Why does nobody talk about how much butter you lose from cheap scales

I wasted about 8 bucks worth of butter last week because my $15 kitchen scale was off by almost half an ounce. Started noticing my cookies were coming out flat and greasy. Weighed a stick of butter on my mom's scale and it was reading way different. Pulled out a second scale I had in my car for packages and yeah, mine was junk. Cost me two batches of dough before I figured it out. Anyone else double check their scale accuracy or am I just paranoid now?

3 comments

3 Comments

kim_davis19d ago

A nickel works as a quick calibration check if you don't have a test weight. It weighs exactly 5 grams, so place it on there and see if it reads right. I keep a couple nickels in my utensil drawer just for this reason now. Your baking time and money wasted is exactly why I tell people to spring for a decent scale once instead of buying cheap ones over and over. Those cheap ones drift way more over time than most folks realize.

zarag1719d ago

ok but like honestly how often does a cheap scale really drift that bad? i've had the same $15 one for years and it's still fine.

martinez.paul19d ago

Yeah you're right, a nickel trick is actually solid. I've been doing that for years too. But honestly most people don't bother checking their scale at all. They just assume it's accurate until something goes wrong. Here's the thing - cheap scales drift slowly. Like a gram or two over months. You won't notice until your cookies spread flat or your bread doesn't rise. By then you've already wasted ingredients. That's why I like the nickel check. Quick, free, keeps you honest. A couple nickels in a drawer solves the whole problem without buying anything fancy.