The My Weigh is more expensive than the trusty Escali and not nearly as compact. But for those looking for a high capacity, professional grade kitchen scale, it’s our pick for best bread scale.
Sleek, minimalist, and equipped with a discreet digital display, the Zwilling Enfinigy Scale has a whopping 22-pound weight capacity and looks like a gadget designed by Apple. Unlike more common plastic or stainless-steel food scales, the Zwilling Enfinigy has a large, shiny glass surface that is super easy to wipe clean—no nooks or crannies to trap flour or coffee grounds. Plus, it features a built-in rechargeable battery, so you never have to worry about battery life. Its footprint is about the same as the Escali, but since the display is incorporated into the face of the weighing platform, there’s more room for your bowl or Chemex. Both black and white colorways are attractive enough to leave on your countertop full-time.
My Escali kitchen scale arrived the next day, but as it turns out, bread-baking mastery is not something I can buy on Amazon Prime. But while I work on becoming a Loaf Queen, I’ve discovered a ton of other uses for my trusty kitchen scale. If you think you don’t need one because you don’t cook that much, will definitely never bake bread, or only make pancakes once a month, stay with me. You want this little electronic wonder in your life (and it is, of course, a great gift for bakers), and here are all the glorious ways you can put it to use.
Coffee, but not in a snobby way
I am not a coffee snob. I don’t kiss each individual bean before I toss it in the grinder or chant affirmations while making pour-over; I dump beans into a drip coffee maker and press go. But it turns out, by not measuring my beans with a kitchen scale, I’ve been depriving myself of maximum caffeine because, depending on the grind of the coffee (coarse coffee pebbles vs. fine coffee dust), you might be off by, like, 80 grams. I don’t like the idea of not getting the amount of caffeine I deserve. Whether you’re using whole beans or preground, measuring out the coffee in ounces or grams on your shiny new scale guarantees that you make a perfect cup. And for espresso, it’s a must.
Meat/meatballs/burgers
You like meat? You ever notice how recipes will ask for a pound, or 11 ounces, or these specific numbers that don’t match the numbers on the package you got at the grocery store? Usually I assume I’m a half pound off and then blame the recipe when dinner sucks. With my kitchen scale, I have no excuse! Actually measuring my meat means that my burger patties are perfectly uniform, so no one at the cookout can grumble about getting the runt of the litter. I make meatballs so consistent I could balance my checkbook on them. I even, on occasion, eat a doctor-recommended serving size of meat instead of an amount that induces meat sweats.
Sweet potatoes and other lumpy things
Recipes always call for produce in pounds, but I absolutely never use the analog bucket scales in the grocery store produce department. Those things are not designed for short people. It’s humiliating. Instead, I buy too many sweet potatoes, go home, and hold my cat in one hand and the potatoes in the other until I’ve decided I’m not measuring anything tonight. When the kitchen scale came into my life, I did weigh my cat on it (he’s 4084.74 grams), but now I can also easily measure potatoes and other lumpy produce items that come in annoyingly random sizes.
Weirdly sized cans
I have a stash of 15.5-oz. cans of chickpeas and 13.4-oz. boxes of beans stacked in my pantry because when things go on sale, I’ll buy 11 of them. Whenever a recipe calls for a specific amount of chickpeas or beans, I want to make do with whatever I already have in the house, and my kitchen scale is here for this. It turns out measurements in recipes are specific for a reason, so follow them.
