I know I’ve said this before (and before and before and before), but I need to weigh in on this again:
If you’re not weighing your ingredients, you should be!
If you don’t know why, go scoot and read my small rant on weighing. (Summary: It’s accurate. It’s fast. It’s neat. Everyone who’s anyone is doing it.) Then come back, because I have something you might want.
For two years my trusty scale has been a My Weigh i5000. I love it because:
- it is spot-on accurate
- it can weigh in either grams (to 1-gram precision) or pounds and ounces (to 0.5-ounce precision)
- it has a capacity of 5 kg
- it is slim and lightweight and fits easily in a kitchen drawer (although I leave mine out because I use it daily)
I love my scale so much I thought I’d ask the people at My Weigh if they would give me one that I could give to one of you, and they were nice enough to say yes.
Actually, they were doubly nice, because they sent me not only an i5000, but one of their new scales, a KD-8000. I haven’t used this one (if you win it, you have to promise to fill me in on how well you like it), but it looks great. It’s bigger than the i5000, with an 8-kg capacity, and has what looks like a very cool baker’s percentage function.
I will choose a winner for each scale by random drawing. To be eligible, just leave a comment saying:
- which scale you would like to win. If you would be happy with either, you can say that too.
- whether you are currently weighing your ingredients, or are ready to make the switch from volume to weights.
Get your comment in by 11:59 PST on Friday, June 5. And apologies to my international friends, this one’s for US shipping addresses only.
Another Yeasty Drawing, Cool!!
Either scale would be fantastic but the KD-8000 looks so futuristic, so 22nd Century that I can’t help but envision Intergalactic Artisan Loaves, floating in outer space, with a dusting of Organic Bread Flour levitating nearby like some sort of miniature Milky Way galaxy.
I’ve been using an old digital scale that only measures up to 500g, which means making more than a dinner roll is always a pain in the “Tuchus”.
Good Risings,
Marat
Either scale would be great. I weigh ingredients if it
is specified in the recipe, otherwise I go by volume.
Thanks!
I would love to try the KD-8000. I tried making sugar cookies this weekend but it turned out like sponge cake. I think the flour measure was off. Hence a scale would be terribly useful.
I’m just getting into using a scale and see great things happening to my cooking and baking. Which? either would be an amazing step.
Either scale would be nice. I currently do not weigh ingredients. Never had the right scale for it!
Having a super nice scale would be nice, but since I already have a [cheapo but functional] scale and adore weighing my ingredients, it sounds like it would be better for two of your other fans to cross over to the other (what other? you mean only, right?) side for the first time.
I should say though that for very small amounts I still use teaspoons – say for 1/2 tsp vanilla extract or 1/4 of ground cinnamon… but definitely a scale for everything else.
Hey, cool giveaway, thanks 🙂
Either scale would be nice, I currently weigh most of my ingredients, except for the occasional 1/4 tsp of this or that.
That´s a wonderful gift, I wish the one that get´s it to be very happy and really enjoy it, as I am a Mexican lady and I have one manual that weighs from one gram up to 2 kilos and for any recipe I make I change it to kilos or grams with no problems, i also have a Thermomix machine and I weigh a lot of things there but it is just 10 grams to 10. you can´t weigh 12grams. but it is very nice.
I just love cooking and baking, as my mother had Deli Baking here in Mexico. I have to thank you also for your pretty site I do enjoy and make some of your breads and don´t ask me how they are as when I want to try them there all gone !!!!!
Please excuse my English
That’s an awesome giveaway. Either scale would be wonderful (though I’d prefer the smaller one). I’m ready to make the switch from volume to weights!
Hi! I just found your site a few days ago, and I love it. I’ve been weighing since I got serious about bread baking. Of course as a boy, I want the bigger toy, but since I already have a scale…Hmm. Tell you what. If for some crazy reason I win, give me the addy of a third prize winner, and I’ll send them my current scale, specially if they don’t have a scale anyway. It’s nice, and almost new since I very recently upgraded to a model that handles g and oz.
Hi,
I have been using a scale to measure, but I have never seen one with baker’s percentage: I think that it would be helpful in transforming recipes. I’d love to use the kd 8000. Sweet of you to do these prize give aways.
I’ve been looking to upgrade my scale, so winning a brand new one would be great. I’d be happy with either scale.
Currently, I weight MOST of my food using grams (more accurate), though I do have to eyeball it when I travel. Should I win, I will repurpose the old scale as a travel scale.
I’ve just recently gotten into sourdough now that the weather is warm enough to create a starter on my counter. I’ve always loved baking but have never used a scale for measuring ingredients.
I’m currently living in Morocco as a Peace Corps Volunteer, but should I be randomly picked I’ll have a relative send me the scale. Since one is better than non, either one would do!
I usually weigh my ingredients for most everything I make. I would love the second scale (my first choice, since you asked) with the baker’s percentages feature–so helpful with so many baking products!! But the first scale would also be lovely to own. 🙂
I covet the one with the baker’s percentage function, as I understand it but have shied away from actually using it – but would of course, be thrilled with either. I do weigh my ingredients, but my scale is temperamental. Once in a while, it just doesn’t turn on – I hate when that happens
Hi
What a nice offer! I use a small spring scale at the moment. Its advantages: size and prize (especially because I bought it at a garage sale). The i500 appeals to me because I have a small space and if I am going to weigh ingredients I would like to do so accurately–not sure if that is happening at the moment. I am a “bilingual” cook in that I use metric and ounces, cups and grams.
Thanks again–if you are really doing this randomly it would be nice to win but if you are going to trawl these postings then don’t give it to me–someone else is no doubt more deserving!
Weighing works and it’s faster! Please put me in the drawing for the smaller scale. Many thanks.
I enjoy your blog and would love to switch to weighing.
Either scale would be a great addition. Thanks for the offer.
I would love to have either scale. I’ve been considering buying a scale for a long time but haven’t felt sure that I can spend the money. Even though I know it would make for much better bread! Thanks for putting together this giveaway!
i dont have a scale and wish i did, but being in college and living below the poverty line definitely plays a large role in my inability to purchase one. however, baking my own bread is probably one of the few real life skills ill take away from my college experience; you know, besides beer pong and accepting that ketchup is, in fact, an acceptable spaghetti sauce.
What a wonderful offer! I’d love to win the i500. I currently weigh a few things, but I have a rather pathetic and imprecise non-digital scale, which sort of defeats the point of weighing. But I’d like to upgrade!
I’d prefer the KD-8000 just because it looks so sleek, but I’d take either!
I do not weight my ingredients now, but am ready to convert. I’ve been looking around for a good scale, so thanks for the recommendations!
I would greatly appreciate having either. Being an amateur, “freestyle volume baker” having a scale would definitely help with my baking consistency. Thanks for the terrific blog.
ohh…I would love to win either of those. I *do* have a scale right now…but it’s horribley unreliable and finicky and I’ve had reason to curse at it more than once. It does do it’s job…but it leaves much to be desired. It definitly put a marked improvement in my baking though, to be able to weight things instead of using cup measurement which is twice if not more times as worse…
At least for important things like bread baking. I also find it very useful for creating recipes that I can follow while cooking and recreate basically the same dish. (I’ll admit to annoyance when they say ‘two cups of chopped carrots’ or something. Accuracy makes life easier.)
And thanks to it…I can now basically measure a gram of anything by sight.
I’d be delighted to win either scale! Thanks to The Fresh Loaf, I’ve been weighing ingredients (on a finicky Salter) for a couple of years now, and it makes all the difference in the world to consistency in my results. I came to your site from TFL a year or so ago, and have been lurking (especially for Yeastspotting!) ever since.
Thank you so much for your fantastic writing, and all the encouragement you’ve given those of us muddling our way into the world of wild yeast. I’ve made several recipes I’ve found here, with great results. I keep hoping to find the one for your cardamom-pear sticky buns. No pressure though…
i guess i will have to weigh in…Seeming how mine is now stuck in OZ…with toto…i really need a new the new KD-8000 scale…
Well, I’ll add my entry! A one in several hundred chance is a better chance than none in several hundred… I currently weigh my ingredients (ahem, after reading your rant and BBA) and I’d love either of those scales, they both look fantastic!
keep up the wonderful work, Susan!
My mom gave me the i5000 several months ago and I can’t find it anywhere! It seems to have vanished. So, I would be happy to win one because I don’t want to have to tell her that I lost the one she gave me. Right now, I’m using a regular old manual scale. But, I still weigh everything! 😉
I got into baking when I was 14, but always stuck to cookies and quick breads. Then, about 2 years ago, when I was doing a foreign exchange in Thailand, my boyfriend gave me a beautiful book of yeast bread recipes and techniques. I spent the rest of the year waiting eagerly to return home and give my oven a workout… but once I did, I realized that all the measurements in the books were by weight, and I don’t own a scale! Too lazy/thrifty to buy one, the bread book still hasn’t seen much action since I’m stuck doing a bunch of annoying (and inaccurate) weight-to-cup conversions. I would love to win either one of these scales and not only do more experimenting with bread baking, but also use it to try out some of my authentic Thai and Chinese recipes, which also give weight measurements.
I always weigh my ingredients when baking breads or pastries. I use many recipes that use metric measurements, so I would be lost without my scale! I would love either scale since the digital scale I am using now is almst 20 years old and is no longer giving acurrate weights. When I weigh anything now, my scale keeps fluctuating…it drives me crazy! These scales look so beautiful and sleek compared to my old workhorse who really needs to retire. I have 2 of your books and I your writing style is great as are your recipes.
I Need that~~~ seriously, thanks for the heads up on the need of a scale. I’m new to breadmaking and don’t own a scale. hilary
I don’t weigh my ingrediedts (but I know I should be!) Either one of those great scales would help me to convert.
Thanks for a great give-away!
Elise
Either! I don’t weight ingredients because I don’t have a good scale – hope I’m lucky!
I stumbled on your blog some weeks ago, Susan, and now I am hooked. I’ve been making bread with my yeastiebeasties for several decades, but your wonderful sense of humor, common sense, and recipes that fit just perfectly with my starter have made me feel like you are a neighbor to chat with about good bread, and then some.
I weigh my ingredients with a scale that only goes to 2 KG – I’d love to have either of the ones that some lucky cooks will use soon, so that I can use my favorite crockery bowl (given to me by my German teacher, as a wedding present quite some years ago…) as I weigh. And then I could give my present scale to my daughter…
Thanks for such lovely recipes, ideas, stories…
I would love either of these. I have not be weighing my ingredients and I know the quality of my items suffer for it, so I look forward to start weighing soon!
Your explanations of the pros of weighing ingredients have convinced me that I can be a better baker if I’d do so. I’d be thrilled to win either one.
I would be thrilled to have either scale. I’ve heard so much about the benefits of weighing the ingredients and have been longing for a scale.
I would be happy with either scale.
Right now, I am using a very cheap, spring scale that only measures in ounces and whose accuracy I do not trust. I only use it as a guide or rough estimate of weight.
I would LOVE to win one of the scales! Either would do me fine. I am just starting to switch to weighing, but the scale I inherited has some serious problems with the display making one wonder whether it means 8, 6, 9 or E (whatever THAT means!)
making TWO of your breads tomorrow – the overnight ciabatta (for the first time) and the flax seed currant bread (for the second time). bringing the loaves on a trip to Marthas Vineyard with some girlfriends for our second “Moms weekend getaway”. LOVE your blog, keep it up!
thanks
Julie
What a lovely idea! I am currently using a scale, but it’s a very old, quite broken one (kind of the equivalent of just estimating the weight).
What a wonderful giveaway! Either scale would be the greatest of gifts to a baker. I wish the lucky recipients much happiness in the use of their new scales.
Even though I don’t use it every day, I love my salter scale! (capacity: 1gm to 2kg) The ONLY thing I wish the scale could do is fractions of grams – for yeast weighing. I suppose if I were smart, I’d get a tiny scale just for that.
(I was going say that if my name is drawn for this, to throw it back in so that someone else who really needs a scale will win. But I see that because I live in Canada, I’m not eligible anyway… :-))
Ha!! I just noticed that My Weigh sells a tiny “lighter scale” that is accurate from 0.1g to 500g. How cool would that be to have?!
I have a salter scale, and while its nice, it uses measurements in the 1/8 oz instead of decimal style.
I’d love to win the KD-8000, having the baker’s formula option built in would really be handy as a new baker!
Would be thoroughly excited to receive either one. Have been working on baking – and realize that weighing is far more accurate than measuring – and would love to be able to do that. Baking in a small galley on a boat presents unique challenges, and a scale would certainly help in improving the quality of all creations.
Wow, I’d be happy with either model. I am still measuring instead of weighing, which is embarrassing for someone who bakes often!
Great giveaway! I’m sure either one would look lovely on my counter. I have begun weighing ingredients with some of my recipes and I’m sold – it’s the best, easiest, most accurate way to go. Thanks!
I’d be great with either.
I currently weigh my ingredients with a Taylor that I got on sale at Target because I needed the scale. I don’t like to go by volume with bread anymore. I’d much rather go by weight or by feel. The problem with this particular Taylor scale is the fact that the on/off/tare button is the *same* button, and it isn’t really a button as much as it’s a touch sensitive area of the scale. You can’t actually turn the thing off or tare with wet hands, which annoys me as I tend to go right from washing my hands to adding ingredients and sometimes I don’t get them dried all the way. I had been meaning to replace it, but Adam is getting hit with a layoff so it’s going on the back burner.
My scale does work, though, and is fine for now. If I did get one of these, I’d be happy to give it to someone in similar circumstances that doesn’t already have one.
Oh, and as an aside, I’m getting really sick of rain. One of the money saving things I planned to do this year was grow a garden, but I haven’t even been able to get the ground tilled for it yet.
Wow, you are an inspiration to anyone who blogs. To contact a company for a donation / give away. Kudos!
That’s a way to assure comments and feedback.
BTW, I’d love a scale, but think they are already spoken for.
Do you happen to have a general bread baking conversion chart? With such items as how much does a cup of all purpose flour weigh, wheat flour weigh, 1 T yeast, 1 t salt, 1 T wheat glutten, etc?
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