Weighing Ingredients

[rabbithutch]

Several times here I've read posts where folks say that they weigh all their ingredients. The most recent mention was in the post about NFPM in making sausage. Is this just a sausage making thing or do good cooks measure by weight and not volume?

I bought a good kitchen scale anticipating having to go on a strict diet soon. Should I be using it to measure ingredients in recipes? If so, how do I go about converting all the cups, and teas and tables, etc. to weights?

Inquiring minds and all that . . .

 

[diggingdogfarm]

Weights are always more accurate for obvious reasons, good baker's and sausagemaker's weigh their ingredients, cooking isn't usually as exacting, but there's no reason it can't be.

There are online volume to weight converters....here's one.....
http://www.onlineconversion.com/weight_volume_cooking.htm


~Martin

 

[scarbelly]

To me cooking is an art form and it is not weighed, but making things with cure and baking are most definitely a science which is improved by accurate measurements 

 

[chef jimmyj]

This really depends on the recipe and if you like and/or trust it. If a recipe calls for Volume measurement there is no need to convert to weight because it was tested to give the expected results based on volume. Recipes that are Weight critical are written with weights provided. If a Sausage recipe reads 5lb Pork, 1C NFDM, 2T Salt, 2T Garlic Powder, 1T Black Pepper, 1tsp Cure #1, 1tsp Cayenne Pepper and 1tsp Marjoram...It was written with a specific result in mind for 5lbs, make it as is. Where Weight gets critical is if you Love the Sausage Recipe and now want to make 500Lbs for sale in your food cart. You can't just multiply everything by 100 and expect the same result. In this case the best bet is to measure each ingredient by Volume then Weigh it and then multiplying each ingredient Weight by 100 will give an accurate conversion. Here is a pretty good chart that has volume to weight conversions for Herbs and Spices...JJ

http://www.durkeefoodservice.com/spice101.html