Using A Kitchen Scale For Cooking And Portion Control
- At March 26, 2023
- By Daniel
- In Diet, Education, Health & Wellness, New Video
0
A majority of overweight and obese people eat too many calories for their activity level. Contrary to popular belief, it only takes a few hundred, not thousand, extra calories to go from a healthy weight to obese.
Unlike most countries using the metric system, Americans use the imperial system of cups to weigh most recipe ingredients. The accuracy of measuring cups can vary more than the accuracy of affordable kitchen scales. A good quality scale is accurate to within 1 gram (1/28th oz). In addition to cups, Americans deal with vague descriptions like small, medium, or large bananas etc. Cups and sizes are used by the USDA and FDA for serving sizes. In some cases, serving sizes are specified in grams, but most Americans do not own a kitchen scale and cannot measure foods in grams.
Whether grams or ounces, when it comes to diets, excess calories becomes body fat. Is a meal serving of frozen potatoes the 85 grams (3 oz) on the nutrition label or more. Is a steak 4 oz (113 g) or more. In most cases, it is much more.
Using a kitchen scale, you can create perfectly portioned meals providing all or most essential nutrients. And, you are in control of your diet and ingredients not a faceless corporation.
In this video:
• Diet and portion control. 00:42
• Weight versus volume (cups). 2:23
• Selecting a kitchen scale. 4:45
• Using a kitchen scale for cooking. 8:45
• Using a kitchen scale for portion control. 10:45
Why Americans Should Learn Basic Metric Units
- At December 12, 2021
- By Daniel
- In Education, New Video
- 0
The U.S. is the only country than still uses Imperial units for weights and measures. Many online retailers are promoting and selling products using metric units. The comments frustrated Americans make when they discover they received less than what they thought they were buying would be humorous if it wasn’t for the fact that some unscrupulous sellers take advantage of American buyers limited knowledge of metric units.
Knowing basic metric units also benefits Americans traveling abroad and dieting since nutrition information in usually in grams or milligrams not ounces.
In this video:
• “Why don’t you use metric?”
• A brief history of U.S. metric system. 1:09
• The U.S. is more metric than Americans think. 4:20
• The cost of not using metric units. 6:51
• Cooking and dieting with metric versus U.S. weights and measures. 7:35
• Basic metric units you should know. 12:18
Cooking And Baking By Weight Versus Volume
- At July 26, 2021
- By Daniel
- In Cooking Tips, New Video
- 0
American home cooks measure recipe ingredients by volume (cups, spoons) versus weight (ounces, pounds). This is partly due to the U.S. being the only country using imperial units of measure instead of metric. American restaurants and bakers use weight.
Some old home cooked recipes used weight like the pound cake. The recipe called for one pound each of eggs, flour and sugar. Of course, to cook using weights instead of cups requires owning an accurate kitchen scale. Most kitchen scales are now digital instead of analog and can display units in ounces or grams.
For many recipes measuring using cups works fine. But, in some cases, using weights is more accurate and contestant. Measuring a cup of chopped broccoli is not as accurate as weighing 160 grams (5.6 oz) of broccoli. The same with measuring pasta using cups.
This video shares some advantages of measuring ingredients by weight instead of volume (cups) for more consistent results especially making cakes, muffins, pancakes, and biscuits.
