food, kitchen, products —

A Kitchen Scale for Everyone: Pasta Portion Control and GiveAway!

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(The unit comes in many colors and is perfectly sized.  The two simple buttons are large and easy to use.  The LCD screen is huge and there’s no guessing the amount when scrambling in your kitchen preparing a dinner party) 

Update: Congrats to Ami for winning the contest.  The giveaway is now closed.
For years, I’ve used a Salter metal body kitchen scale to measure everything from pasta portions to cups of flour for baking (well, my wife is the baker so she uses the scale for measuring flour for sweets).  We also use our scale to measure cereal and oatmeal amounts so we don’t overeat (especially when we’re consuming Cheerios!)  The Salter is a practical enough kitchen tool but I’ve always had a secret dislike for the product because it 1. is large and takes up valuable countertop space and 2. is not precise.  I do like the industrial design of the tool and if our kitchen was a museum I would indeed leave it out for guests to admire, but a home kitchen is first and foremost a practical space where the user (or home cook) completes tasks (that is, makes food)!  
In turn, I’ve been looking for a replacement for our Salter for years and it looks like I just found an elegant and cheap solution, namely the EatSmart kitchen scale.  The EatSmart takes up a fraction of the space my old Salter occupied and is also more precise; kind of like an old Model T being replaced by a modern vehicle with a turbo engine and electronic stability control!  The electronic kitchen scale can also measure in ounces, lbs, grams, and kgs.  It also has a handy tare feature which eliminates the weight of whatever item your flour, pasta, etc. is being held in (a bowl or measuring cup, for example).  The scale is easy to use (a big plus for someone who takes ergonomics seriously) and has an auto off button so you don’t go wasting battery life!  I can’t talk to reliability as of yet as I’ve only been using the scale for a few weeks, but I can say that I’ve had no significant problems thus far.  One thing I was concerned about was moving from a device that didn’t require batteries or electricity to another “powered” kitchen item (in the case of the EatSmart, 2 AAA batteries).  And while batteries are needed I think the accuracy and functionality of the digital scale outweigh the use of batteries (just a Green acknowledgement).  The device retails for $27.99.
>>Order a GardenSmart Scale via The OpenSky Project and help support Scordo.com!
One of the other reasons I get excited about kitchen scales is that they are great mediums to keep calories and portion sizes top of mind when cooking.  For example, even though I’ve grown up with dry pasta and can pretty much tell you how many grams of linguine fine I’m holding in my hand, I occasionally guess wrong and cook too much pasta for one sitting.  And what ends up happening inevitably is that I consume a larger amount of pasta (usually with a dish like Alio e Olio) than I would like (especially given that I include pasta as a primo or starter at home between 1-2 nights per week).   

Kitchen Scale Giveaway!

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(Kind of looks like a space ship from Star Trek Generations)  

In an effort to control the world wide problem of eating too much pasta (or any food for that matter!) I’ll be giving away a single EatSmart digital kitchen scale to one lucky Scordo.com reader.  Here’s what you need to do to enter:

- 1. leave a comment under this post on how you use your kitchen scale or an incident on eating too much of one food and not really being aware of it (for example, pasta, potato chips, Cheerios, etc.) and 2. sign up as a fan of Scordo.com on Facebook here or Scordo.com newsletter, it doesn’t need to be both).  If you’ve done both already, then I’ll ask you if you can please re-tweet the article URL (http://bit.ly/b6wR9u) on Twitter and include the article URL and and @scordo in your tweet)

 
- Only one entry per person please.
- The contest is open until 12 midnight on 2/27 and a single random user will be picked via Random.org.  The winner will be announced immediately on Twitter (so please follow me) and on Scordo.com by 5PM on Monday, 3/1.
>>Order a GardenSmart Scale via The OpenSky Project and help support Scordo.com!
- Please use a valid email address when leaving a comment so I can contact you just in case you’re the lucky winner (I’ll need your shipping address). 
- EatSmart will send out the digital scale to a single contest winner during the week of 3/1 (you should receive it within 7-10 business days).
That’s it, so please sign up for a chance to win a kitchen product that all home cooks should own and use!  If you can’t wait to use the EatSmart kitchen scale, you can buy it online via the OpenSky Project (proceeds go towards supporting Scordo.com).  If you don’t see the product on my page right away, come back tomorrow in the AM.  
By the way, here’s my recipe for my favorite pasta dish of all time.

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Author: Lead Italophile (and/or lover of all things Italian).
  • http://dolcedesigns.wordpress.com lauren

    This will be a HUGE help with my baking so I can get the recipes just right.
    (ok, and yes. it will also help when I grab a handful of my roommate’s Cinnamon Toast Crunch…)
    Grazie for the chance!

  • Annelle

    Mainly could use a kitchen scale to measure flour, etc, when making bread, cakes–Would be Great to have. I’m sure I would be much better off if I measured my pasta as well. So easy to eat way too much!

  • Bryan

    I use my scale for absolutely everything. From baking to portioning food as I freeze food from costco. I even love to use it for measuring liquids like water, stock, etc. in recipes, so I am more accurate than using a measuring cup. I can’t imagine cooking without it. My scale is getting quite old and this one from EatSmart would be a welcome replacement.
    Big fan. I became a fan on facebook as well.

  • Evan

    One of the many cooking tools I am missing from the kitchen and I too could use some cereal portion control, I don’t care how many times they tell us it’s a “well-balanced breakfast”.

  • http://yumysushipajamas.wordpress.com Heather

    I love my scale and use it to keep portion sizes under control any time I cook! And I will, of course, retweet and share this on FB!

  • KThomas

    I just started using a scale for portion control. I have a small that is not electronic, but I love it. I use it for everything. It make calorie counting so much easier.

  • RobbaJoe

    cheerios are my downfall, I read the side of the box and say to myself, well this is a good deal, but I then proceed to fill my bowl with them. knowingly enjoying my blissful ignorance that i am consuming multiple servings.
    it would also help bring a fair bit of consistency to my homebrewing where I tend to meter out my ingredients by eye.
    Cheers!

  • http://www.simplyforties.com SimplyForties

    I use my old scale for precision baking, although I learned a new pasta recipe at a cooking class the other day that required very careful measuring.
    Last night I made Union Square spiced nuts and some roasted olives and ate way too many of each!

  • Maureen

    My husband and I have a little scale that we use to portion our ground beef and other ground meats.

  • Jay Landau

    We don’t use a scale in our kitchen because we don’t have one. But it sure would be nice to win one !!

  • Chris

    @macgivens77
    I overeat almost everything. I need a scale to help me control portions, and cook according to @Ruhlman Ratio book.

  • Rachel

    I use my kitchen scale for baking bread, and for weighing vegetables we grow in our garden. It’s addicting once you start weighing your food!

  • Matt W.

    I started using a kitchen scale for baking and measuring out portions of meat and vegetables when cooking. Now that I have Ratio, I use it for almost every recipe I make!
    I’d love to get a new one, though – my current scale is about 8 years old.

  • Ami

    A scale would be SO helpful in keeping portions under control. I know 4 oz looks like a deck of cards, but precision measurement would be so much more helpful! Plus, think of all the easy baking that could come out of having a scale, a la Ratio from Michael Ruhlman.

  • http://www.culinaryphilosopher.com Cindy Berkowitz

    My family would use the scale for portion control and for baking. Have always wanted a scale to weigh flour. Have a daughter who needs to control carb portions for blood sugar levels.

  • http://19thandfolsom.wordpress.com/ 19thandfolsom

    I used my scale last night, actually, to make a pizza dough. Baking is so much easier when done by weight!

  • http://19thandfolsom.wordpress.com/ 19thandfolsom

    Btw — commented here under my pseudonyme, but became a fan on Facebook under my real name. Hope that’s not a problem!

  • GP

    My wife has celiac disease and I am constantly baking for her out of Gluten-Free Baking by Chef Coppedge. I cannot live without our digital scale.

  • http://calabrisellamia.wordpress.com LuLu

    I’m the worst when it comes to making too much pasta (not intentionally – or so I choose to believe) and then end up eating more than I should. I love pasta so much that I have no turn off switch when it comes to consuming it. When I’m cooking pasta I always throw in a bit more because I think it’s not enough. And I don’t know about you, but I don’t think pasta can or should be a leftover! :)

  • devlyn

    The scale has definitely helped me ensure proper portion sizes for grains and legumes, plus it’s infinitely helpful in other areas of cooking, brewing, and creating in general.

  • Jenna

    I would love a kitchen scale for baking. I don’t currently have one, so I’m dependent on trying to measure out flour the same way each time I make bread.

  • Jenn Miller

    Dry cereal is always hard to portion properly without a scale. I managed to lose 25 pounds 3 years ago by measuring and being more aware of my portion sizes. Weight has crept slowly back on even though I don’t eat any differently. Well, except for not measuring my food any longer…

  • J Chiaravalloti

    For years I have used a Krups scale daily to measure bread flour, pasta, sausage meat and seasonings, pancake flour, and sugar for jam. Krups has not made this scale for 20 years, but I prize mine even though it’s starting to fall apart. It has a capacity of about 4 lbs. and the counter level scale-disk can be rotated to Kg. There is a bowl that can be inverted for storage.
    Could this slick looking electronic scale be my replacement? Would it let me weigh 8 lbs of sausage meat or five lbs of bread flour? Would it be accurate enough to measure 1/2 oz of salt or a 1/4 oz of rosemary?
    I’m interested, but not convinced.

  • http://hubpages.com/hub/Eatsmart-Precision-Pro-Scale Eatsmart Precision Pro

    I am a HUGE proponent of using a scale to weigh ingredients instead of scooping them into measuring cups, which can account for some drastic differences in quantities.

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