[madcaptenor]

I hadn't thought about this, but this is probably why in baking recipes where amounts of flour, sugar, etc. are specified by weight, baking powder and any spices will be specified by volume.

Of course this is all false precision once you start adding eggs.

[duped]

imo the reason to bake by weight is because the ratios of the major ingredients (flour, fat, sugar, and water) determines the properties of the dough, and it's impossible to measure by volume reliably (especially flour, which is the largest ingredient by weight in most recipes). Meanwhile you don't have to be precise with baking soda or yeast. Mix-ins like herbs are completely to taste. Salt could go either way.

Recipes absolutely adjust for the weight of the eggs and some rules of thumb for water and fat content. But that said, a chicken egg is like 55g with 10% tolerance (at least the eggs I buy, and I do everything by weight). 5g of mostly water one way or the other doesn't have a massive amount of impact on the dough, and you can always adjust based on feel after mixing.

At scale everything is measured by weight fairly precisely. But you really don't care about accuracy, since it's the ratios of ingredients that make the product and not the raw amounts.

[privatelypublic]

Eggs are actually fairly well defined on weight. And absolutely are better defined than things like flour where a volumetric cup can be 4oz or 12oz (or more) depending on how fluffed the flour is and individual scouping technique.