I have a small analog food scale that I bought at Bed, Bath & Beyond for $5. It gets the job done, but it is very no frills. It does have a small, removable plastic container that holds the food while you weigh it, but it is pretty small. It works for me because there are only two of us and I'm usually not making more than 4-6 servings of anything (anything I make for dinner has to be at least 4 servings so that we can eat it for two nights). But if you were making food for more people, it might be a problem. The scale itself cannot weigh more than 1 lb at a time, so if I make something that calls for more than a pound of an ingredient, I have to weigh it in two batches. But this isn't really that much work, so it doesn't bother me.
My biggest complaint is that it's not terribly stable so when I bump the scale (which I do A LOT because I'm clumsy and always in a hurry) the plastic bin falls off and spills my food. If you are careful and methodical, this might not be a problem, but if you tend to be haphazard in the kitchen, like I am, I would look for a scale with a wider base to hold the food bowl. I have used a larger plastic bowl on it when I need to weigh high volume foods (like lettuce), but it was even more unstable (several lettuce dumpings ensued
).
But if you want something really cheap and don't mind a little frustration, this scale definitely works.
- Barbara
kitchen (diet) scales
