Home cooking is an activity that has never lost its popularity and with the surging interest in healthy eating, people are keener than ever to sift through recipes that provide step by step guides for preparing mouthwatering dishes. Newer recipes often demand strictly measured amounts of food instead of referring to the convential measuring utensils, prompting many to purchase food scales that allow for accurate measurement of the ingredients and a much more enjoyable kitchen experience. Realizing the market potential, many small appliances brands have come up with products that cater to home cooks with different preferences. This article is an attempt to provide a review of the major kitchen scale designs and figure out the best type of kitchen scale.
A classic design that has lost its prevalence over last few years is a scale with a glass or metallic bowl stuck at the top. This obviates the need to use a separate bowl for keeping the non-solid ingredients on the unit. In addition, you can forget about the tare weight and that makes this one an effective design for mechanical devices that are not so easy to tare. In return, these scales are often bulky and hard to store and they are also unsteady where you put them and prone to tumbling. With digital devices widely available, this design is no longer as functional as it used to be.
Perhaps the most commonplace shape for a digital food scale is a small round platform placed on an egg-shaped base with a display in the front. Some of the best selling products are shaped this way although it offers no particular benefit other than being very small. Needless to say that it can be problematic to store one of these on its side and cleaning can be an issue with no removable top. Also, because these units are often tiny, you might have a hard time seeing the display screen when measuring a large bowl.
There is little doubt that the most appreciated variety is the slim kitchen scale with a glass finish and touch screen controls. Owing their popularity to their clean-cut image complete with sleek, black or metallic colors, slim food scales do have some advantages. For instance, they are very thin so you can easily use them in vertically limited spaces such as under a wall mounted cupboard. Also, they will never fall over. As for the disadvantages, you just cannot store such a unit on its side and glass is very prone to breaking or scratching. In addition touch screen can lose sensitivity over time and are hard to work with when you get your hand wet, which is unavoidable in a kitchen setting.
Finally, there is the bulky, square-shaped design. This is the best scale design for measuring food and best kitchen scales such as EatSmart Precision Elite and the OXO scale are of this variety. A rectangular scale will fit neatly on any part of your counter while providing enough platform area for you to place a wide range of items on it. Having a height of at least two inches, such a unit can easily be placed on its side and it is also quite stable in its usual posture. The digital display screen is also very easy to read when the scale has this particular shape. Moreover, square-shaped devices usually have a steel platform that is resistant to impacts and in some models such as OXO, it can be removed for washing.
In conclusion, although the best food scale design for you will depend on your preferences and needs, my recommendation is a square-shaped unit with some depth. That being said, there are many factors and features you need to pay attention when choosing your kitchen scale. To get the right device, deliberate on your expectations, do enough research and choose without haste.
