Food scales aren’t just for dieters. They’re for cooks, too! I got my first food scale years ago when I was a dieter but I found that I used it all the time when I was cooking. A few things I use it for include:
- Weighing pasta. I can usually figure out how much of a package I need when I’m just opening the package but when I’m putting together bits and pieces from different packages, I’m never sure. So I weigh it.
- Cookies or rolls. It’s always best for even cooking if your cookies or rolls are the same size. Getting them the same size is harder than it looks! So sometimes, for some recipes, I weigh the dough to be sure I’ve got it right.
- When I’m making a new recipe and I’m not sure the “size” I’m supposed to make something but I know how many servings it makes, I’ll use my food scale to figure it out.
- Cheese. Cheese is a tricky thing to measure. A cup of cheese is only four ounces instead of eight. So if I’m grating the cheese myself, sometimes I weigh it to be sure I got the right amount. Or if I’m using cheese that I’ve grated previously, I’ll weigh it to see how much it weighs.
- Mashed Potatoes. When I make my Refrigerator Mashed Potatoes, I usually make a half batch which is 2.5 pounds. I have no idea how many potatoes that is. Well, I know it could be around six but it depends on the size of the potatoes. So I just weigh the potatoes and then I know for sure I have the right amount.
Those are just a few examples. I use my food scale a LOT. Sometimes I use it for things other than food – like making sure a letter is less than one ounce. Once I weighed my planner. It seemed like it was SO heavy and I wanted to know if it was or if it was my imagination. I weighed it. It was a combination of being heavy and my imagination. And my daughter got a new Bible that seemed like weighed 40 pounds. We weighed it and it was actually only six. See . . . the opportunities are unlimited!
So if you don’t have a food scale, you might want to think about getting one. But if you do get one, get a good one. The one I have was about $32 at Bed, Bath & Beyond. And don’t be surprised at how much you use it (and how much fun you can have with it!).
