Why We Weigh Everything (And You Should Too)

Cups lie. A cheap digital scale is the single upgrade that made our recipes finally reproducible.

By Dana Musell

We spent a month cooking the same three recipes with cups and then with a scale. The cup versions drifted every time, especially with flour and grated cheese. The scale versions came out identical.

The problem with volume

A cup of flour can vary by more than 30 percent depending on how you scoop it. That is the difference between a tender crumb and a hockey puck.

What to buy

Any flat digital scale that reads to the gram and has a tare button will do. Ours cost less than a decent knife and has paid for itself a hundred times over.

Once you weigh, you can scale recipes up and down with confidence, and your bakes stop being a gamble.

Written in the Stewart & Musell test kitchen.