Scales

[Griffin]

I know people have suggested using scales when measuring out ingredients to make sausage rather than using cups, tsps, tsp, etc. I was wondering if anybody had any recommendations on digital scales? I did a quick look on amazon just to get ideas of prices, and they don't seem to be too much, running from about $10 to around $50. So does anybody have one they recommend or features to look out for?
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[Jarhead]

You will need two. One for the small amount of spices, cure, etc and one for meat that will weigh at least 10+ pounds.
Need to be able to switch between pounds & ounces to grams & kilograms.
A tare function. To put your container on the scale and zero it.
A hold function. For when you can't see the read out.
Here are the two that I have.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000OIRSSU/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003STEJFM/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i00

They replace a 50# shipping scale and a POS from Harbor Freight Pocket Scale.
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Jarhead's World Blog
KCBS CBJ & HMFIC Debbie's Q Shack

[Rocko-la]

I have this OXO scale, bought it at Bed Bath & Beyond. It was the top rated one in Cook's magazine too.

http://www.amazon.com/Grips-5-Pound-Scale-Pull-Out-Display/dp/B0020L6T7K/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1347337941&sr=8-2&keywords=oxo+scale

[Griffin]

Thanks for the recommendations. I'm a chemist at a lab, so I know all about the tare function and switching between ounces and grams and stuff, but our scales are a bit more fancy (and expensive) than what I figure was needed in a kitchen.

Reading some reviews, I saw some issues with batteries. Is it best to go with a battery powered one or a plug in?
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[Jarhead]

When I'm making sausage, I got enough stuff on my counter and don't need to be fighting a wire.
Mine have an auto off switch. I don't like it, so I just leave it on until I get the spices weighed out. I get all of my ingredients in a line and a plastic cup in front of each one. Just go down the line and you are done. I use the auto off when weighing meat. Usually 8.8 pounds or 4 kg in a hotel pan.
These use a 9 v battery. I've made several batches of sausage with em so far and the battery is still going strong. I use the cheap RayOVac alkalines from WM or the Walgreen ones.
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Gunny 3073/4044/8411

Jarhead's World Blog
KCBS CBJ & HMFIC Debbie's Q Shack

[Kevin P]

I have several scales I use in the kitchen.

This little guy is very handy for small stuff ( VERY small amounts of spice and the like).
CD-sized & (100 x 0.01 grams)


One I picked up from Amazon. A bit pricey, but I like using it: "The Salter Aquatronic scale means no more measuring cups. This series measures both dry and liquid ingredients on the same scale with the push of a button.Makes mixing ingredients a whole lot simplier and faster."
Weighs to 11 pounds/5kg in increments of 1/8oz/1gram
Weighs to 175 Fluid ounce/5000ml in increments of 1/8 fl ounce/1ml


For large scale measuring (initial weighing of meat, bulk ingredients; nice because the stainless bowl is removable so I can place it in the fridge after weighing it's content.
Will hold up to 40lbs. From Overstock.com



-Kevin

[KP Duty]

[Harry Nutczak]

Because I may have several different things happening at once when making sausage, jerky or whatever. I have found a 30 LB capacity Hobart scale with a printer is very handy. I can print my weights of meat so I do not goof up on salt and cure ratios, I can also check yields and price accordingly.

I have a small digital reloading scale I use for weighing cure, I think it is marketed by Hornady, I didn't like it for reloading, so it got relegated to my kitchen.

Now if you want the ultimate, get the Lyman Powder handling system, and fill that with your salt and spices, it will weigh them out automatically once programmed. (overkill, but cool)
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Just remember that the toes you may step on during your climb to the top will also be attached to the a$$es you'll be forced to kiss on your way back down!

[RodinBangkok]

We use a Digi DI-80 station with 2 platforms. The small one is max 1 kg and very good for small quantites high accuracy, the large is I think 30Kg, you just push a button to switch platforms. Has all sorts of memory features, and is approved for commercial sales use. Ours is over 10 years old and never had a problem. Overkill for home use, but great for portioning, as you can set it for over under and in range when scaling product. I can recommend this one for a long term investment.
I don't like those little ones with the round platforms and lcd close to the platform, as if you put a bowl on it you can't see the readouts. Also be carefull of the auto shut off, it can be a real hassle if you can't disable it and your in the middle of scaling something and the stupid thing shuts off.
A hint for you Harry, if you set up your formulations with an additive calculation for weight including the bowl, you never get lost. The SS bowls we use to mix have a known weight and our formulas are set up so your readouts are additive, something like:
50cm SSbowl: .456Kg (.456Kg)
Pork blend1: 5.456Kg (5.0Kg)
Water: 6.25Kg (.794Kg)....
and so on, so if the power goes off you get interupted, etc you know the last ingredient added by the static weight of the mix.
Makes the formulation more fool proof.
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Rod

[Harry Nutczak]

[Jarhead]

He!! Harry, I flunked sex education (but I loved the homework) and you want me to know what you're talking about there?
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Gunny 3073/4044/8411

Jarhead's World Blog
KCBS CBJ & HMFIC Debbie's Q Shack

[SmokenDevo]

I noticed your getting into charcuterie over at wedlinydomowe.pl. You will need to get comfortable with using percentages for charcuterie recipes. Everything is a percentage value of the meat weight – since you will never have a piece of meat that weighs exactly the same as the author of the recipe, ratios are important here.
Your buddy Chuckwagon over at http://wedlinydomowe.pl can explain it very well if you need help.

[RodinBangkok]

[/quote]

I use A percentage system, because I never start with the same weight of meat.
For instance, I grab a 2-pack of butts, grind them, get my weight of meat, and work from that weight as my 100% starting point and scale the rest to fit whatever amount of meat I may be using.
It is a technique borrowed from the baking end of things that I use for sausage. The math can be a little overwhelming at first, but it gets real easy with time.

Here is a link to the way it works http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baker_percentage

this allows you to start with any weight of meat instead of needing specific formulation weights of meat.

And you thought you would never need algebra in real life [/quote]

Already built into my software.


Percentage is the only way to work. In our batch section it calculates the cum weight, issues stock, and prints a work order. Batch history is maintained with a lot number on the label also printed by the software.
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Rod

[Harry Nutczak]

Rod,

Nice!!!!
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Just remember that the toes you may step on during your climb to the top will also be attached to the a$$es you'll be forced to kiss on your way back down!

[SmokenDevo]

A friend of mine made these spread sheets and I find them very useful.
Here is a base excel spread sheet that will recalculate your spices for different batch sizes.
It will allow you to change sausage batch sizes and all the spices are recalculated for you, including the cure weights.
Just down load it from google docs. and put in your own recipe.
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1ttuCf0F334eF9DSGQzOGUxQkk/edit




And here is a excel spread sheet for a spice conversion file. It is to change everything to grams.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1ttuCf0F334Y1U5cWZwOWdHNkk/edit
You will have to have a gram scale but they are rather cheap and you will have to convert your recipes to grams but I have provided a conversion chart for that. Converting things to weights allows the sheet to recalculate the spice weights as you change batch sizes. Just remember you need to go to FILE in the upper left hand corner and hit DOWNLOAD.

[Jarhead]

Thanks Devo. They look interesting and a whole lot of work to redo my recipes.
Now if only Evernote and Open Office Calc would play together.
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Gunny 3073/4044/8411

Jarhead's World Blog
KCBS CBJ & HMFIC Debbie's Q Shack