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Let's Talk About Record Keeping

Stemwinder

Stemwinder

For those of you who are in the process of improving upon your recipes, I'm curious to see how you keep track of your recipes. Do most of you do it on your computer (if so, what program do you use) or do you keep a paper journal (if so, is there a particular type you like)? I know that I need to start measuring everything in grams. Is there anything else I should be thinking about when keeping records? Is one form of organization better than another?

I've been working from memory and a disorganized mess of scrap paper. :doh:
 
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I use the old fashion pencil and tablet thing. Mostly when it comes down to the types of peppers I am using the heat tolerant level is different. Got to write stuff down to old to remember everything and if not It still taste good.
 
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I have good intentions when I start and do a pretty good job of keeping track for a while. Everything that goes into the sauce is written down with pen and paper while in the kitchen with the intent of putting it on the computer later. What I usually end up doing is not writing down the little corrections I make along the way. A little bit of this or that can have a huge effect on the flavor. I'm getting better at it though.
 
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Stemwinder said:
a disorganized mess of scrap paper. :doh:
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you mean there is another method other than ^ ? :lol:

scrap papers until the recipe is finalized then recipe cards. Don't do me any good to have it on the computer when I need it in the kitchen~~~ ;)
 
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Excel all the way!

That way you can manipulate percentages and have everything auto-calculate and update when experimenting "on paper". I've found it much faster to do it this way in terms of record keeping and "paper" experimentation.
 
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busamadman said:
Excel all the way!

That way you can manipulate percentages and have everything auto-calculate and update when experimenting "on paper". I've found it much faster to do it this way in terms of record keeping and "paper" experimentation.
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Agreed. And makes tweaking to taste easier too. I'll print it out, take it to the kitchen & if I decide to try something new (+/- of an ingredient or multiple) I'll jot it down. Then if it works I'll note it & go back & enter it as a different tab of my excel.
:cheers:
 
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I use one of those Composition Notebooks;

Compbook.jpg


in the kitchen and then transfer any changes to Excel when I have time. It keeps everything together so I dont lose any loose papers and allows me to brainstorm on the left side about possible ingredients for a particular style of sauce I trying to develop and then build the sauce on the right side. I only use pencil so I can update amounts or add / delete ingredients as I need to. Oh, and so far it only has one spatter stain on it on the cover.
 
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Google Plus and/or Tumblr pictorial blog. Hahaha, I really need to get more accurate though, so probably will script up a quick python app + Google App Engine back-end to let me scale my recipes around.
 
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Have to agree...Excel all the way. Ability to adjust for volume, recording pH, batch dates, volume of product, creating SHOPPING LISTS. Can't say how many times we've ended up halfway through prep only to find out we were short on something or other and have to stop and go back to the store.
 
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Dr Pacheco said:
Mainly Excel, but I have been doing more and more of the MS "flow charts". That makes it more "visual" and you can show timing between processes.
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Interesting - I do a lot of process flowcharting for work (fit/gap analysis & etc) I imagine this is helpful for fermented peppers/mash & such.

I keep records of ingredients but tend to follow the same processes, or if I modify I just annotate the spreadsheet, but I like the idea of using Visio.
:cheers:

Good idea!
 
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