What do you use to measure the weight of ingredient?

Question

I don't have a single tools to measure the weight of ingredient.
I came across recipe with different weight:
1/4 cup olive oil
1 pound dried spaghetti
2 tablespoons butter
4 ounces Pecorino Romano cheese, finely grated
1 1/2 teaspoon finely ground black pepper
Salt (optional)

There are already 5 units, how do you measure them separately? If you use a scale, do you translate the unit?
Also, do you have any picture for the size of cup/tablespoon/teaspoon/etc? I have spoons in different size. And cup, to me, is also unknown in size.
I also welcome recommendations of scales and alternative methods to weigh the ingredients.

nico · Accepted Answer

This is something that really puzzled me when I went living in an English-speaking country. Having grown up in Italy, where recipes tell you "Put 120g of this then add 250g of that", I've always used a scale. The first time I saw I recipe with cups and teaspoons I said: yeah, but I've got 10 types of cups in the kitchen... which one should I be using?
Then someone told me that they were real unit of measure and introduced me to measuring spoons (something that in Italy would be very difficult to come by).
So, going back to your question:

I strongly second @Adam's opinion of buying a digital scale: they're cheap and do the job (personally, I would not spend more than $30-40 on it, but you can find $300 ones if you wish).

If your recipe calls for teaspoons, cups, etc. then you can:

Buy measuring spoons/cups (you can find a complete set for $10, for instance this)

Convert them to g (or whatever your scale measures) using an online calculator. If you google for "teaspoons to grams" or "cups to grams" you'll find plenty.

You can even get an app on your phone. I use this app which works pretty well (I'm sure there's a similar thing for iPhone, but I don't use Apple products, so I can't help there).

Adam S · Answer

Most people would just use a scale and if your serious about cooking and baking I highly suggest looking for a digital scale that can measure in metric or American standard and is sensitive to the gram. They run about $17.

In this case you are going to have to wing it.Do you have a big soup spoon? Well that's about the size of a tablespoon. Four of those equals 1/4 cup. Or do you have a small water glass. All the ones in my house are one cup so i could use a 1/4 of one of those.

One pound of pasta is easy because pasta is sold in one pound boxes and the cheese is easy because in most American supermarkets grated pecorino is sold in 4 or 8 oz plastic tubs which is why the recipe uses those weights -- it's standard.

Because the obvious answer to this question is a scale, you might want to change the title. What are some alternative ways to measure ingredients?

What do you use to measure the weight of ingredient?

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