4 ms·

The affordance I've always wanted is to have the instructions contain the amounts. So instead of: - Long list of items - Complicated multi-step instructions

The affordance I've always wanted is to have the instructions contain the amounts. So instead of: - Long list of items - Complicated multi-step instructions moving back and forth It's more like: - Long list of items - Add 1/2 cup oats, 1 teaspoon cinnamon to bowl It would make recipes so much easier to read.

vlunkr 5y ago
Seriously, every time I make a long recipe I wonder how that became the standard. It's not like everyone is on a cooking show where they lay out all the ingredients in the right quantities before they start cooking.
- warmfuzzykitten 5y ago
  I think it became the standard because that's the way to cook. No surprises. You don't want to get halfway through mixing up fruitcake dough and discover you need dried fruit.
  - MereInterest 5y ago
    Except that uses far more measuring dishes and counter space. Instead, put the final bowl on a scale, add each ingredient one at a time, and zero the scale in-between. I might pull the ingredients out ahead of time, but unless you're in a commercial kitchen, there's no real point in pre-measuring everything.
kevinconroy 5y ago
Like this? https://www.makebetterfood.com/ https://www.makebetterfood.com/
goddamnyouryan 5y ago
I built a tool called https://cookmatic.co https://cookmatic.co that solves this exact problem (among others)! You can hover (or click on mobile) the ingredients in the recipe body and it will tell you the amount from the ingredients list. ex: https://cookmatic.co/recipes/easy-frittata https://cookmatic.co/recipes/easy-frittata
MereInterest 5y ago
I think a large part of it is that the standard form of recipes is designed for commercial kitchens, not for home cooking. In a commercial kitchen, you'll have one recipe that has been finely tuned, with the ingredients pre-selected, and the goal is to follow that recipe. The long list of items is useful for prep work, because that lets you know how to set up the station for making that particular dish. But for home cooking, your ingredients are already chosen, and the goal is to make a dish out of them. This is also why the prep time is so unrealistic. It assumes that you already have your onions finely minced, your garlic peeled, your oven heated, and your portions measured. The only time when that's a useful measurement is if somebody already did all the prep work early that morning, and you need to know how many cooks to have covering the dinner shift. If you're cooking at home, then the relevant time is how long it will take including the prep work and measuring.
tzs 5y ago
I tried turning a sugar cookies recipe I found somewhere into a graphical representation to see if it would be easier to follow in the kitchen compare to the usual format. It worked fairly well. Here it is [1], although Imgur is having some issues right now [2] so the link may not work at the moment. Follow the numbered arrows in order. Rounded rectangles are ingredients involving ingredients, diamonds are actions, and circles are containers. [1] https://imgur.com/a/cIYtJTf https://imgur.com/a/cIYtJTf [2] ranging from pages not loading, to pages with '{"errors":[{"id":"","code":"500","status":"Internal Server Error","detail":"Internal Server Error"}]} ' embedded in them.
- senkora 5y ago
  This is amazing, I love it.

vlunkr 5y ago

Seriously, every time I make a long recipe I wonder how that became the standard. It's not like everyone is on a cooking show where they lay out all the ingredients in the right quantities before they start cooking.

warmfuzzykitten 5y ago
I think it became the standard because that's the way to cook. No surprises. You don't want to get halfway through mixing up fruitcake dough and discover you need dried fruit.
- MereInterest 5y ago
  Except that uses far more measuring dishes and counter space. Instead, put the final bowl on a scale, add each ingredient one at a time, and zero the scale in-between. I might pull the ingredients out ahead of time, but unless you're in a commercial kitchen, there's no real point in pre-measuring everything.

kevinconroy 5y ago

Like this? https://www.makebetterfood.com/ https://www.makebetterfood.com/

goddamnyouryan 5y ago

I built a tool called https://cookmatic.co https://cookmatic.co that solves this exact problem (among others)! You can hover (or click on mobile) the ingredients in the recipe body and it will tell you the amount from the ingredients list. ex: https://cookmatic.co/recipes/easy-frittata https://cookmatic.co/recipes/easy-frittata

MereInterest 5y ago

I think a large part of it is that the standard form of recipes is designed for commercial kitchens, not for home cooking. In a commercial kitchen, you'll have one recipe that has been finely tuned, with the ingredients pre-selected, and the goal is to follow that recipe. The long list of items is useful for prep work, because that lets you know how to set up the station for making that particular dish. But for home cooking, your ingredients are already chosen, and the goal is to make a dish out of them. This is also why the prep time is so unrealistic. It assumes that you already have your onions finely minced, your garlic peeled, your oven heated, and your portions measured. The only time when that's a useful measurement is if somebody already did all the prep work early that morning, and you need to know how many cooks to have covering the dinner shift. If you're cooking at home, then the relevant time is how long it will take including the prep work and measuring.

tzs 5y ago

I tried turning a sugar cookies recipe I found somewhere into a graphical representation to see if it would be easier to follow in the kitchen compare to the usual format. It worked fairly well. Here it is [1], although Imgur is having some issues right now [2] so the link may not work at the moment. Follow the numbered arrows in order. Rounded rectangles are ingredients involving ingredients, diamonds are actions, and circles are containers. [1] https://imgur.com/a/cIYtJTf https://imgur.com/a/cIYtJTf [2] ranging from pages not loading, to pages with '{"errors":[{"id":"","code":"500","status":"Internal Server Error","detail":"Internal Server Error"}]} ' embedded in them.

senkora 5y ago
This is amazing, I love it.