The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Weighing Ingredients

paulwendy's picture
paulwendy

Weighing Ingredients

I'll call this level two baking. Up until now every thing I've baked has been done by my very precise technique called eyeballing. Level two now would involve a scale. I guess I've been getting by on luck alone. I am now ready to be more precise as most of you are already. I'm looking at this Salter Aqua-Weigh 800 WHRD Scale. Seems to have all the basics I need until I reach level three, whatever that may be. It's mechanical, weighs up to nine pounds of ingredients, even comes with it's own bowl, all for around twenty five bucks. Will it work or is it junk?

Thanks

Paul

LindyD's picture
LindyD

Gee, that's a big hunk of a scale.  Why not a digital scale, such as an Escali - which does a great job and fits into a drawer?

Same price.

 

paulwendy's picture
paulwendy

Small world. The Escaliwas my other choice. I do like the bowl feature of the Salter. Time to flip a coin. Many recommendations on your choice. I wasjust wondering if anyone owned the Salter out there.Thanks for the advice

Paul

Yerffej's picture
Yerffej

The Escali is inexpensive, simple and it works.

Jeff

milwaukeecooking's picture
milwaukeecooking

You really don't want a bowl on your scale.  You want something that is flat and easy to clean.  A bowl scale is limiting.  I used to have a Salter scale but it burned through batteries on a weekly basis.  I have no idea why.  I never stored it with something on top of it and I always made sure to turn it off.  I recently purchased an OXO scale that I like.  The platform on the scale comes off for easy cleaning and it is accurate.  I also have a scale that measures to the tens, 0.1 grams, which is helpful when measuring out yeast and salt.  1.0% yeast and 1.9% yeast makes a large difference and without being able to read to the tenth you might almost double the amount of yeast you are using without knowing it. 

http://veggieinmilwaukee.wordpress.com/

Edith Pilaf's picture
Edith Pilaf

You can use it with or without the bowl, which I have found to be generally useless.  I have used a mechanical scale for years (Braun, with removable bowl) without any problems, not much can go wrong, and no batteries, it's accurate and reliable.

That said, I was given a digital scale recently that I really like for its precision and the ability to view the weight in both ounces and grams.  I haven't used the Braun since I got this new OXO.  However, I have no doubt that my 20-year-old mechanical scale will still be working after this fancy digital scale stops.