Digital scales with a memory for different tares
Not sure if this exists, but if it does, I'd like to know where I can get such a thing!
So, to clarify: obviously my scales have a tare button, and obviously I'd normally put on a bowl, zero them, then start weighing.
Periodically though it would be useful to put something on the scales and see what it weighs, minus the vessel it's already in. Sometimes it's simply that the scales have timed out when I'm hunting for something I thought I had to hand (or because I have to wrangle the children apart, or whatever else draws me away), so then they've switched themselves off and will reset when turned back on, and I didn't expect to have to remember the weight of what I'd weighed.
I've got the weights of a few bowls, jugs and pans scribbled down and so can mentally adjust or - if I can be bothered - contrive the vessel's known weight using something else and tare accordingly, but if I could set the scales to remember various weights and call them up when I need them, and/or enter a desired weight manually as I go (with a keypad or somesuch), that would be marvellous.
So, does anyone know if such a thing exists, or is it so infrequently necessary that nobody's bothered making it?
These things definitely exist, we use some in the restaurant where I work. It has a physical switch you need to flip to turn it on. But they are much bulkier and more expensive, and the other, smaller ones have the same "issue", if you can call it that.
So to my knowledge these scales don't really exist in the reach of home bakers. But I'm happy to be proven wrong.
I just got used to taking a quick glance at the weight and remembering it if something urgent comes up. Just takes a second.
l have the MyWeigh KD 8000 . It has a hold button that will do just that !
You could keep a 3"x5" reference card handy with the tare weights of your commonly used bowls, etc. But it would require some math. I keep a calculator handy on my phone. NOw that I discovered TFL, I bake bread with paper and pencil at the ready to keep notes of times and weights of everything.
If you hand wash the bowls instead of automatic dishwasher, you could write the tare weights of bowls on tape and stick on outside of bowl. Maybe even engrave the tare weights, if you have an engraving tool.
Two bowls or vessels of the same exact model, especially glass, can also have different weights! I learned that the hard way with some 2-cup borosilicate measuring cups that came from a certain country-of-origin.
I had one "in use" with gooey starter, that I didn't know the tare of, not wanting to take an extra step of dirtying the other, or cleaning the used one an extra time, so I weighed my other one, and got into trouble assuming they were identical. Manufacturing consistency is apparently not a high priority all around the world.
I don't scrape bowls as scrupulously as I should, so I "lose" bits of gunky flour and water, and my very wet dough loses moisture that I can see on the plastic wrap that I use to cover during bulk ferment. So yeah, I should keep a log of tares of all my stuff.
Yeah, I have bowl tares noted in the back of one of my bread books, and subtraction is a pretty simple operation when I need to do it.
But I was thinking maybe, in an age where it's possible for me to type this on what is essentially a computer which fits in my pocket, kitchen scales could be made to remember the weights of things in my kitchen! Or even allow me to TELL them the weights of things in my kitchen at a time I see fit! It's very simple tech, in the grand scheme of things, but if no-one else wants it then no-one's going to bother making it.
As idaveindy says, a label on each container with the container weight printed on is one solution - that's what I do. It's not ideal, I know, but better than nothing.
I use a Brother label printer and stick the label on the bottom of the container. If you get or have one of the printers that use laminated TZ labels, then they seem to survive the dishwasher pretty well.
The ideal solution would be a dishwashable NFC tag stuck to each container and a smart weighing scale that could recognise it, but would people want to stump up the extra cost?
Lance
Oh, I love the NFC tag idea! Yeah, I'd stump up, but I can see that few enough people would for it to be commercially viable.
While I may be pretty handy at various things, that's not really something to which my expertise extends...