Weighing, not measuring

Volume measurement is the reason a formula does not reproduce. Nothing in this craft is measured by spoon.

Everything by weight

Wax shavings, butter chunks and oil all have different densities, and wax in particular packs differently every time. A tablespoon of beeswax pellets is not a quantity.

Percentages by weight of the total, adding to one hundred before flavor and color, which come out of that hundred.

The scale you need

One scale reading to 0.1 g for the bulk, and a second reading to 0.01 g for flavor, color and anything added at under a percent.

Trying to do both on one instrument is how a formula develops a wobble nobody can trace. A 0.1 g scale asked for 0.4 g of flavor has a 25 percent uncertainty in it.

Tare properly, check against a known weight periodically, and keep the scale off a surface that gets knocked.

Weighing the small things

Weigh into the pot rather than into a spoon and transfer, so nothing is left behind.

Add the small items last, when the melt is off the heat, and weigh each into its own small dish first if you are likely to overshoot, you can take from a dish and you cannot take back out of a melt.

Recording as you go

Write the actual weights, not the target ones. A batch that came out well at 31.4 percent wax when you aimed at 30 is worth reproducing at 31.4.

And record the lot of each material against the weight. When a batch behaves oddly the first question is which drum it came from, and that is only answerable if it was written down at the time.

References