More cookbooks go digital, but popularity of paper persists

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Apache

For baking I always use my digital scale. Most baking recipes require exact measurements or you end up with problems.
For other cooking I can change things as I wish.
Apache

That's where my remark about weighing out flour exactly came from, but with me it's bread making. Even a small error in weighing out the flour makes it too dry or too wet. I'm sure that people with more experience can tell by the feel of the dough whether or not it's right, but I'm not that good.

[5thWiggle]

I weigh the flour the first time I make a new style of bread, or if I'm using the bread machine. After the first time, I know the consistency I'm want the dough to be.

What I can't ever seem to judge by consistency is pie crust. I make it so flakey it disintegrates if you breathe on it, or so tough you can roof your house with it. There is no inbetween.

[pmcnz]

Yes, a cup varies depending on which country you are in.
Examples: an English cup is 250 milli-litres (ml) and a USAcup is around 200 milli-litres (litre = liter)
an Australian tablespoon = 20 ml while an English tablespoon = 15 ml
Cheers

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by 5thWiggle

I weigh the flour the first time I make a new style of bread, or if I'm using the bread machine. After the first time, I know the consistency I'm want the dough to be.

What I can't ever seem to judge by consistency is pie crust. I make it so flakey it disintegrates if you breathe on it, or so tough you can roof your house with it. There is no inbetween.

Do you use real butter? The type of fat you use can really make a difference. If you use whole wheat flour, you need more butter (maybe a tablespoon). Some recipes call for a tablespoon or two of hot water. Generally speaking, that is a "save" technique for me when I can get the dough to stick to itself properly and often results in roofing material.

[rxmom03]

Originally Posted by HarryT

As a matter of curiosity, do people who cook in the US generally own a set of scales? I have a digital balance that I use pretty much every time I cook, but American recipes rarely if ever seem to use weights - it's all volumes.

I have a set of scales but use it more when I am trying to watch portions, or if I am trying to be more exact about the amount of meat I am putting in a recipe. If I baked more (I haven't made bread in years) I would probably try the recipes with metric weights.

I'm a pharmacist so at work I am very exact (and with metric, so I am used to that), but while cooking I am all about "Oh, this looks close enough".

Mary

[AnotherCat]

Originally Posted by HarryT

That's where my remark about weighing out flour exactly came from, but with me it's bread making. Even a small error in weighing out the flour makes it too dry or too wet. I'm sure that people with more experience can tell by the feel of the dough whether or not it's right, but I'm not that good.

I don't know of any application, not that I have looked, but I wonder how reliable and how complex such an application would be if it were to be able to extract quantities out of a text recipe and convert them to another measurement system?

For myself I just convert using a table for descriptive measures such as cups, tablespoons, etc; for volumes and weights (although weights are uncommon in USA recipes) I just use a conversion application (normally my phone's one). But in the end for most recipes the volumes are not critical, of course, so almost always I just do a lot of rounding or just do a straight substitution e.g. US cups, tablespoons, etc. just become local metric cups, tablespoons, etc. and everything works out.

For bread (and I confess most of our bread these days is now made in a bread-maker as it is so convenient) the only thing I convert accurately are flour and water whose importance you mention, but doing so is not much of a chore. In the end I regard the result as only a guide as I keep in mind that just because the recipe nominates quantities for flour and water it is likely they will not apply to my own local flour and even differing local brands, so some judgement is required anyway (in bread-makers I check the dough consistency after the first mix, for example) and that only comes from some trial and error, and experience.

For bread, as an example of near enough is good enough, everything else is of no real importance and I just guess or pretty much adjust as I like. So for example for butter (and your mention of "stick") I may just use another fat and never measure it accurately. For example a "stick" is somewhat over 100g but I just lop off 100g or what looks like a bit more-butter here comes in packs marked with 50g marks, but if the butter is no longer in the pack I just guess.

With respect to the water and dry ingredients mix in bread if I throw in some extra dry ingredients such as pumpkin, sunflower or caraway seeds (the latter we find nice in wholemeal bread, for example) I don't adjust the water, but if adding off my own bat bran or wheatgerm, say, as a substitute for some of the flour I then know I will likely have to adjust the water due to the differing absorption of the substitute. The same approach for specialty loaves and those that have fruits, etc. in them such as malt loaves (for which when using small quantities of wet ingredients such as malt or syrup any deviation from the recipe's exact quantity through "guessing" is of little consequence to the total mix).

I know that has not answered your question, but it may give you some thoughts for an alternative approach. Rounding all that up, it is very rare that the ingredients in a recipe have to be anything close to exact and just substituting local cups for US cups, etc. will almost always do fine. And where the quantities are important, such as for water and flour in bread, the quantities in the recipe are only a guide as the actual quantities needed will depend on ones local flour and so requires some judgment of the actual mix consistency and a trial anyway.
_____________

Getting back to the thread topic. We have a big collection of cookbooks collected over 40 or so years but the recipes from those that we use most are digitised. When one gets down to it, it is usual that only a few recipes from any one book will be ever used more than once,

Recipes from the internet that I think may be of interest I just paste into MSOneNote, those that become worthy of trying I just printout to use in the kitchen, and then if they pass the test of trying and reuse I then just paste the recipe from OneNote into an MSWord recipe "book" of our most used recipes.

If the recipe is in a paper cook book and becomes a favourite I just type it into the Word recipe "book" if not too long, or else OCR it and tidy it up to go in the same.

As some other say they do, the recipes most used are printed out and go into plastic sleeves in a folder for day to day use. I see more and more kitchens with a notebook or tablet in them though, but not ours.

John

[5thWiggle]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

Do you use real butter? The type of fat you use can really make a difference. If you use whole wheat flour, you need more butter (maybe a tablespoon). Some recipes call foimperviousablespoon or two of hot water. Generally speaking, that is a "save" technique for me when I can get the dough to stick to itself properly and often results in roofing material.

I either underwork it or overwork it, I have no middle ground. My mother could judge with her fingertips when pastry was perfect, but I could never get the knack, possibly due to calluses (my hands are also semi-impervious to heat - my wife swears I don't need oven mitts).

My latest pastry recipe is below:

[BearMountainBooks]

Re: US -- most people I know do not use scales. I do make bread, but like everything else, I eyeball it.

Re: Crust. Work the crust? I don't work it at all. I barely pat it together. Once I started using butter, it was a matter of just getting it sticky enough to get in the shell. And ofttimes, barely at that. I use my hands very little. Mostly a fork.

But it is hard to make. I do not always succeed in a good crust. Just the way it goes.

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by HarryT

As a matter of curiosity, do people who cook in the US generally own a set of scales? I have a digital balance that I use pretty much every time I cook, but American recipes rarely if ever seem to use weights - it's all volumes.

I don't own a scale - US recipes as you said don't use weights. I rarely follow a recipe exactly anyway, just use it as a guide.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

I don't own a scale - US recipes as you said don't use weights. I rarely follow a recipe exactly anyway, just use it as a guide.

Suggestion. Recipes are suggestions!

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

Suggestion. Recipes are suggestions!

Absolutely!

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

Suggestion. Recipes are suggestions!

I regard it as a chemical engineering project which must be followed precisely, lest disaster ensure .

[Apache]

Originally Posted by 5thWiggle

I weigh the flour the first time I make a new style of bread, or if I'm using the bread machine. After the first time, I know the consistency I'm want the dough to be.

What I can't ever seem to judge by consistency is pie crust. I make it so flakey it disintegrates if you breathe on it, or so tough you can roof your house with it. There is no inbetween.

Trying substituting vodka for some of the water. The less water the less gluten build up. When I bake an apple pie I use Applejack in place of some of the water in the pie dough. Or I make pasta frolla pie dough for fruit pies.
Apache

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

I don't own a scale - US recipes as you said don't use weights. I rarely follow a recipe exactly anyway, just use it as a guide.

I am the same way. I make the recipe my own. I will follow it the first time and then I will modified it more to my liking.

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by Apache

Trying substituting vodka for some of the water. The less water the less gluten build up. When I bake an apple pie I use Applejack in place of some of the water in the pie dough. Or I make pasta frolla pie dough for fruit pies.
Apache

And then if it doesn't turn out right you still have the vodka anyway!