Pat, and others, Please allow me to add my 2-cents worth on this interesting discussion.
First, I'm not sure whether or not cooking by mass is better than by volume actually. Please let me explain. Volumetric measures do NOT suffer the problem that scales do: calibration (or even accuracy)! When you measure something with a container that is graduated you only err by your own reading skills, not the instrument's! (Evidently I'm assuming the manufacturer did a decent job at making sure those volume measures are accurate!) Distortions of containers with time and stuff are completely negligible (I mean "growing or shrinking" due to things like temperature, usage, etc). True, there would be the issue of density of the ingredients which may differ depending on the quality of the product. As a consequence measuring its volume may not yield the same "quantity" necessary for a recipe to work. But ONLY IF that aspect is important (mass, evidently) in the end. Besides, do we have data to substantiate that these density differences are substantial? Or if mass is more important than volume for recipes to... work? A second difficulty I find with using weight scales in general is that for some ingredients, like spices, one has a monumental task of measuring this accurately due to its usually minute quantities. I've conducted an experience here one time by measuring and remeasuring these and found a real appalling result. At times I ended up with more than twice or even three times the volumetric quantity between measures!!! I'd like to believe that this would be utterly unacceptable. And, mind you, my scale is accurate to the gram (or 2 g, I don't remember...)!!! So, there... The forum is open for discussions... ;-) Marcus ____________________________________________________________ Get 25MB of email storage with Lycos Mail Plus! Sign up today -- http://www.mail.lycos.com/brandPage.shtml?pageId=plus
