy to read. Three, the "TARE" button makes it trivial to use a measuring cup, bowl, plastic container, etc., to hold food.
Here's an example I shared from food I was cooking that day. I was making pasta, so I placed a bowl atop the scale while the water was coming to a boil. Note the scale initially weighs the bowl.
In the old days you could adjust for the weight of the bowl either by doing mental arithmetic— something most people are weak at— or by turning a set knob somewhere around the back of the to reset the zero point with the bowl on it. The problem was, the knobs were generally finicky, and once you were done you had to set them back to zero again. Each reset required multiple adjustments of the knob to get it zeroed properly again.
With a digital scale, a simple touch of the TARE button zeroes the scale. Put your bowl or measuring cup on it, press tare, then add food.
Back in the old days, analog scales were such a pain I didn't bother to use them for pasta. I'd just estimate by eyeballing it. "Hmm that looks like about 4 oz.," and, "I'll add a bit more to be sure." Usually it was too much and I'd eat it anyway.
With accurate measurement so easy to do now I realized I don't even like 4 oz. of pasta (dry weight) for a meal. I've cut back to 3 oz., or even 2.5 oz. if I'm making a thick sauce. In the pic above I'm making 5 oz. because it's two portions— one for lunch today, one for lunch or dinner later in the week. Once the pasta's cooked I'll either eyeball it to split it in half, or pour the whole mass back into this bowl, weigh it, and part out half into a container for the fridge.
The best thing is these scales are so inexpensive. I think I paid somewhere around $20 several years ago, and it was unquestionably worth it. The same model today is on sale for under $10 at Amazon today!
"Do you have a digital kitchen scale?" I asked. "They make it so easy to measure everything, and they're inexpensive, too!"
She was still working with an old analog scale, so I explained what a difference it made when we bought a modern, digital scale (pictured) several years ago. The differences were like night and day. One, the nearly flat surface is easy to put both small and large things on. Two, the digital readout is accurate and so easy to read. Three, the "TARE" button makes it trivial to use a measuring cup, bowl, plastic container, etc., to hold food.
Here's an example I shared from food I was cooking that day. I was making pasta, so I placed a bowl atop the scale while the water was coming to a boil. Note the scale initially weighs the bowl.
In the old days you could adjust for the weight of the bowl either by doing mental arithmetic— something most people are weak at— or by turning a set knob somewhere around the back of the to reset the zero point with the bowl on it. The problem was, the knobs were generally finicky, and once you were done you had to set them back to zero again. Each reset required multiple adjustments of the knob to get it zeroed properly again.
With a digital scale, a simple touch of the TARE button zeroes the scale. Put your bowl or measuring cup on it, press tare, then add food.
Back in the old days, analog scales were such a pain I didn't bother to use them for pasta. I'd just estimate by eyeballing it. "Hmm that looks like about 4 oz.," and, "I'll add a bit more to be sure." Usually it was too much and I'd eat it anyway.
With accurate measurement so easy to do now I realized I don't even like 4 oz. of pasta (dry weight) for a meal. I've cut back to 3 oz., or even 2.5 oz. if I'm making a thick sauce. In the pic above I'm making 5 oz. because it's two portions— one for lunch today, one for lunch or dinner later in the week. Once the pasta's cooked I'll either eyeball it to split it in half, or pour the whole mass back into this bowl, weigh it, and part out half into a container for the fridge.
The best thing is these scales are so inexpensive. I think I paid somewhere around $20 several years ago, and it was unquestionably worth it. The same model today is on sale for under $10 at Amazon today!
