I think this is maybe a cultural thing to feel a "fondness for the old system", or maybe an age thing. American recipes seem to always be in volume measurements, rather than mass. Or if it is weighed, it is in oz (?) rather than grams. Confusing!

I only use the scale for meats and flour. The meats because I like to stick to the recipe the first time around, and then modify after that first time. The flour because I hate sifting if I don't need to. Everything else uses the measuring cups and spoons because I have enough stuff to remember without memorizing the exact weight of a tbs of Baking Soda.
Just a preference though.

... we can use both?

I use scales for fruits, veggies, meats, etc.

Dry ingredients, and most baking, get measuring cups. Unless I'm following a recipe (this happens less often than it should...)

I find it hard to go back to the measuring cups but when I'm at my parents' place, up at the family cabin, or at a friend's house that's often what I have to work with so I make do.

However, when that's the case I generally stick with less demanding recipes...homey, sorta rustic ones. But then, a strawberry and rhubarb crumble is exactly what I want to be making and eating when I'm up at the cabin anyway. Although I do like a scale for those Jacques Torres/NYT chocolate chip cookies and I like eating those up at the cabin on a rainy day too.

I'm bad when it comes to this. I very rarely measure things out. A lil bit of this and some of that. All good.

I don't use a scale, but I feel like I would always be forgetting to tare and not remembering what I added in and so on. With measuring utensils, it's just so much easier for me to scoop, scrape, and dump. I guess in my mind it's like knitting or crocheting - yeah, if you start using one, you can learn to do the other, but you'll always be better at the one you used first. Lol. At least in my experience. I'm an okay knitter, but I can't crochet for the life of me and I have friends who are the exact opposite.

Sorry to mix cooking and crafting metaphors. :)

UK recipes tend to use weights for large amounts and spoons for smaller ones, and provide weights and temperatures in both systems (oz/grammes and fahrenheit/celsius). Works well for me! Although I also have cup measures and a temperature conversion chart for non-UK recipes ...

I only have two recipes in all of my cookbooks that use weight measurements instead of volume! I picked up a vintage scale for cheap at Goodwill, but other than those two recipes (which I do make often, so it was worth it), I don't know what to use it for.

I’ve never understood the attraction to scales. Cups are extraordinarily easy to use, and in the U.S. that’s how most recipes are written. Unless you’re mass producing something, aiming for precision is silly because you know you’re going to have to adjust it anyway based on the weather, altitude and any number of factors. It’s been my experience that the best cooks get it right because they know what their batter is supposed to look and feel like, not because they scientifically measure ingredients.

I’m sure there are a few high-tech recipes that require precision. But I think people exaggerate the importance of a scale when it comes to things like macarons. I make a lot of macarons (with measuring cups) and they come out just about perfect. I’m not saying I have any special skill. I’m saying I think it’s easier than people think. (This comes from someone who has been obsessed with Pierre Herme macarons for the better part of four years).

Pulling out a scale and watching the dial will never be as easy as scooping ingredients up with a cup.

hooloovoo: I have to disagree. I have a digital scale and in my opinion, weighing ingredients is easier than measuring in cups.

I agree with you that a good cook (and particularly a good baker) will know what her batter is supposed to look like.

However, for a novice baker or a even an experienced baker who is not happy with the results of their labor, I urge you to try a scale. It's so easy to cram way too much flour (it compacts after all) into a measuring cup only to end up with a baked good that is tough.

All that said, I almost always use measuring cups for liquids. I haven't quite converted all my recipes to weights.

I usually just measure by eye. Sometimes I'll use volume if I feel it's necessary to be more precise. I use weight if I'm baking.

For the few baking recipes I use regularly, I took the time to record the weight of each ingredient as everything went into the bowl. Now baking is so much faster without having to find and clean a different measuring utensil every time - I just tare the weight after each addition.

But what I really find the scale useful for is dividing items that don't fit conventionally into a measuring cup. If I have a 16 oz. bag of frozen vegetables and I want to make sure I have enough for two meals, I'll weigh out 8 oz. Same with pasta - I know that 2 oz. is one serving, but I'm certainly no good at eyeballing what exactly makes up 2 oz, especially with all the different shapes I use.

None of my cookbooks provides measurements in weight; it's all in cups and tablespoons, so how would I know what the weight should be? That's the main reason I don't have a scale.

I'm a pastry cook. Of course I have a scale! It's just more accurate. 12 ounces is 12 ounces no matter how much or how little you pack your flour. Most American recipes are by volume rather than weight and that works fine if you're just making a small batch of something for yourself at home but it's a nightmare if you're making hundreds of cookies on an industrial scale.

I do both, it just depends entirely on the recipe.

seriously? when I have to use cups and spoons all I can think of is "I sure wish I could just put the bowl on the scale and start pouring instead of wasting my time measuring and washing dishes!"

I'm with melle on this. I use a scale and don't look back. I don't have to wash 4 measuring cups, dry, and one liquid, plus teaspoons! And by weight, it's faster, just fill the bowl until you get what you need, not scooping, leveling, and trying to remember if it was 3 cups or 4? and having to start again when you can't remember.

And if you go back far enough, the cooks from the old days didn't use "measuring cups." A lot of them used tea cups and whatever spoons they had in the kitchen. My grandmother taught me recipes, spooning ingredients until she got the amount she needed. Measuring cups were used to "standardize" recipes. To this day, if I ask her how to make something, she will say, a little of this, etc.

"1 3/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon all-purpose flour". i RAIL against these sorts of crazy, stupid measurements, obviously scaled down from some bakery recipe. i HATE that all these american baking books are STUCK. cant we just break free?? lets move on and leave sentimentality in the DUST.

Jooly: You can just look up conversion online and write it in your cookbook. 1 cup of flour = 4.5 oz.

As someone who has a degree in science but also served an apprenticeship as a cook I can see no attraction whatever in using inexact cup measurements. In any kind of scientific endeavour much time and energy is spent in calibrating instruments and making sure the any measurement is accurate and repeatable. Of course I realise that the same level of precision is not required in the kitchen (pâtisserie excepted!) but I just couldn't bring myself to throw out all the scientific rigour when cooking.

Maybe the attraction for USAnians is that they still use an archaic system for measuring weight. As I live in Europe we use the easy, logical metric system. I think if I had to choose between cups and a base 16 measurement the choice wouldn't be so easy :-)