Comments: We know, we know! We are tedious in our constant reminders that an instant-read thermometer and a kitchen scale are not luxuries in your kitchen – they are necessities. We're not backing down. And among our favorite scales is the Escali Primo.

It comes in 12 colors. It measures in ounces/pounds up to 176 oz/11 lbs and grams/kilograms up to 5,000 g/5 kg, and is accurate to within one-tenth of an ounce or 1 gram. It remembers what scale you were measuring in the last time you used it. It shuts itself off after four minutes to save battery life (and it comes with 2 AA batteries). The tare feature, which subtracts your container's weight to obtain the weight of the contents, is not rocket science but it so simplifies your cooking life.

It is a little easy to block the digital read-out with a large plate, so you may want to measure in taller bowls rather than broad plates when possible.

We use an older Escali scale in our test kitchen, which had the option of an AC power adapter. So, while we never have to worry about running out of juice in mid-measure, we do have the cord to deal with. If you're good about keeping spare batteries on hand, you'll be fine. If that's a problem, you might consider another Escali model, which costs more, but for which you can spend even more to purchase a power adapter (it's not like batteries are free, either, you know).