Weighing VS Measuring Ingredients

Something that is commonly debated about within cooking and baking is whether or not you should weigh or measure your ingredients. In this blog post I want to discuss the pros and cons of both so that you can decide on your own! This is something I have always wanted to research, so I'm happy to share this with others!

What is the difference between weighing and measuring ingredients?

Weighing food is done by using a food scale. Measuring food is done by using tools such as a measuring cup, or tablespoons. According to Wikipedia "The USA measures weight in pounds, while recipes in the UK, following the advice of the Guild of Food Writers, tend to be first in metric quantities and in pounds and ounces or may exclusively be in metric. The USA also uses volume measures based on cooking utensils and pre-metric measures. The actual values frequently deviate from the utensils on which they were based, and there is little consistency from one country to another."

What are the pros and cons of weighing your ingredients?

A pro of weighing your food is that you know everything will be correctly portioned. According to an article from My Fitness Pal "Weighing food is certainly more accurate than simply taking a volume measurement because the amount of food you can fit in a measuring cup or spoon varies greatly. This is particularly true for more calorie-dense solid foods like nuts, proteins, starchy vegetables and certain fruits." A con of weighing food is that when an ingredient is very light and only a very small amount of it is being used, it is hard to be weighed on a scale. This is when measuring comes in handy with tablespoons and teaspoons!

What are the pros and cons of measuring your ingredients?

As said in the last paragraph, a con to measuring is that you can't always fit the same amount of food that you need into a measuring cup, making it not the most accurate. However, measuring is great for when you have liquid ingredient. If you are in the USA, measuring is also the commonly the way that recipes are wrote.

Overall, weighing food seems to be the most accurate form of measurement. However, I invite you to test it out for yourself and see which you prefer!