> I'm thinking of getting a new kitchen scale.
>
> Right now I have an old scale that I use mainly for pasta and potatoes,
> but I'd like to try baking by weight, and I'll need something more accurate.
>
> What are the advantages and disadvantages of measuring dry and wet
> ingredients by weight?
Mary,
I've been measuring weight for years now, and I love it. Yes, it DOES
speed up baking, if you think of it this way: to bake bread (or a cake,
etc.), you need to fluff up your flour to avoid over-packing your
measurement, spoon it into the cup, level it off, dump, and move on. With
a scale, you put any bowl on the scale, hit the tare button (yes, a tare
button is invaluable), so that the scale zeroes out, and begin dumping in
flour (which weights approximately 4 1/4 ounces per cup). If you were to
add sugar next, you could again hit the tare button, and add sugar (which
has a different weight, btw).
Anyway, I think it's very quick, and I like the accuracy. I don't think it
really matters if you get one that is incredibly accurate, as is the one
that you mentioned (I believe it gets down to .05/ounce). I have an older
scale I got from KA that measures to within .2 ounce, and it appears to
work fine. One thing I WILL say, though, is that the design on my older
scale, which is a Termaillon, is a bit flawed. If you have a large bowl on
the scale, it can block the viewing of the weight so that you have to bend
over to peer at the read-out. I have seen scales recently that seem to
have solved that problem by having the read-out in an area that cannot be
blocked by the bowl.
I've had my scale for about six or seven years, and haven't even had to
change the battery. It works fine, and was an excellent investment.
Sherri