What is a Kitchen Scale?

What is a kitchen scale? What is its difference from the typical bathroom weighing scale? It is true that a kitchen scale has the same mechanism as the typical weighing scale. However, it is not recommended to use the usual weighing scale because of issues with accuracy.

A kitchen scale is specifically designed to measure various ingredients that are used for preparing all sorts of dishes. It can quantify liquid, dry, chopped or mixed ingredients and give the accurate measurement. That way, you do not have to rely solely on kilograms or pounds. This does not work for some kitchen ingredients since they weigh much lighter. With the use of this type of scale, you can even see the exact measurement in grams.

Why having a kitchen scale is necessary

While other chefs and cooks do not rely much in exact measurements, there are some recipes which can not possibly turn out right without the use of a scale. For example, when baking cakes or cookies, the amount of sugar, flour and other dry ingredients need to be measured very accurately. Or else, the end product would not look and taste the way it is supposed to.

Aside from ensuring that the recipe is carefully followed, this is also a practical way to check the ingredients that you bought in the market or grocery. For example, you can ensure that the chunk of meat that you paid for really is 1 kilo in weight and nothing less.

For people who would like to regulate their diet, having a kitchen scale is also a smart thing. Some kitchen scales are designed to indicate exact portions. For example, if you are only allowed to eat a portion of steak for dinner, better check the measurement using the scale first so you would not end up eating more. There are also digital scales which can be programmed to measure the nutritional value. For example, once you have specified the function that you need, it will tell you the amount of calories that a certain food contains.

Which kitchen scale to use

There are different types of kitchen scales that are available in the market these days. Top-loading scales which are spring operated are more common in many homes. This type of kitchen scale is easy to identify because it has a platform on the upper part and a slanted dial which shows the weight measurement. Scales which use spring for measuring ingredients also have a tare control. That way, it is possible to bring the dial’s hand back to zero so the container of the ingredients would not be included in the final measurement.

The more modern type of kitchen scale these days are the digital ones. Typically, this type of scale uses a flatbed surface where you will put the ingredients that you need to measure. EatSmart Precision Pro Digital Kitchen Scale is a good example. Since it is digitized, it will show the exact measurement down to the last increment. This is more advisable for commercial use because it can also be programmed to reflect price and nutritional value, using the digital keypads.