I love my scale too. I get much more consistent results when using it.
But a lot of US recipes don’t give weights. So that comes right back to the problem of “how much does a cup of flour weigh, according to THIS RECIPE?”
Like Julius, I do two things: 1) try to find out if the recipe author has given any information on how they measure flour, and 2) use the “gently spooned” method if the author doesn’t tell me what to do.
Other ingredients are not usually such a problem because the weight per cup doesn’t vary so much with measuring method (granulated sugar, butter, liquids), or because there is a fairly standard method (brown sugar—almost always “firmly packed.”) So once you’ve found out a “standard” weight you can stick with it.
