Standardised Recipes.
A stew recipe yields 3 kg, twelve 250 g portions. For 40 portions of 200 g the factor is 40 × 200 ÷ 3 000 = 2.67 — for the meat and vegetables. The salt and the simmering time need a cook's judgement.
A standardised recipe is the kitchen's contract with itself. Its card lists the dish name, the yield (total weight or volume) and the portion size and number, every ingredient by weight with its specification (cut, grade, brand if it matters), the method step by step with temperatures and times, the equipment, the plating and the holding instructions — and from these, its cost per portion (XXXI.5). Tested and written once (XXXII.10), it lets a new cook on a busy night produce what the chef designed, makes ordering and costing possible, and records allergens for every dish (XII.10).
Scaling uses a conversion factor: new yield ÷ old yield, where yield is portions × portion size. Every ingredient is multiplied by it. But some things do not scale in proportion. Evaporation depends on the pot's surface, not its volume, so a quadrupled sauce reduces more slowly and may need less liquid (III.5); seasoning, spices and thickeners are best scaled a little under and corrected by taste; cooking and cooling times grow with the size of the batch and of the pieces (II.2, XII.7); and pans and ovens have limits. Large batches are therefore tested at their new size before they go on the menu. The workshop scales a stew.
Below: a beef stew recipe that yields 3 kg (twelve 250 g portions), scaled to the portions and portion size you choose by the conversion factor: each ingredient's new weight, and the cost per portion from the course's price table (illustrative ¤ per kg).
- Read and write a standardised recipe.
- Calculate a conversion factor.
- Scale a recipe sensibly.
- Know what does not scale in proportion.
Multiply, then taste and test
Forty portions of 200 g need a factor of 2.67: 4 kg of chuck instead of 1.5, and so on. The salt by arithmetic is 64 g; a cook would start with about 58 g and taste, because a large pot loses less water to evaporation for its volume and the stew will be less concentrated. The cost per portion stays the same when portions grow in number, but changes in proportion to the portion size — the lever most kitchens use to hold a dish's price (XXXI.5).
Writing a standard recipe card: name and code; yield and portions; ingredients in grams in the order used, with specifications; method in numbered steps, each with a temperature, time or visual cue; critical control points (cook to 74 °C, cool in 2 + 4 hours, XXXI.6); equipment; holding and shelf life; allergens; a photo of the plated dish; cost per portion and date of costing. Review it whenever a supplier, price or piece of equipment changes.
Take a recipe you cook often and write it as a standard recipe card, weighing every ingredient once.
Terms
- Yield
- Total quantity a recipe makes.
- Conversion factor
- New yield ÷ old yield.
- Specification
- The exact cut, grade or type of an ingredient.
- Standard recipe card
- The kitchen's tested written formula.
Sources
- A teaching value chosen for the course: the right order of magnitude and shape, not a measurement of a particular food.