I've decided.

[saxikath]

I need a reward for surviving this week. And my mom not long ago gave me a wonderful cookbook with British country bread recipes. The recipes all have the measurements in weight rather than volume.

So I'm going to go buy myself a kitchen scale.

Anyone have recommendations?

Comments

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

My hero Alton Brown suggests that digital scales are the way to go, as spring scales are, well, based on springs, which are rather likely to wear out and which are only accurate within a small range (i.e. if you scale can tell you that you have five pounds of chicken, it may not even notice when you try to weigh an ounce of something). (And balance scales, though accurate, are "best left to gold merchants, old-school drug dealers, and Justice".)

Features to look for: a switch that toggles "standard" and "metric" (and keeps it that way until you press the switch again); a tare function; ease of reading (check, for instance, to make sure you can still see the readout when there's a mixing bowl on it); fast updating. He also suggests making sure it reads in decimals and not fractions (they make digital scales that display fractions?) and checking what battery it takes (camera batteries last longer, but are harder to find and more expensive), which seem somewhat less important.

(His preferred scale is by Salter, and is about $60.)

[saxikath]

So which Salter scale is it?

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

To judge from the picture in the book, this one. (There are others at this Chef's Resource page.)

[in-parentheses.livejournal.com]

Yeah, love Alton, but he's kind of the king of "that seems somewhat less important." Those mostly sound like reasonable things to consider for a kitchen scale, though. He does know what he's talking about, sometimes he just talks too much. :)

[kelkyag]

The King Arthur Flour Baker's Catalogue (mmmmm, baking porn) currently lists this one, another digital Salter -- different look, similar features, a bit more expensive (though you may well be able to find it less expensively elsewhere).

I'd add a (long) auto-shutoff time to tahnan's list of features. I think an old-style balance scale would be really nifty, though, even if it wasn't as practical.

[andyt.livejournal.com]

My mom works for King Arthur Flour, and I'm pretty sure she mentioned getting a scale which she absolutely loved. I don't know for sure which one she got, but I know she got it at King Arthur, and I know she loves it.

[navrins]

Well, my recommendation is that surely you can find a more interesting reward than a kitchen scale.

Not that I expect that to be helpful in any way.

[saxikath]

But if a kitchen scale is something I want that I might not buy myself if it weren't as a reward? Maybe not very interesting, but it appeals to me.

[ironrat.livejournal.com]

I have to promote the balance scale. Nothing says, "delicious madness is happening in this kitchen" like a balance scale. And as tahnan points out, if you ever decide to switch careers to being an obsessive-compulsive gold counter, a shady drug dealer, or anyone needing to dispense Justice by the dose, you won't have to get a new appliance.