Suggestion when posting receipes

[Jane B.]

How about using amounts of ingredients other the cans, package or similar. When shopping yesterday I just got reminded how companies are constantly changing the amount in their regular package.

I know a whole one is rarely used but one which comes to mind now is orange juice. Some time ago one big company quite doing half gallons (64 oz) and went to 59 oz)and several others have since followed. At a glance the difference is hard to spot but when similar changes are made in smaller things like cans it can make a difference in a recipe. Below is a link that I found after a Google search. http://www.mouseprint.org/2010/05/31/tropicana-inconspicuously-downsizes-half-gallons-of-oj/

 

[seb]

Let's not forget the 1.5 or 1.75 quart of ice cream that used to be an actual half gallon, the 11 oz pound of coffee, the 4 lb. bag of sugar in the 5 lb. bag, the 10 or 11oz. bag of potato chips and it goes on and on.

 

[Jane B.]

Let's not forget the 1.5 or 1.75 quart of ice cream that used to be an actual half gallon, the 11 oz pound of coffee, the 4 lb. bag of sugar in the 5 lb. bag, the 10 or 11oz. bag of potato chips and it goes on and on.

Yes, there are soooo many that I didn't want to try to compile a list.

This was actually prompted by buying sugar on sale and thinking of the change. Combine that with the fact that I had just used a cookie recipe that is from the 1930's or maybe earlier and have a collection from relatives that date from that era. Hopefully some of our newly created ones will be considered good enough to still be used that far into the future; but we need to be about to apply the measurements to what packages are available then.

 

[seb]

Yes, there are soooo many that I didn't want to try to compile a list.

This was actually prompted by buying sugar on sale and thinking of the change. Combine that with the fact that I had just used a cookie recipe that is from the 1930's or maybe earlier and have a collection from relatives that date from that era. Hopefully some of our newly created ones will be considered good enough to still be used that far into the future; but we need to be about to apply the measurements to what packages are available then.

My grandmother never measured anything in her recipes, she always said a pinch of this, a pinch of that, a handful of sugar, three handfuls of flour. It's impossible to duplicate, you just measure and hope you get something that's tastes good in the end.

 

[Bottesini]

Yes, there are soooo many that I didn't want to try to compile a list.

This was actually prompted by buying sugar on sale and thinking of the change. Combine that with the fact that I had just used a cookie recipe that is from the 1930's or maybe earlier and have a collection from relatives that date from that era. Hopefully some of our newly created ones will be considered good enough to still be used that far into the future; but we need to be about to apply the measurements to what packages are available then.

They can be recalculated and rewritten for a different era. We might be on the metric system in the future.

 

[LoveBlue]

They can be recalculated and rewritten for a different era. We might be on the metric system in the future.

I may be dead by then. When I was in high school back in the early 70's they thought we would be converting to the metric system.

 

[seb]

I may be dead by then. When I was in high school back in the early 70's they thought we would be converting to the metric system.

I remember it well. They said we would be converting to the metric system by the end of the 70's and then in 1981, the people responsible for the shift reported to congress saying it would need more time and Reagans administration killed the funding for their organization in 1982, effectively killing the conversion. I too believe we will be dead before the U.S. converts to the metric system.

 

[Reba]

I remember it well. They said we would be converting to the metric system by the end of the 70's and then in 1981, the people responsible for the shift reported to congress saying it would need more time and Reagans administration killed the funding for their organization in 1982, effectively killing the conversion. I too believe we will be dead before the U.S. converts to the metric system.

OK by me.

 

[HappinessCounts]

My grandmother never measured anything in her recipes, she always said a pinch of this, a pinch of that, a handful of sugar, three handfuls of flour. It's impossible to duplicate, you just measure and hope you get something that's tastes good in the end.

LOL, this is true and so funny.

 

[seb]

OK by me.

Me too!

 

[DeafDucky]

What I hate is that when a recipe does call for measurements it IS the old format (16 oz can of..., 4oz can of...), for example my grandfather's corn chowder recipe...it was perfect as is- both in ounces etc and in size of cans. Then Hormel was the first to mess with it...the size went down. Then Carnation... It's difficult to keep the measurements the same (as THAT was the best way it tasted!) and not wind up wasting ingredients....

 

[Jane B.]

It might take a chemist to do it but would it work to figure out the amount of the other ingredients in relation to today's cans (or other containers)? If there is something like sugar in it that is usually measured for a larger amount and not a whole individual container. Thus, keeping the relationship of the different ingredients the same but the final amount slightly different.

 

[seb]

What I hate is that when a recipe does call for measurements it IS the old format (16 oz can of..., 4oz can of...), for example my grandfather's corn chowder recipe...it was perfect as is- both in ounces etc and in size of cans. Then Hormel was the first to mess with it...the size went down. Then Carnation... It's difficult to keep the measurements the same (as THAT was the best way it tasted!) and not wind up wasting ingredients....

What I love about these companies is they downsize the product and raise the price. If you know how many oz. you need than you are lucky in that you can buy more than one can and use measuring cups to get the right amount. If your recipe just calls out for one can of this and one can of that, you will have to go for trial and error.

 

[Barbaro]

I don't buy juice cartons, so I don't know much about them. The companies are like that when they decide to alter it for profit. I used metric system when I lived overseas and I LOVE it. I still use it for cooking. I bake by weigh instead of measure with cups. I weighed baby formula for my son when he was newborn, so he didn't have to deal with constipation and slept like a peaceful baby for his first year except for his teething. Cups are always inaccurate when it come to baking. I even weigh eggs, too. They vary in weigh.

Bring metric system back!

I read the post from one of the well known blogs that she has talked a lot about baking. She said that publishers force bakers and chefs to change the recipes from grams to cups. That's why some of those recipes don't work well. I don't know if that is true or not. She has published her cookbooks and all of her recipes are in grams. I will have to take it with grain of salt.

 

[Jane B.]

I may be dead by then. When I was in high school back in the early 70's they thought we would be converting to the metric system.

I am one of the ones that is even more likely to be gone by then than you as my high school years were in the 1950's.

 

[Reba]

I don't buy juice cartons, so I don't know much about them. The companies are like that when they decide to alter it for profit. I used metric system when I lived overseas and I LOVE it. I still use it for cooking. I bake by weigh instead of measure with cups. I weighed baby formula for my son when he was newborn, so he didn't have to deal with constipation and slept like a peaceful baby for his first year except for his teething. Cups are always inaccurate when it come to baking. I even weigh eggs, too. They vary in weigh.

Bring metric system back!

I read the post from one of the well known blogs that she has talked a lot about baking. She said that publishers force bakers and chefs to change the recipes from grams to cups. That's why some of those recipes don't work well. I don't know if that is true or not. She has published her cookbooks and all of her recipes are in grams. I will have to take it with grain of salt.

". . . grain of salt." Pun intended?

 

[Barbaro]

". . . grain of salt." Pun intended?

Yep!

 

[Jane B.]

My grandmother never measured anything in her recipes, she always said a pinch of this, a pinch of that, a handful of sugar, three handfuls of flour. It's impossible to duplicate, you just measure and hope you get something that's tastes good in the end.

My mother was a timid cook. It was probably greatly influenced by the fact that she taught school for many years and her mother and one of her sisters were the main cooks in the family while others had outside jobs. So with her not having been the primary cook until she married at 34 almost 35 that makes sense to me. It also means that I grew up with the idea of following recipes with exact measurements. The mother of a close friend, who was also a neighbor, was more like your grandmother.

 

[Jane B.]

What I love about these companies is they downsize the product and raise the price. If you know how many oz. you need than you are lucky in that you can buy more than one can and use measuring cups to get the right amount. If your recipe just calls out for one can of this and one can of that, you will have to go for trial and error.

That was my point from the beginning! But you may well have expressed it better than I did.

 

[Jane B.]

I don't buy juice cartons, so I don't know much about them. The companies are like that when they decide to alter it for profit. I used metric system when I lived overseas and I LOVE it. I still use it for cooking. I bake by weight instead of measure with cups. I weighed baby formula for my son when he was newborn, so he didn't have to deal with constipation and slept like a peaceful baby for his first year except for his teething. Cups are always inaccurate when it comes to baking. I even weigh eggs, too. They vary in weight.

Bring metric system back!

I read the post from one of the well known blogs that she has talked a lot about baking. She said that publishers force bakers and chefs to change the recipes from grams to cups. That's why some of those recipes don't work well. I don't know if that is true or not. She has published her cookbooks and all of her recipes are in grams. I will have to take it with grain of salt.

You can't bring back the metric system in the USA because we never used it in the first place. You would need to get us to go to it for the first time.

I am assuming that the reference to grams is a weight rather than a volume measurement?