Have you ever stopped midway through making a dish and wondered whether the scale you’re using is actually accurate?
In this short article I will explain the quickest and easiest way to quickly test your scale’s accuracy!
In this article I will discuss:
Why do you need an accurate kitchen scale
Before I get to the “how”, let me quickly cover the “why”.
Kitchen scales need to be accurate, it’s their job.
If they they’re not, chances are something is not going to taste the way it’s supposed to.
You do get scales that are more accurate than others but they’re usually more expensive.
To choose the correct scale will depend on what you want to do with it.
It’s no use spending heaps of money on a scale that you plan on keeping in the kitchen, but you’re only going to use it for general weighing jobs.
Just get a general scale with a larger weight capacity for that.
If, on the other hand, you’re going to use the scale for accurate weighing while cooking and baking, then you should absolutely consider getting a decent scale.
Remember, accuracy does not only matter when you follow a recipe in a recipe book.
Moreso, it matters where you want to be consistent.
To get that perfect dish perfect, every single time.
Consistency is a requirement for repeated perfection!
Those recipes in those books are guidelines and starting points for you to experiment with and find what is perfect for you.
Not for a seven judge panel at a cooking contest.
But when you do find that perfect combination of ingredients for yourself, you would like to repeat it.
Now that I have quickly emphasized the importance of an accurate kitchen scale, let’s answer the question you’re here for.
How to test the accuracy of your scale
There are two methods I will describe. The first is to use coins and the second is to use a syringe.
Use coins
Most people have some coins lying around somewhere.
The beauty of these coins are that they have official weight standards.
Surprisingly, not many people know this.
The official weights of these coins are as follows
- A penny weighs 2.500 grams.
- A nickel weighs 5.000 grams
- A dime weighs 2.268 grams
- A quarter weighs 5.670 grams
- A half dollar weighs 11.340 grams
- A dollar weighs 8.1 grams
You can use these weights to test the accuracy of your scale.
It is best to use coins that are as new and unhandled as possible. That way you will know they are as close to those official weights as possible.
Be aware of the sensitivity of your scale as well. To what decimal does it round?
Take this into account when weighing your different coins and combinations of coins to determine to which decimal your scale should round.
Use a syringe
Water has a certain weight as certain temperatures.
Although the weight of 1 ml of water will change as temperature changes, for our purpose we can work with 1 ml of water weighing 1 gram.
Get a syringe, as small as possible.
Tare your scale with the syringe on it.
Now weigh the syringe with different volumes of water in it.
Working with a ratio where 1 ml of water weighs 1 gram, see how accurate your scale is at different syringe volumes.
Lets get weighing!