How (and Why) to Use a Kitchen Scale

When we first began developing our new collection of digital kitchen scales, we imagined a certain type of cook—an avid baker, perhaps, or the healthy meal-tracking type. However, the more we tested scales and used them in the kitchen, we realized that nearly every kind of cook can benefit from a kitchen scale.

Want evenly cooked meatballs or evenly baked cookies? Simply weight the dough. Want to whip up pancakes or cakes without getting a million measuring cups ready? The scale is your BFF. Want to go on a diet that actually involves a dose of chocolate? Chances are you’ll need a scale for that.

Scales actually makes cooking cleaner and faster in addition to making measurements more precise. (Think of all the dishes you won’t have to wash!) There’s a reason those who get scales don’t regret the purchase. (If you’re clutzy, don’t fret: our new model is waterproof!)

Read on to see exactly how (and why) to use a kitchen scale. 

It’s easier (and more precise!) than measuring. 

Though it may be daunting, seeing recipes that call for grams, it’s much more precise than cups are in baking. A bonus for those of you using non-wheat flours, such as nut and rice flours, in your baking: Those can vary wildly in weight by the brand—by as much as 2 ounces in one ¼-ounce cup. Can you imagine how many variables that lack of precision introduces into your bread loaves, biscuits, and roll recipes? (Hint: A lot!)

It will help you keep your kitchen tidy

As avid bakers could tell you, the charms of a scale extend beyond its precision. It’s also cleaner. It’s the difference between dirtying a teaspoon, a tablespoon, four measuring cups, your liquid glass measuring vessel, a big bowl, a small bowl—and just having a single big bowl to clean.

Doesn’t that sound amazing? We think so. Our test kitchen cooks are fairly over the moon for the new scale they helped develop. It’s got a “touchless tare,” which means you can just wave your hand over it and zero out the weight of the big bowl to which you’re adding everything. (For a visual of this, click here or look below for handy instructions!) This can help you move quickly between grams, ounces, fluid ounces, and milliliters.

Here’s an example of how this is helpful: If you’re making biscuits, maybe you’re used to scooping out your flour by hand, knocking it about to get it to sit more tightly in the cup, leveling it off, and not quite knowing if you’ve gotten the right measurement. With a scale, you can simply add dry ingredients all to the same bowl. You can shake the flour directly from the bag, or the sugar from the box. With a Cinderella-esque wave of your hand, you can then zero out each ingredient as you go using the tare function. Add flour until the numbers of grams read correctly. Do the same with baking powder, salt, and sugar. Tare it out again, and add the butter, right to the same bowl. Add buttermilk, and you’re well on your way to one-bowl biscuits.

It can help you stay healthy

Another thing a scale will help you do is measure food for health reasons. How many of us have eyeballed our “healthy” lunches, having no idea if we’re packing one, two, or three servings of protein? A scale makes it easy to measure chicken or salmon for salad, or a single ounce of almonds to pour neatly into a plastic bag. If you’re keeping an eye on how many sweets you consume every day, this is a lot more precise than “a handful or two of chocolate chips!” You can portion out your treats and be a bit more aware of your caloric intake, if you’re watching that sort of thing.

So avoid leaden cookies and wonky bread, and order a kitchen scale today. See how much time in saves you on the cleanup end. Enjoy the consistency of those loaves, biscuits, and cookies. Revel in how quickly it helps you cook—without having to wipe down your countertop every time you measure flour.