• andrew December 2011

  Great article in the Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail about how useful a scale is in the kitchen. Especially interesting to us cookbookers is this part on page 2 (and it applies to American cookbooks too):
  
  "Kitchen scales are the dirty secret of Canadian recipe publishing. Everybody in the business knows that weight measures are superior. And yet not a single major Canadian food publication (The Globe and Mail as well) uses them outside of meat, poultry and some vegetables – ingredients that are sold by weight. “Volume measurement is just how Canadian cooks cook,” Ms. Shneer said. Translation: They don’t think we’re ready for it."
  
  I was pleased to find both imperial and metric measurements in Heidi Swanson's Super Natural Every Day, published earlier this year, and the current challenge author, Rose Levy Beranbaum, has always included precise weights with her recipes, but I wouldn't be surprised if they both had to browbeat their publishers into accepting this!
• Peckish Sister December 2011

  I bought a scale when I brought home a German cookbook, but never really used the scale or cooked from that cookbook (yet). However I am getting used to using that scale with this challenge and loving it. I just wish I could turn my scale onto the metric setting and leave it there.
• bunyip December 2011

  I am not a great one for baking, but I do know that for best results you've got to use weight measurements. My mother's forte was baking, and she had a set of Krups scales with an adjusting slider that was accurate to a fraction of an ounce (this being in pre-metric times).
  
  American cookbooks are particularly difficult because many of them still use neither metric nor imperial, but either unique measures allegedly devised by Fanny Farmer or measures completely mysterious to the rest of the world, like a "stick" of butter!
  
  And don't get me started on French recipes! The spoon and cup measurements are insane in my admittedly limited experience.
• Queezle Sister December 2011

  Another great article on kitchen scales appeared in the New York Times in September. They clearly point out the greater accuracy with weight measurements, and discuss the 'chicken and egg' problem - if nobody has scales, recipes do not include weights, and if recipes do not include weights, then cooks do not buy kitchen scales. I originally bought a scale to get a better sense of portion control. But over the past year, I've started using it for food preparation more and more. I like how much quicker I can get dry ingredients measured, and how it generates many fewer dirty dishes. The NYT article also states that this year, they are now including weights for their recipes for baked goods. Lets hope this is a strong trend!
• lovesgenoise December 2011

  Long live the scale! Probably half of all baking problems are eliminated by using a scale, and there are far fewer cups, bowls, etc. to clean up.
• soupereasy December 2011

  I have read for years, weigh for baking. Took proffessional classes, weighed. Have a lovely little salter scale that weighs and tares. Why don't the cookbooks offer weight?
  A bit frustrating.

Search Discussions