The Kitchen Formula Calculator v3

The Recipe Recording Template v1

To obtain the Recipe Category Template v1 file see below.

Apple Numbers:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QSRt7VwtHFCxipclW30xCbxKdy1SA6ur/view?usp=share_link

Excel

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MMTv9If97HKVAa0FN9tVcyLbUCh93ae0/edit?usp=share_link&ouid=102637182968647895030&rtpof=true&sd=true

Google Sheets

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15yHf5bPhG75mdrVa9guFshvtY79nlbGS1mqT1sa5DEs/edit?usp=share_link

The Kitchen Formula Calculator v4 & The Recipe Recording Template 

November 7, 2024 

What is it?

The Recipe Recording Template v1 (aka Recipe Category Template) is an augmentation of its parent calculating tool, The Kitchen Formula Calculator. It’s a blank set of calculating tables designed for writing new recipes, or recording ones already in hand. The file is a template meant to be duplicated, the duplicate then used to enter the recipe data. The template is the template. Do not perform data entry in the template.

The Recipe Recording Template v1 looks and functions the same as its parent, the Kitchen Formula Calculator, because it is the same. It’s the same file, given a new name connoting its intended use. The two files have different points of focus. The Kitchen Formula Calculator is intended primarily for professionals, the RCT is what home cooks would use, but it’s also useful for Chefs. Learning how to use either means you know how to use both. 

The recipe calculators are more than simple calculating tools. They are a neatly designed, organized format in which to write, record, and develop recipes. One of their great virtues, and the reason they were created is to be able to quickly, and flawlessly upscale or downscale a recipe. The calculators have integrated tables that are used to reformulate a recipe for further development, a common occurrence after “cook-testing” a new recipe, and another to cost the recipe. Used regularly, they become a Kitchen Guide for a professional operation, or a place for the home cook to park all of their recipe repertoire. Recipe costing is something home cooks will almost never do, but the ability to do so is built into both calculators. In restaurant operations it’s a necessity. The Kitchen Formula Calculator has one table that is not included in the Recipe Category Template. It’s an additional costing table to cost the entire plate that represents a menu offering. It calculates the plate cost, compares it to the menu price, and reports both margin, and food cost percentage for the plate. 

Both are spreadsheets written in Apple Numbers, though easily convertible to Google Sheets, or Excel if desired. The KFCv4 has been refined over the years; v4 indicating the current iteration. Both are based on The Unabaker’s Master Formula Calculator, designed specifically for bread, which has been in development, use, and refinement since 2005. The spreadsheet calculating functions are built in as embedded formulae. The user doesn’t see this stuff, and has nothing to do, but data entry. “Data” consists of a list of ingredient names typed into successive rows in one column of the first table, and the gram weights of each ingredient typed into the adjacent column. The worksheet does the rest of the work. It does so instantaneously, and error free.

What is a recipe calculator?

These tools calculate the total of the individual gram weights of all ingredients, and using that value, derives something very useful, the ingredient “Cook’s Percentages”. What “Cook’s Percentages” means is explained in another section later. What they are useful for is to enable instantaneous, one click, re-scaling of the recipe yield to produce more of the product, or less.

 

I might just as well have called this a Recipe Writing & Recording tool because that is its primary utility. I might have dubbed it a Recipe Re-Scaling tool because that’s one of its greatest virtues, or an All In One Recipe Writing, Developing, and Costing tool. It does all of that. From the point of view of understanding the logical structure of things being able to derive the mathematical basis of a recipe was a more intriguing project idea than designing a spreadsheet no matter how useful. The idea was to develop a kitchen recipe calculator that does for cooks what The Unabaker’s Master Formula Calculator does for bread bakers.

The initial inspiration for creating The Recipe Recording Template was to create a format to write, and record recipes I cook at home, and to be able to easily convert all of my old handwritten (circa 1979) Pastry Shop recipes from commercial production yields to realistic small batch quantities suitable for home preparation. I don’t need 4 gallons of Crème Pâtissière, I need one liter. I never make 150 crepes, I make 10. I would never dream of making 20kg of pie dough at home, I dream only of 1kg. The recipes need to re-scaled to produce much less. Re-scaling recipes to match daily production needs is a regular feature of life in kitchens. Doing these kinds of mathematical calculations in your head, or by using a pocket calculator, and an appropriate multiplier takes time, and it’s error prone. The Recipe Recording Template v1 does this very simply. “Formula” is a more precise word than recipe, but it’s the same thing. 

If instead of creating hand-written formulae as I did in 1979, or in a simple computer file, you write them using the Recipe Recording Template, then besides being a permanent record kept in an organized file, the calculator derives other useful information about the recipe. The Cook’s Percentages of each ingredient is an example of such. The calculator auto-fills these percentages in a column in the recipe table, and then uses them in a linked Re-Scaling table that makes for instantaneous, and error free updates to the desired yield. With a single click, and a revised entry for the recipe yield desired, the calculator immediately updates all ingredient quantities, without error, to produce the revised amount.

What is a recipe?

There’s more to a recipe than meets the eye. There’s an unseen mathematical framework for any recipe. If you write down what you do when you make Pork Green Chili, you’ll have a list of all the ingredients used, how much of each, and a given methodology for what to do with the stuff. If you do this, you’ve written a recipe. That’s the common sense understanding of “recipe”, which is true enough, but not enough. This understanding has limited practical ramifications. If you have a way to analyze the Pork Green Chili recipe to determine what are the ratios of each ingredient to the whole, you can understand it more clearly. You can also analyze any other recipe by entering it in the calculator. Obviously, it’s useful to keep a record of recipes from great Chefs, and other reliable sources. The calculator is a way to organize, and store these things. Determining ingredient ratios is a very easy calculation, but cooks don’t do such stuff, and few understand the word “recipe” in these terms. Ratios exist, but they aren’t specified. For the most part cook’s don’t even think about it. They know about ingredient balance, and understand the concept of ratios of course, but not what can be done with the actual ratios if calculated. That’s why a Reverse Engineering calculator hasn’t been invented before.

Cook’s Percetages

These ratios are what The Unabaker calls “Cook’s Percentages”, and to be precise, the answer to the question is: a recipe is its mathematical structure, viz. the ingredient ratios expressed as percentages of the whole. A recipe is its Cook’s Percentages. Just as Baker’s Percentages are the mathematical framework for bread formulae, Cook’s Percentages are the same for all other recipes. By this definition, given a list of ingredients, and a Cook’s % value stipulated for each, you’ve written a recipe. Ingredient weights are derivative data, determined by comparing its Cook’s % to the total weight of the formula. It’s a simple equation.

Ingredient weight = Total Formula Weight x Ingredient Cook’s Percentage

Methodological notes are obviously a practical necessity, but when we talk about a recipe, it’s really talk about a “formula”. Methodological notes are words. Formulae are written in symbols. The cook’s formula is the ratios of an array of stipulated ingredients to the whole. The formula consists of the Cook’s Percentage of each ingredient added together to equal the Total Formula Cook’s Percentage (which is always 100%). If a stipulated Total Formula Weight is given, then the formula can be applied to derive all the individual ingredient weights. 

Methodology simply informs the cook about mixing and handling. Often the “methodology” isn’t necessary to express. All of my old Pastry Shop recipes are simply lists of ingredients, the corresponding quantities specified, and a stated yield. “Yield” in a very casual sense means how many portions it makes. This is how my Pastry Shop formulae expressed the concept of yield. The Cheesecake formula makes seven 10” cakes. Experience, and repetition, teaches the aspiring pastry cook what to do with this basic data.

As a mathematical fact, any change to any of the ingredient ratios, by which I mean the ingredient’s Cook’s % value, produces a completely new recipe. The change may seem slight, but all of the other ingredient ratios update to reflect a change made to the single ingredient. The same thing does not occur if any one of the ingredient quantities is changed. No other ingredient quantities change. Only the recipe yield changes. On the other hand, a singular edit to any ingredient Cook’s % value changes all the other ingredient Cook’s % values. Why does it do so? Because the Total Formula Cook’s Percentages must add up to 100%. “Cook’s Percentage” means an ingredient’s percentage of the whole. The whole is 100%. It’s clear that the ratios of ingredients in a recipe, i.e. their Cook’s Percentages are the formula. Any change to an ingredient ratio in the Pork Green Chili recipe, no matter how slight, amounts to a new formula for Pork Green Chili. You have written a new recipe. 

This sort of incremental tweaking of ingredients is a natural part of what happens after a recipe is written. The cook carefully prepares the mise en place for the recipe, then tests the recipe by cooking it up. This is called a “cook test”. One makes notes of any changes to ingredients, time, and temperatures made during the test. After which, the cook updates the recipe by revising the affected variables in the calculator table. If the Chef is satisfied, the updated recipe is entered into the Kitchen Guide.

The actual ingredients list, and the quantities of ingredients used to make Pork Green Chili are flexible, reflecting a cook’s style, and preferences, or whim. If you change ingredient quantities, but retain the ratios of each to the other, you’ve not changed the recipe, you’ve simply changed the yield. To change a recipe, you have to change the ratios of ingredients, or change the list of ingredients, or both. Ratios are the mathematical superstructure of a recipe. Ratios are recipe logic.

Why are Baker’s Percentages vital, but understanding Cook’s Percentages is not?

The difference between the recipes cooks use, and bread formulae that baker’s use is there’s greater leeway for a cook to adjust the ratios of recipe ingredients without fundamentally changing the resulting product, and most importantly, ratios of ingredients can be changed during the cooking process. In fact, adjusting the ratios during cooking is advisable methodology. Taste it as it cooks, add more of the critical ingredients as deemed necessary, not all at once to start. This is why “salt to taste” is a common proviso. Such in-process tinkering is not the case for most baked pastry items, and never for bread once in the oven. The formula must be properly assembled prior to baking. You don’t get a Mulligan. There’s a little bit of truth in the statement “baking is Science, cooking is Art”. 

Regional variations of the same preparation illustrate this. Individual cooks might play with the ingredients list, but a Pork Green Chili is still Pork Green Chili even if there’s more or less pork, this or that pork muscle is used, more or less garlic and chili, or more or less of one herb or another. Whether or not the pork is seared prior to stewing, it’s still Pork Green Chili. What liquid is used depends on local customs, a recipe cost target, and the cook’s creative whim. Indeed, a cook might make the same preparation somewhat differently from one day to the next. “Hey Y’all, I’m making my Green Chili using Tecate beer today, and a wild piglet that Uncle Jimmy came home with, and I’m gonna finish it with a whack of Cilantro Chutney. Come on by”. That is exactly why cooking is interesting. A cook has this leeway, plus the intrigue, and fun of the “in-process” level of steering the product along. For the baker it’s a different sort of interest. There’s science, and there’s understanding the various process phenomena that take place during the mixing, fabrication and baking stages (especially for bread), and the need to be precise breeds a sense of focus that’s inseparable from life in the bake shop. The final product depends on what goes on in the oven. These are the process phenomenon I described at length in my Meditations On Baking previously posted to this blog. It’s interesting stuff. It’s science. Did you know that the geometric configurations of a baked item affects how it bakes? Of course it does. If you want to know why, check out the article. 

Just because you do not need to think about, or even know that such things as Cook’s Percentages exist to cook well, this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t know how they can be utilized. Understanding the mathematical structure of a recipe means you can use it productively. The time wasting, often error prone process of doing recipe yield re-scaling is eliminated. As noted above, it was a prime cause for developing the recipe writing tool you are reading about.

Cook’s Percentages Explained - The Mathematical Basis for both Calculators

Akin to Baker’s Math, and Baker’s Percentages in that it forms the logical structure of the recipe, The Recipe Recording Template v1 uses what I call Cook’s Percentages. Unlike bread formulae, kitchen recipes have no single formula basis such as flour serves for Baker’s Math. In Baker’s Math, the ingredient weights are calculated with reference to the total weight of flour used. Baker’s Percentages for all ingredients are an expression of the ratio between the ingredient weight, and the total weight of flour used. Bread formulae proceed from stipulated Baker’s Percentages for all ingredients to derive the weights for all ingredients. Baker’s do not ordinarily write recipes using ingredient weights, they can do, but usually they use Baker’s Percentages. By stipulating a Total Dough Weight desired, the individual ingredient weights can be derived. 

In Cook’s Math, the Cook’s Percentage for an ingredient is the ratio that the ingredient represents as a portion of the whole formula. There’s no reference to any other ingredient to determine the value. Each ingredient is expressed as a certain percentage of the whole. Each would be a slice of pie in a Pie Chart. The total of all ingredient Cook’s Percentages equals the Total Formula Cook’s Percentage. This total is reported at the bottom of the column titled Cook’s %. Unlike Baker’s Math, and Baker’s Percentages, the Total Formula Cook’s Percentage always adds up to 100%, never more, never less. In Baker’s Math the Total Formula Baker’s Percentage always adds up to more than 100%. This is the singular feature that differentiates Baker’s Math from Cook’s Math. All of the values for ingredient Cook’s %, and the Total Formula Cook % are calculated automatically by the Kitchen Formula Calculator. It is impossible for a recipe entered in the Kitchen Formula Calculator (or RCTv1) not to total 100% at the bottom of the Cook’s % column.

The values for each ingredient Cook’s Percentage is derived based upon the ingredient’s weight compared to the Total Formula Weight. The calculator figures out the values of each ingredient’s Cook’s Percentage using a simple formula that is part of the embedded spreadsheet calculating formulae.

Ingredient Weight ÷ Total Formula Weight = Ingredient Cook’s %

(given 625 grams water and 1000 grams total formula weight, the Cook’s % of water = 62.5%)

The inspiration for Cook’s Percentages was food product labeling, simply adapted to become a calculating tool, a recipe writing/recording tool, a re-scaling tool, and an analytical tool that mimics the design, and layout of The Unabaker’s Master Formula Calculator for bread crafting. Product labeling specifies the product’s Cook’s Percentages, but without naming it as such. I was inspired to design the calculator to solve the recurring inconvenience every time I wanted to make something from my old Pastry Shop recipe guide. It’s an inconvenience that occurs regularly in all kitchens. I wanted to re-scale my production volume recipes to smaller batches for realistic home baking needs. I already understood that a mathematical basis for recipes akin to Baker’s Percentages exists in the form of ratios for any recipe. It’s a fact of life for Bread crafters, but isn’t as evident in kitchen recipes. I made up the concept “Cook’s Percentages” and designed the Kitchen Formula Calculator to make clear what are the ratios in any recipe, and in order to create a mathematical basis to make re-scaling a recipe easy.

Why are there two very similar calculators?

The two are actually not just similar, they are identical, but have been set up a bit differently to perform two different functions. They differ only by intended use. The calculators have to be set up as separate files, then tabs are created in the files to record recipes. The Kitchen Formula Calculator creates a system for Chef’s to use to organize their menu mise en place and recipe data. The tab would be titled something like Winter Bar Menu 2006, or Pool Grill Menu Summer 1989. My records contain both. Each Chef has different tab titles that represent what the current operation encompasses, and ideally all other menus ever written at any establishment Chef worked. Each tab contains all the relevant information for one menu. The menu, menu plate descriptions (aka mise en place), all recipes required, the inventory list required to produce it, plus detailed costings for all ingredients, recipes, plates, and the menu itself. There might be more depending on the Chef. 

When a menu is written, a package of information must be created as a handout for the staff. The staff practices prepping and cooking the repertoire. Each station in the kitchen receives a packet that includes a copy of the menu, and the station’s responsibilities, i.e. which items on the menu will be produced, and finish-cooked to order at that station. The packet will include the required mise en place for each menu item, along with the recipes required to produce each item. One page of the packet will list all the menu items from the station, and the mise en place for each, and the remainder of the packet will be several pages of recipes organized according to the menu items they relate to. 

Constructing this information is the main point of focus for the Kitchen Formula Calculator. This version of the tool is set up so that the recipes required to produce each menu item can appear together. Each menu item’s recipes can be found on one tab of the worksheet file. The Kitchen Formula Calculator is set up, and the file is titled accordingly. Separate tabs are created for each menu item. The Kitchen Formula Calculator template is then duplicated in each tab. After creating a dupe, the tab is titled according to the name of the menu item, Pork Green Chili. Recipes are entered on the duplicates, preserving the template. A home cook could use this calculator, but the Recipe Category Template is a better choice because of the way it’s designed to be used. 

The Recipe Recording Template was made necessary because most households don’t do menu writing, and don’t hand out packets of menu responsibilities to the inhabitants. Home cooks just need a convenient place to write or record recipes, and to categorize them so they are easy to find when needed. The Recipe Recording Template allows the user to organize recipe entries by category. It’s exactly the same thing as the Kitchen Formula Calculator, but instead of titling tabs to enter a Chef’s menu data, the tabs are titled by type of recipe. The Kitchen Formula Calculator has professional kitchen utility. The Recipe Recording Template has a more home cook appeal, but can also be used by Chefs to bring order to a repertoire of recipes that vastly eclipses the home cook’s. Since they are otherwise identical, understanding how to use either one, means you also understand the other. Set up the Recipe Recording Template on a separate spreadsheet file, then set up tabs titled by category.

What exactly does a Kitchen Formula Calculator do? 

The KFCv4 was designed to be a Chef’s tool for writing, recording, testing, developing, and recipe costing. By duplicating the template on successive tabs, a single menu item’s recipes (and their sub-recipes) can be written and recorded. It is an error free method of doing the work, and it’s simple to use. The tool itself is accurate to whatever increment of grams (or imperial measure) you want. Besides its advantage for writing new recipes, or recording ones already in hand, it was designed to flawlessly, and instantaneously upscale or downscale the yield of any recipe entered. This is one of its most useful features. Revising recipes to produce more or less than it does is something that happens in every kitchen regularly. The Kitchen Formula Calculator and its offshoot, the RCT, do it with a single bit of data input required. The required data input is whatever the new recipe yield (Total Formula Weight) is desired to be. One entry and click, the entire recipe updates with new ingredient quantities.

How Does the Kitchen Formula Calculator (and RCTv1) work?

The user enters data for ingredients, and ingredient weights into two side by side columns of the recipe table. There’s also a column to enter a recipe if it’s written using volume measures, but volume measures must be converted to gram weights. The calculators demand weights, not volumes, Specifically, metric weights (grams) are required. There’s no way to utilize a volume to perform calculations. There’s more about this in the next section. Once the user has entered the ingredients list, and their gram weights, the calculator calculates the ingredient Cook’s Percentages. The calculator continuously updates. With every new piece of data entered for an ingredient weight, the entire table updates. The values for ingredient cook’s percentage change with every new data entry. When all ingredient weight data has been entered, the final values of each ingredient Cook’s Percentage are displayed. 

Column totals for Total Formula Grams, and Total Formula Cook’s Percentage are tabulated at the bottom of the respective columns. The Total Formula Grams, is auto-filled into the cell in the upper left corner of the table that is titled Total Formula Weight. TFW is the formula yield. It’s a number of grams. All of the data, and calculated values from the recipe table are auto-filled into the subsequent tables used to Re-Scale, Re-Formulate, or to perform Recipe Costing. Very little other work is required of the user. For Re-scaling the recipe yield, simply enter in the desired new weight in the Total Formula Weight cell. Everything is immediately updated to display all ingredient weight changes. To Re-Formulate a recipe simply write in whatever new gram weights of ingredients you want, and to add or delete ingredients, just type over the auto-filled ingredients list.

Why use metric weights?

Kitchen recipes are commonly written using volume measures, or weight measures, or a combination of both. This is so in America with standard measures, in the UK with imperial measures, and in all other places that use the metric system. Only metric weights are used by the calculators I designed. The calculators have columns which automatically convert grams to ounces, but the ounce column is not used in calculating formulae. Metric volume measures must be converted to the equivalent gram weight. By using gram weights for ingredients, Cook’s Percentages can be divined. Grams are very small creatures, 28.35 gram = 1 ounce. This makes measuring precise. And recipe costing, if you have to do it, is easier. Not easy, but easier.

I will not rehash the lengthy article I’ve written about why things based on the numbers 1, 10, 100, and 1000 make better sense than things based on the numbers 16 for weights, or 12, 36, 1,760 or 5,280 for distances, or why there need be 16 tablespoons, or 48 of teaspoons to fill a cup. This seems an obvious choice. Nevertheless, digital scales have been invented that enable the cook to convert ounces and pounds to grams with just the push of a button. If you are a cook, you need a scale. All cooks need scales. Chefs use scales. Be like Chef! Get one! They’re cheap.

With this in mind, The Kitchen Formula Calculator, and its Recipe Recording Template iteration proceed from the specified gram weights of ingredients to derive the Cook’s Percentages for each ingredient. Recipes entered using any volume measures need to be converted to weights. If volume measures are used, as is often the case, then an ingredient volume to weight conversion table has to be referenced. The Unabaker has created such a table, but there are others on the web that are more extensive. 

Many cooks might simply use the calculator to record recipes using the ingredient volume measures plus weights that still typify most recipe writing, and that’s fine. It really is up to the user, but doing so sacrifices one of the calculators features, viz being able to re-scale the recipe very pain free. It takes some work, but it’s better to convert any standard or imperial measures to a value of metric weight. For example, when you are preparing the recipe ingredients according to quantities required, you put the teaspoon full of whatever it is, or the tablespoon, cup or quart of it into a receptacle on a digital scale that has been zeroed to eliminate the weight of the receptacle, and then mode set the scale for grams. The scale reports the gram weight of the ingredients in the receptacle. Note the gram weight. Enter it into the calculator table, and that’s how you eventually develop an ingredient conversion table. Metaphysical measures such as pinches can be guesstimated (or ignored), but list the ingredient in the table, and don’t forget to pinch it for adding to the recipe mix. 

There is a column to enter volume measures, if any, for each ingredient, and one for the converted values in grams. Once this is done, using the Re-Scaling calculator, the cook can easily, instantaneously, and automatically adjust the recipe yield as desired depending on perceived needs.

The Design & Function of The Recipe Recording Template v1

It’s important to note that the tables contain color, and grey-filled cells, and other cells that remain white. White cells are for the user to enter data. Color, and grey-filled cells contain the formulae that do the calculations. The color and grey-filled cells are where the calculated results are displayed when data entry is performed. Never enter data into these cells. If you do, then simply go to the menu bar, click Edit, then click “undo” as many times as necessary to recover. Note also that there are short notes attached to each table next to to the Total Formula Weight cell (in the upper left of the table) that explain what sort of things each table is designed to do.

The Recipe Recording Template v1 is used to record recipes that constitute members of a category on a single worksheet tab. Each tab is titled to indicate the category such as Soups, Sauces, Chutneys, Cold Desserts, Fruit Desserts, Baked Desserts etc. The KFCv4 and the RRTv1 can be used for any type of recipe except breads. For that you need to use The Unabaker’s Master Formula Calculator. The Recipe Category Template is specifically designed to organize recipes by type; anything not bread.

It is up to the user to determine what categories are needed in order to properly organize, and keep readily at hand the user’s entire collection of recipes. Instead of having a recipe file with dozens, maybe hundreds, or in the case of a professional Chef’s career, thousands of tabs with single recipes, the RCTv1 consists of category tabs that collate entire sets of recipes for similar type preparations, and puts it in one place. The worksheet can be easily edited. The user sets up categories that make sense for his needs. As the numbers of category tabs increases, these can be shifted around alphabetically. Scrolling within a category tab to find what you’re looking for is simple.

The actual layout of the RCTv1 is exactly the same as that for the KFCv4. It consists of three blank recipe writing tables, and one recipe costing table that appear side by side from left to right across the page. The tables are interconnected. Enter data in the first table, and most of the data is auto-filled into the other three tables. The tables are titled Reverse Engineering Calculator, Re-Scaling Calculator, Reformulation Calculator, and Recipe Cost Calculator. The tables each feature 16 ingredient lines, enough for even complex recipes. You can easily add more ingredient lines to a table by adding rows if necessary. Unused, unnecessary rows can be hidden to neatly tailor the look of the table. The recipe cost table is something most home cooks will never use. If so, the entire table can be hidden by hiding the columns it resides within.

The Reverse Engineering table is the first table, and it’s where a user either writes a recipe from scratch, or records a recipe already in their collection. Oftentimes, a recipe entered into the Reverse Engineering table has been tested, and known to work, so the only other thing to do might be to re-scale it to produce more or less total yield as needs change. “Reverse Engineering” simply means that the Cook’s Percentages are unknown, but they can be derived from data that the user types into this table. It is a term that makes better sense in the bread formula calculator, but I use it here to preserve lexicological parsimony. In the next section I explain in a little greater detail what’s meant by Reverse Engineering. Anyone familiar with The Unabaker’s Master Formula Calculator will see the similarities in design, graphical layout and function. 

Next to the Reverse Engineering table is the Re-Scaling table. It’s very simple to use because all of the data required in all the cells of this table is auto-filled from what’s been entered into the Reverse Engineering table. The Re-Scaling table allows the user to instantaneously upscale or downscale the yield for the recipe that has been entered in the Reverse Engineering table. Simply enter a new Total Formula Weight.

Next, there is a Reformulation table which enables the user to make whatever tweaks to the ingredients list, or to ingredient weights as desired once a recipe is prepared, tested and tasted. It can also be used simply to round up, or round down gram weights. This table is useful for recipe development, and for cook tests of a recipe under development. Both home cooks, and professionals do this every time they first use a recipe, whether it’s one they wrote, or one they found in another source. “I like The Unabaker’s Brownie recipe, but I think it needs more cocoa, a bit less sugar, maybe a tad more vanilla”. So be it.

Finally, there’s the Recipe Costing table. This is a necessary table for professional chefs, but not for home cooks. The table only requires that the ingredient costs per gram be entered, but to do that the user has to actually do costings of the ingredients. Ingredient costing is a step that is not provided for in the current iteration of the calculators. It can be done separately, the results simply reported in the Recipe Costing table. To do recipe costing is a pain in every Chef’s neck. It goes as follows. A 10kg case of Roma tomatoes is purchased for $18.00. This is known as Basic Unit Cost. The recipe requires 2 tablespoons of diced Roma tomatoes. To calculate what is the cost of 2 tablespoons, a conversion is required. One does not convert 10kg to tablespoons, one converts tablespoons to grams. Immediately, it’s apparent why writing recipes in gram weights is a better habit. Namely, you don’t have to do conversions to do costings. 

Suppose 2 tablespoons of diced Roma tomatoes has been weighed, and determined to be 30 grams. The ingredient costing is done using the following formula:  

(Ingredient Weight ÷ Unit Weight) x Unit Cost = Ingredient Cost 

(30 grams ÷ 10,000 grams) x $18.00 = $0.054)

This is repeated again and again and again for every ingredient measure in every recipe. It is not a simple task. Most chef’s don’t attend to it accurately, and there’s no real reason for a home cook to do it under normal circumstances except maybe to convince your mom to stop buying cheap meat. I will not describe how to do that here. 

Keep in mind that 10kg of tomatoes is the Basic Unit Weight prior to processing. Is the tomato peeled prior to use as an ingredient? Is it seeded? Is it peeled and seeded? Is it roughly chopped, or pureed? Recipes call for various versions of processing prior use. There’s also waste factor that has to be accounted for. Maybe not every tomato in the box could be used. It turns out that the Basic Unit Cost of Roma tomatoes is not $1.80 per kilo, it’s $2.00 or more. This is the actual unit cost. The point is that recipe costing is a headache. Having a very easy to use table to calculate ingredient and recipe costs is the least we can do to help. The most we can do would be to hire someone else to do it. 

Together the four tables comprise, an error free calculating tool. The idea is for a user to repeatedly duplicate the Recipe Category Template on as many new tabs as there are numbers of categories. Each cook will have a different idea about what categories are set up. Once a category tab has been set up, the user can begin entering recipes of that type. The template has been initially designed to be able to write/record five recipes on each tab. It can be easily expanded to write as many more per tab as the user’s needs may require. Simply copy/paste the tables into rows below every time you need to add another recipe to the category. 

What is Reverse Engineering?

As noted, it simply means that the ingredient ratios are unknown, but they can be derived from data that the user types into this table. This makes more sense for the bread calculator because bread formulae are most of the time conceived and written starting from baker’s percentages for each ingredient to derive ingredient weights. Why then is there a Reverse Engineering table in The Unabaker’s Master Formula Calculator? Often times a baker comes across a bread formula that looks really good, and wants to try it, but the writer of that formula wrote it incompletely, giving only ingredient weights. This is very common, even in some cookbooks. So, the RE table in that calculator can “reverse engineer” the Baker’s Percentages by entering the ingredient weights given in the incompletely written bread formula. The calculator figures out the ingredient Baker’s % values based on weights entered.

Normally, the work flow of a bread formula goes from the ingredient Baker’s % to ingredient weight values. Reverse Engineering means you reverse the flow of the calculation from ingredient weights to ingredient Baker’s % values. The Unabaker’s Master Formula Calculator thoughtfully created this unique way of translating incomplete recipes found in many sources, and converting them into formulae that make sense for bakers. This is an innovation that had not existed until The Unabaker came along.

That’s all well and good, but the fact is that kitchen recipes, never ever rely on Cook’s Percentages to figure out ingredient weights. Recipes other than for bread are always written using volumes, and/or weights, or combinations of both. No ratios need apply. So why is there a Reverse Engineering table in the Kitchen Formula Calculator? I could have given it another name like Recipe Writing table (that’s precisely what it’s for), ignored the mathematical framework of the recipe, and simply designed the Kitchen Formula Calculator and the RCTv1 as another handy recipe writing and recording tool. However, as noted, The Unabaker wanted to be able to see the mathematical framework of a recipe, both for the logical understanding, and appreciation of that, but also for a very simple practical purpose, to be able to re-scale any recipe flawlessly, and instantaneously. To do that, the ingredient ratios that exist like a shy child behind the recipe had to be made to come out and play. The Reverse Engineering table in the Kitchen Formula Calculator does so. Unlike the baker, no cook will ever write a recipe that begins by specific Cook’s Percentages to derive ingredient weights. Nevertheless, these ratios have a valid application.

The way The Unabaker wrote the formulae that power all of his calculators is one way of doing it. I could have done it otherwise. This is mathematics, so there are mathematically equivalent ways of arriving at the same result. What was chosen was the simplest mathematics. Spreadsheets are not rocket science. The formulae for doing most recipe calculations are not complex. The Unabaker’s Master Formula Calculator had already been designed, and refined over the past 20 years, and the lexicon it uses evolved along with it as well. It seemed obvious to make the new Kitchen Formula Calculator, and now the Recipe Catalogue iteration follow a very clear, and well-developed format, employing the same lexicon, even if, in the case of “reverse engineering”, it’s not perfectly appropriate. The rare cooks and bakers that stumble upon this work, and become familiar with all of the calculators would understand the value of logical, and linguistic symmetry.

Why these Calculators? Why Should I use them?

A professional kitchen guide (aka Kitchen Bible) is the basic recipe reference used by professional chefs in their kitchens. The Kitchen Formula Calculator, and the Recipe Category system presented here is a very useful and organized way to assemble such a guide. Home cooks do the same thing, but with typically less rigor. A kitchen drawer full of clippings, a binder of stuff, a box of index cards, napkin jottings, computer files, bookmarked links to various website resources, archived emails and WhatsApp chats etc. All cooks face the same issue which at some point becomes an organizational task, usually neglected, to keep things straight and readily at hand. The organizational idea behind all of The Unabaker’s formula writing tools is to create one standard format for writing or recording recipes. Tabs can be created for as many categories as needed for one’s kitchen operation: soups, sauces, dips, pickles, breading, fish, meat, 2024, party ideas, mom’s recipes, kitty cat, etc, and the same goes for the many different categories of pastry production. As many categories as desired can be set up quite simply.

An example of how and why to use the calculator tools is the ongoing task of converting my entire Pastry Shop recipe guide which I’ve used, and added to over the past 45 years. Those recipes were written using a mix of weights, and volume measures, typical of American kitchens: teaspoons, tablespoons, cups, quarts, ounces and pounds. The recipes are written to yield large production quantities of the products. I still use many of these recipes. I know them well, and they are reliable, but every time I do so, I must convert the yield from 10 pies, or cakes, or batter enough for 150 crepes etc to realistic home needs. This is what made me start to think how to design a calculator that would do this quickly, and accurately, and to store the work for use again. I came up with the Kitchen Formula Calculator, and the concept of Cook’s Percentages to make it work.

The process of inputting the original big yield recipes into my Reverse Engineering calculator, and then using the Re-Scaling table to revise the yield to produce just enough for a single 8” cheesecake became simple. There are too many recipes in my old Pastry Shop guide to want to sit down, and do data entry endlessly. Instead, I do it as the urge to make something from that guidebook strikes, and it takes only a few minutes to do it. After which I can re-scale the original to something more realistic for home baking purposes.

How is the Recipe Category v1 template used?

Use the Recipe Category Template by duplicating it on a new tab. Do not input data into the template itself. Duplicate it, then enter data into the dupe. Rename the duplicate tab whatever is the category of recipes intended. Soups, Stocks, Cream Desserts, Baked Desserts, Fish, Meat, Chutney etc etc. The RCTv1 functions the same as the Kitchen Formula Calculator, but it allows for many recipes to be recorded on one tab by copy/pasting the calculator table into new rows added to the worksheet, as many times as necessary to provide a blank table for every recipe you desire to write or to record. Initially, the RCT v1 has been set up with five recipe tables, but it’s easily expandable. 

How is it set up?

The Recipe Category Template v1 is precisely the same layout as the Kitchen Formula Calculator v4 from which it is derived. There are four separate tables entered on columns across the sheet. From left to right these are: the Reverse Engineering Calculator, the Re-Scaling Calculator, the Reformulation Calculator, and the Recipe Costing Calculator. 

Use the Reverse Engineering table to write a new recipe from scratch, or to record a recipe already in use, or gleaned from some outside source. There is a special column in the Reverse Engineering table so that the recipe entered can be written using volume measurements. This is for convenience, but the calculator only works based on the gram weights of ingredients. Therefore, it requires volume measures to be converted to grams. A standard conversion table can be referenced to do so, or it’s easy to start your own reference.

The Re-Scaling table is used to scale up or down the total yield (always expressed as Total Formula Weight). Once a recipe is entered in the Reverse Engineering table, all of the data entered there auto-fills in the corresponding cells in the Re-Scaling table. You don’t have to repeat typing in ingredients, gram weights, or their Cook’s Percentages. There’s only one cell that needs data input. The user simply changes the Total Formula Weight value in that cell, and the entire recipe auto-updates based upon that change. This is handy for altering recipes that you’ve already tested, and are known to work satisfactorily. You simply desire to make more or less of it on a case by case basis.

What if you have written a new recipe from scratch, or input a recipe that looks interesting, gleaned from some outside source, but which you haven’t yet tested? In this case, once that recipe is used and tested, the cook can gauge whether it’s satisfactory as is, or some adjustments need be made, either in quantities of an ingredient, or to the ingredients list to dial it in. After which updates are entered, it is retested. Just like the Re-Scaling table, the most cells in the Reformulation table auto-fill based upon data entered in the Reverse Engineering table. The ingredients, and their Cook’s Percentages auto-fill, but in this table, not their weights. I normally just copy/paste the column of ingredient weights from the Reverse Engineering table into the Reformulation table, then type in any new ingredient weights desired, and type over the auto-filled ingredient names as necessary to make changes to these. You can use the Reformulation table over and over to conduct enough cook tests of a recipe until it’s finally deemed acceptable.

Summary

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Take a look at all the calculating tables again. Note how they look almost identical, and note how little, and where they differ. The Re-Scaling table has all of the exact same data displayed in all of its cells, as the Reverse Engineering table, except for one cell, namely the Total Formula Weight. The Reformulation table has the exact same layout as the previous two tables, and it looks just like the Reverse Engineering table. The Total Formula Weight in both tables is an auto-calculated value, and both leave the ingredient gram weight columns blank for data entry. When you copy/paste the ingredient gram weights column of the Reverse Engineering table into the corresponding column in the Reformulation table, it will look precisely the same as the Reverse Engineering table. The user can proceed to revise as many ingredient weights as desired (in the Reformulation table), and/or type over the ingredient names to add, or delete different ingredients. With every edit, the Reformulation table updates accordingly. 

Note that the Recipe Costing table is also very similar, but because it has a very specific task to perform, appropriate columns, and calculating formulae apply. The Recipe Costing table is a feature for Chef’s, and requires the Chef to perform separate calculations for each ingredient. The home cook will likely never use it except as a matter of interest to see how it works. 

The v4 in the name of the Kitchen Formula Calculator indicates that it has been evolved from three previous iterations. It took me a few to get to what I wanted it to be, and to do. I do not see any changes necessary at this point. The Recipe Calculator Template v1 is a simple augmentation of the KFC v4. It took me a few years before I got tired of not having my recipes categorized. What remains for me is the ongoing task to add my recipes to category tabs. I can do it at my leisure as I use a recipe, or what's more likely given my habits, I’ll sit down one week and get it all done, then never have to scroll through hundreds of tabs to find the one I need.