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08-28-2007, 07:32 PM
|  | Registered User Culinary Experience: Cook At Home | | Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: NY
Posts: 220
| |  Scaling down recipes for 24 to 4
How do you do that!?
When you have a recipe that is for 12 or 24 and you just want to serve 3 or 4 how do you do that? and not loose quality? |
08-28-2007, 08:19 PM
| | ChefTalk Supporter Culinary Experience: Private Chef | | Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Daytona Beach, FL
Posts: 556
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Why would you lose quality?
Just divide everything by 3,4, 6 or 8 |
08-28-2007, 08:31 PM
|  | ChefTalk Moderator Culinary Experience: Retired Chef | | Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Minnesota
Posts: 4,136
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08-29-2007, 05:53 AM
| | Registered User Culinary Experience: Cook At Home | | Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: NY
Posts: 220
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THATS WHAT I WAS AFRAID OF!!!!!
What do I do!??!?!?!?  |
08-29-2007, 08:04 AM
|  | ChefTalk Supporter Culinary Experience: Former Chef | | Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Commonwealth of Virginia
Posts: 968
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Cut the recipe in half and let the visitors take home what's left. Then there's always the ability to package well and freeze what ever you have left. (In most cases).  |
08-29-2007, 08:38 AM
|  | Registered User Culinary Experience: Other | | Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: San Francisco Bay Area, California, USA
Posts: 3,416
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CarlAird  THATS WHAT I WAS AFRAID OF!!!!!
What do I do!??!?!?!? | For many recipes you can just round off the fractions ...
Shel |
08-29-2007, 08:41 AM
|  | ChefTalk Moderator Culinary Experience: Professional Caterer | | Join Date: Aug 2000 Location: St. Louis Mo
Posts: 5,662
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first off what are you making? Can't you guesstimate? |
08-29-2007, 10:27 AM
| | ChefTalk Supporter Culinary Experience: Private Chef | | Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Daytona Beach, FL
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CarlAird THATS WHAT I WAS AFRAID OF!!!!!
What do I do!??!?!?!? | I don't understand, are you saying you can't divide 2/3 by 8? It would be 1/12
I don't see how suzanne's recipe is going to feed 12-24 people.
Surely any recipe that feeds that many will have easily divisible proportions.
If not what I would do is take a scale, weight it out in grams, then divide the grams by 8.
For example if the orginal recipe calls for 2/3 cups chopped onion, weigh that out, lets say it weighs 400 grams, then you would want 50 grams of onions, so just weigh out 50 grams on your scale. |
08-29-2007, 10:41 AM
| | ChefTalk Moderator Culinary Experience: Retired Chef | | Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Minnesota
Posts: 4,136
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Quote:
Originally Posted by abefroman I don't see how suzanne's recipe is going to feed 12-24 people.
| Just to clarify, that's not Suzanne's recipe. Suzanne was posting an example of how not to do it. For example, what do you make of
2/3 red onion, quartered.
Hmm... |
08-29-2007, 10:43 AM
| | ChefTalk Supporter Culinary Experience: Private Chef | | Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Daytona Beach, FL
Posts: 556
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will if 2/3 onion feeds 24 people, 1/3 would feed 12, cut that 1/3 in half and it would fee 6, and then in half again to feed 3. |
08-29-2007, 10:47 AM
| | ChefTalk Moderator Culinary Experience: Retired Chef | | Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Minnesota
Posts: 4,136
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Quote:
Originally Posted by abefroman will if 2/3 onion feeds 24 people, 1/3 would feed 12, cut that 1/3 in half and it would fee 6, and then in half again to feed 3. | Yeah but how would you quarter 2/3 of an onion?
Anyway Carl, what are you trying to do? Post the big recipe and we'll try and help.
Last edited by kuan; 08-29-2007 at 11:00 AM.
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08-29-2007, 03:25 PM
| | Registered User Culinary Experience: Cook At Home | | Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: NY
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OH MY GOD YOU PEOPLE WITH THE MATH!!
I'M A STRIPPER FOR CHRIST SAKE!!!!!!!
Didnt you check my myspace!??
But there are some recipes that would come down to 1/2 of a third of a cup of something
I'm looking at Martha Stewart's Entertaining book
Because its the Best selling cookbook since Mastering the Art of French cooking I assume NOT EVERYONE is using this to cook for 24..or 40! but most of the recipes are for those large parties |
08-29-2007, 03:35 PM
| | Registered User Culinary Experience: I Just Like Food | | Join Date: May 2006 Location: USA
Posts: 843
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kuan Yeah but how would you quarter 2/3 of an onion?
. | = .25 * .66 => 0.165 of an onion, red. |
08-29-2007, 03:37 PM
| | Registered User Culinary Experience: I Just Like Food | | Join Date: May 2006 Location: USA
Posts: 843
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Carl, the best advice is never to divide a recipe by more than four.
Give us the quantities and we can work it out for you. Also, if you have Mastercook, it will automatically scale recipes for you. With that, however, you must be careful because it's just looking at the numbers, not the logic. |
08-29-2007, 10:21 PM
| | ChefTalk Moderator Culinary Experience: Retired Chef | | Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Minnesota
Posts: 4,136
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CarlAird OH MY GOD YOU PEOPLE WITH THE MATH!!
I'M A STRIPPER FOR CHRIST SAKE!!!!!!! | OK, pretend one cup is equal to eight one dollar bills... | | |
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