Timely post, Clair, as I am moving some of my favorite recipes to a dedicated Gmail account so I will have them available online instead of hunting for the illusive bit of paper or recipe card. And yes, I care about these things!

I find I am taking as many shortcuts as I can these days and learning to simplify!, simplify! I still use the T and t, c for cup and have even started leaving off the period. I use "chix" for chicken and write only "Swiss" or "cheddar" and leave off the "cheese." For recipes such as muffins and quick breads, I list the dry first and the wet second, nuts or fruits at the end, then only have to add "mix wet into dry, stirring to combine, fold in nuts" and the time and oven temp.

However, I revolt against using the abbreviation EVOO as it is irritating to me! I just write OO or veg. oil.

I'd be interested in any shortcuts that others take when writing down recipes or entering them into a database.

Teresa

Yes, yes and yes, those are issues with me too. I see no point in the words "Method", "Ingredients" and "Preparation." Even my seven year old grandchild would know that is a list of the ingredients and the way to prepare them. I always remove those words from recipes I have copied. I use t, T, C. "Parmigiano Reggiano" becomes
"Parm." I don't need the words "al dente" after the words, "cook pasta." And on and on my shortcuts go.

I omit words from the preparation part of a recipe. "Put a cast iron or other ovenproof skillet" may become "put a heavy ovenproof skillet." "Season the chicken on both sides with a generous amount of salt and pepper" becomes "season chicken with salt and pepper." "Cook over medium heat, scraping up the flavors stuck to the bottom of the pan with a woden spoon" becomes "Cook over med heat, scraping up bits from the bottom of the pan." I eliminate the word "the." almost entirely.

When I post a recipe on the web though I usually leave the original wording in there.

Teresa, I appreciate the reason for shortcuts. I also list the wet/dry ingredients by leaving a space in-between on the ingredients list, just so I note the difference quickly. (I blame this on allowing my eyes to be lazy in order to connect more rapidly to my brain.) This also makes more sense to me than using space to type ''Ingredients'' IYKWIM.

I don't tend to shortcut too much when I rewrite because my husband needs all the words. Anything I can do to keep him from asking 20 questions to make one recipe means NO, I Didn't Just Have To Do It MYSELF while he was ''helping me''! Sometimes, in addition to the ingredients, I also list which pans/pots/bakeware I use. I have a lot of pieces, so I've found which work best for each recipe. It sounds rather anal retentive (now that I see it mentioned) but it beats having dh grab a pot that's entirely too small or difficult to use and simplifies matters greatly.

I agree with you completely about EVOO. Especially, since I often use light OO in place of veg oil.

You will LOVE the database when you have it built up. After I put mine on Googledocs, I found myself using them so much more, especially when I traveled. I was able to give my sister some of my favorite recipes without any trouble. I think keeping the format the same on all recipes is the best thing as it makes them a snap to read.

Beverly, I'm glad to hear it! (It's hard to be the only one.) Sadly, I probably find myself adding words because of the spell check and other checks in MS Word; it bugs me when there's a line in the body of my document telling me it's not correct! I do however take liberties with reducing words wherever I can when they aren't necessary.

I write new recipes and rewrite other recipes all the time. It's my chance to control the ingredients and processes. I'm going to blame cooking/baking science (my hobby), as much as anything; and my long list of "unusual" ingredients I like to use in foods. I like to increase nutrition, fiber, and lower sodium and sugar.

When it comes to recipes that leave out instructions, in older recipes many of these steps were common knowledge, and therefore assumed. Modern recipes may have left the method out entirely in order to speed up the process. As a foods judge at County Fairs, I can tell the difference.

There are actually several methods for making a cake. It depends on the type of cake.

-Creaming, sugar-fat, aka sugar batter, or conventional method

-Two-stage, blending, pastry blend, or flour batter method

-Single-stage, dump, one-bowl, or quick-mix method

-Muffin method

-Combination conventional and sponge (whipping) method

-Dissolved-sugar method

Ever notice an old favorite recipe reprinted in a new version that has been "dumbed-down" to accommodate processes like "cream together" or "fold" that aren't always understood or commonly used these days, or avoid certain "tricky" measurements like 2/3 cup, or an additional step like separating eggs? Food companies are re-making many of their old favorite recipes to simplify them.

Recipes and cooking methods are always changing. Anyone who collects old cookbooks can give example after example. Today's recipes are designed for a generation who really know very little about cooking/baking beyond the microwave. That's probably why "semi-homemade" or "shortcut" recipes are so popular - quick and easy are a busy person's best friend....

My sister-in-law has been a professional cake decorator for 35-years and has never made a cake from scratch. I couldn't believe it when she told me!!!

I have a recipe alteration sheet I made and have used over the years just for the purpose of altering recipes or creating new recipes. It includes the original recipe (sometimes just photo-copied on the back of the sheet), then a place to note alterations I've made, results, and alterations I may want to make the next time. I have notebooks filled with these sheets. Some recipes I've lowered the glycemic impact, lowered the fat, sodium and sugar, converted to gluten-free, used wholegrain flour, etc.... I never met a recipe I DIDN'T change (LOL).

-Grainlady

Grainlady, I love it! I do a similar version, until I have a recipe I've altered enough that it works and I know it's final. Then I simply change the name, keep a simplified version of my notes and go on from there.

I agree.

but one disclaimer.... if I am cutting/pasting a recipe from some place/one else, it'd be exactly as it appears. I assume they wrote it the way the did for a reason. For instance, when I write things, I use all three of my names. I do so for a reason. My reason.

I edit books for a living, and way back when I used to do lots of cookbooks. I can promise you, Rob, that especially when it comes to cookbooks, writers don't necessarily write things the way they do for a reason--they write them the way they do because they don't know the proper form (or they're too lazy, figuring that somebody like me will come along after them and fix stuff up, and doing it right is really time-consuming and complicated and boring). It always used to amaze me that professional cookbook writers didn't even seem to know the most basic elements of cookbook style--like listing ingredients in the order in which they're mentioned in the directions, or being consistent in how they list quantities--2 sticks of butter in one recipe, 1/2 pound of butter in the next one--or lengths of time.

I don't do much recipe editing when I'm saving one for myself, although I can't stop myself from fixing the most flagrant things. If I'm posting one online, though, or sending one to a friend, I do spruce it up, just so people don't think I'm an idiot.

When I married in to the family, there was a Molasses Cookie recipe that had been around forever, but only Grandma Lennis was able to make it and she was long gone. The stories of The Cookie were the stuff of legend. One of my SIL had Grandma's original hand-written recipe. It was like they had rediscovered the Dead Sea Scrolls!! Well, everyone who had ever made a cookie took a copy of the recipe and tried to make them. Seven people, seven different cookies, like they were from seven different recipes.

All sorts or theories were put forth as to her secret. The bowl she used, putting the dough on the backporch overnight to chill, even that Grandpa had a bottle of brandy hid and that he would slip a bit into the dough when she wasn't looking!! Everything was tried, nothing was close.

The point is, because this recipe was written with her own "shorthand" and abreviations, no one may ever taste those cookies that they all so love. She surely took this recipe with her to her grave. Write the recipes as completely as you can, so that anyone could take it and make it taste just like you do, or your favorites, the ones you are most proud of and that your family loves, may be lost to them forever.

Steve

''...writers don't necessarily write things the way they do for a reason--they write them the way they do because they don't know the proper form (or they're too lazy, figuring that somebody like me will come along after them and fix stuff up, and doing it right is really time-consuming and complicated and boring.''

AMEN Maureen! You are So Right. If something is written well, no one's going to notice as much as if it isn't!

Steve, I had an example almost like you describe happen to me in our family. That is EXACTLY why it's important to me! I worked for ten years on a recipe of my grandmother's, until I finally got it right. You'd better believe that recipe has every detail noted! What's funny is it took so long to perfect, whenever anyone wanted the recipe, I just gave it to them, as written. No one could ever make it, so I didn't worry about them stealing any family secrets!

And I thought I was the only one anal retentive enough to add notes, edit & retype recipes, LOL! One thing that drives me crazy is when a recipe calls for X amount in the ingredients & then uses specific portions of X during the different stages of preparation so I have to remeasure in the middle. Grrrrrrrrrrrr

I always use T,t,C etc. Recently I entered a recipe in a contest & it 'suggested' that the terms be spelled out. Ironic that this is necessary for a generation who live in an abreviated, text message world.

This is so timely for me also, I'm about to retype all my old hand written recipes and I was thinking of starting out with some kind of template.

I think more information rather than less is better.
An experienced cook can speed read through the directions and know what to do; the less experienced needs to be guided at every stage.

This is such an intriguing subject, and I've enjoyed reading everyone's comments. Family recipes, in particular, really chronicle tremendous history.

I agree with other sentimentalists: if you can, save some of your old handwritten recipes, complete with special notes or the ingredient listed "lump of butter" in that molasses taffy recipe. While my grandmother was living, my cousin painstakingly and lovingly converted all of her unwritten recipes for a family cookbook, but I have her handwritten ones as well. When I look those yellowed cards of paper with her writing, I hear her walking me through the recipe.

Grainlady -- a recipe alteration sheet??? Too clever!

Cathy in SWPA

Cathy, I have my grandmother's recipes that need re-written. You are soooo right about her speaking to me through her recipes! She went into a nursing home in 1989 with alzhimers and died about 10 years later. When she would like a recipe from a friend, she would grab whatever scrap of paper was handy when she was on the phone and write the recipe on that. It could be the back of a letter a company had sent to my grandfather, or the back of a wedding invitation.

I do a lot of knitting, and usually scan the pattern to use, and keep the original filed for safe keeping, just incase it gets lost. I experimented last week with DH's DSLR camera set on RAW file, the biggest file size available.
It comes out great taking a picture of the pattern, printed in the photo program, and is much faster than scanning it. I think I'm going to try that with Grandma's recipes. I have wondered for years how to perserve that special memory of her writing on whatever scrap was at hand, for all my cousins, without taking forever scanning them! Just typing them out is time comsuming enough, but this way, I think I can do both! I'm going to give it a try.

As for abbreviations, it depends on who I am writing the recipe for. And if I am writing Grandma's down for them, I do it the way she did it.

I use my word processor program, no special program, though it might be nice to have Master Cook to give me nutritional info and reduce or multipy recipes.

Grainlady, I like your alteration sheet idea. I might pass that along to my son. He took baking and pastry at the local vocational school. When he visits Chef, it might be something he would like to pass on to him for his new classes to use!

Tami

For the last year or so, I have been trying to jot down my recipes as I cook. It isn't as easy as I thought it would be. I have to remember to measure things, in the first place, and then to write down the measurement! I've developed my own "shorthand" to do this with, and I'm sure nobody else could figure out my recipes from them. Then, I have to type them out, filling in all the method, etc. Next step is to make the recipe again at a future point, following the recipe I wrote out to make sure it comes out well, and that I didn't leave anything out, instruction wise.

I try to keep in mind that I might be giving the recipe out to friends who are not as experienced as I and who cannot read my mind! There are things I understand as a matter of course that if left out might ruin the results for someone else. But it's difficult, because neither do I want to bulk up recipes to the point of annoyance or impenetrability.

Part of my solution is to try and keep the recipe and instructions concise, and then include a "notes" section at the bottom with any of my observations, explanations or suggestions. This is where I'll offer alternatives to unusual ingredients, for example or detailed instructions as to how to toast grains or peel nuts.

I made some hot, whole grain cereal for my breakfast this morning. I keep a dozen (give or take) different varieties on hand, many of which have slightly different liquid to solid ratios and cooking times, so I write a basic recipe on the cap for my husband.

3 pt h20
1 pt cer
30 min

This is understood to mean:

3 parts water
1 part cereal
salt to taste
30 m

Bring water & salt to a rapid boil. Add cereal and stir until the water boils again. Reduce heat, partially cover and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add additional water if needed.

I prefer the longer recipes and without excessive abbreviations. Abbreviations irritate me, and I prefer to have things written out, and I also like the headings "Ingredients" and "Directions". If I rewrite recipes, it is to change the ingredients or proportions, or to change "T" to "Tbsp", "t" to "tsp", and "c" to "cup". I find what you call "unnecessary instructions" to be interesting and am more bothered by things that are too brief and curt, which to me seems less personal.

Lars

I don't rewrite recipes when I copy them to my computer files but I always use my own scribble when I go to use them. I don't want to waste paper by printing them so I use old envelopes, etc to jot the recipe down.

Rather than write the instructions out separately, I draw a bracket around the ingredients and note the method. So beside butter and sugar would be a bracket and the word cream. Beside flour, baking powder, salt a bracket and the word mix....and so on.

The only words in recipes that really make me nuts are things like " cover with a clean cloth" ...like I'm going to use a dirty one! Or "carefully" break eggs when they are going into a batter!

I don't keep a file of recipes to give...I keep them for myself, but if you want one I am more than glad to share.
If I can in any way electronically reproduce it, I will and save that in a word file.
But If I am faced with having to copy a recipe, I pretty well do what Chase does, bracket and write in shorthand. I don't need the words "cream until light and fluffy" or "beat until lemon colored well mixed" or knead until dough is smooth and elastic and doesn't keep sticking to your hands" and I don't need "sautee in 2 Tbls Olive oil".
Often for a bread recipe I will just note "mix as usual...2 risings, bake 350".
Yeah, I rewrite recipes, if I am copying, but I do it to simplify not to explain further. However if I am writing up a recipe for a very beginning cook, or say for a bride's friends and family recipe file, I will go into great detail, and say things like the water should be just starting to simmer, little bubbles rising at the edge, or these cookies will be easier to shape if you chill the dough wrapped in saran for an hour.
nd I always read a recipe through before making....and perhaps make notes about what goes where. I learned that after making a recipe that called for 1 1/2 cups sugar....and the directions said something like for the topping, use the half cup of sugar and mix with....and I had already used all the sugar in the pie itself.

I am a great experimentor in the Kitchen, and many of the things I make have no recipe. When I serve something to someone and they ask for the recipe, I have to remake it and write down everything as I go along.

I have taken all of my favorite recipes of my Mother's and Grandmothers, all the recipes written on backs of envelopes and scraps of note paper, all the grease stains and brown edges, and type them into dedicated files on my computer. Mother has had to "translate " many of them, because the instructions were too vague, or even nonexistent. She couldn't undersand that I couldn't make these with the instructions as they were written.

My goal has always been to write a recipe that any person reasonably familiar with the kitchen could take and make, and have it turn out first time.

Steve

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What???

Sorry, Before I got interrupted I was started to share my recipe rewrites which include highlighting the ingredients within the directions. This helps me stay focused as I move through the directions. I was going to demo it with html code then hit POST instead of PREVIEW. I have to join the discussion later.

It doesn't matter to me how a recipe is written. There are so many variations.

I will rewrite a recipe if I make changes to it. And if I'm going to share a recipe I make sure I include all the changes that I made. I've never understood why some people will not share a recipe or if they do they leave out something vital, either an ingredient or a step.

Ann

I am re-writing recipes for younger family members who don't have the background to understand the rather skeletal instructions provided.

Pickling is a perfect example. Many old pickle recipes simply "assume" the reader knows about cucumber prep, brining, etc. so didn't provide any information on those critical steps.

Now I'm passing on those recipes to nephews and nieces who won't be learning at grandma's knee, so I have to explain in writing what an older generation would have shown them. It makes recipes much longer than they originally were.

I see that in old canning book and baking books where the instructions are minimal. Pan sizes aren't mentioned, temperatures aren't provided, dough or batter is not described and amounts aren't measured.

Carol

Tami, you are the perfect "keeper" for your grandmother's recipes and memories.

As an aside, my grandmother's recipes more often than not labeled who gave her the recipe. I don't know if that was her generation or her ranking system (i.e. Ethel Bauman -- good cook).

Readinglady - my grandmother's homemade sauerkraut recipe consists of four lines:)

It might be my reading style (not fond of books that spend pages describing the morning dew) but I like directions chronologically listed not in paragraph form. It also depends on the recipe: sometimes detailed instructions, sometimes "just the facts, ma'am."

Cathy in SWPA

To me it really doesn't matter how a recipe is written, if it abbreviates or not, if it is too wordy, etc. as long as I can read it and understand it.

If I am typing out a recipe that I found and like, I will omit "unnecessary" words or instructions, but only to save me some typing.

Linda

Cathy, thank you for the compliment! I am trying, but it has been about 10 years since I started, and I still haven't gotten very far. I am going camping with my parents this next week, with the weather being cool, they are able to go and enjoy without having to stay in the AC. I am thinking of taking grandma's recipes with me to work on. The lap top can sit on the picnic table just as well as a desk and we will have electric. They can't go any other way. That way, maybe, mom can help me read grandma's writing, and maybe it will bring her some good memories, hopefully not upsetting her. Grandma frequently has "Swell" written on some or "Good" along with the names of the people she got them from. I think it will be a great memorie book, if nothing else. Even if the cousins never make any of the recipes, they will still have something of Grandma's.

As for me reading and writing recipes, I am like doucanoe. Shorthand if I am copying, especially by hand.

Tami

I rewrite everything because I change measurements to weights except for the little ingred like T and t, and use abbreviations like AP, BP, BS, van, and S. I sell jams and bake treats weekly for my farmers market booth so they also include parenthesis for 2x or 3x batches. The recipes are on hand printed index cards and have the date of the first time I made them. I use the same bowls so I write things like "grn bowl 1#6 sug" so I don't have to tare. I do have another list (with photos) on my computer that show the wt of the empty bowl in case it goes missing. Fully written out baking and canning recipes are on my computer in the event that a card is lost or purpled to illegibility (pickled beets do it every time) or I want to give the recipe to someone. I also note who/where the recipe came from and/or have the URL on the computer file and changes from original are in blue. I tried using my laptop in the kitchen but it doesn't work well after airborne flour gets into it, coupled with the fact that I am usually baking several things at once and hate switching screens (unsanitary to touch keyboard), so it is easier to have the old-fashioned index cards in the tuck-in bulletin board at eye level. Like Chase, I use brackets and note the method - so easy to read. I realized that teaching someone my index card hieroglyphics isn't all that difficult to get the hang of if they have baked or canned before, but nearly impossible for the novice.

Nancy

I routinely draw lines in recipe ingredient lists so I can glance at them to see what goes into the recipe with what. I insert spaces between lines of ingredients at those same break-points when typing them up for others. The directions can then go alongside or under each group of ingredients.

Recipes are made to be used, and anything that can make that easier should be done. For example, when I test recipes for a magazine, I frequently suggest they split a long single step into two or three to make them easier to follow in the kitchen. I don't like having action in three different bowls or pans in one sentence.

Has anyone noticed that some recipes don't list salt, pepper, or water, but have an amount for them specified in the instructions? I want to see all of the ingredients in the ingredient list.

Another thing I run into is when an ingredient is used two or more times in one recipe. Should the full quantity be listed with "divided use" next to it, or should the ingredient appear two or more times in the ingredient list?

I have worked on several community cookbooks and it is amazing the formats that some people use. They're just plain un-followable -- if that's a word.

Alice, I would prefer the salt & pepper listed in the ing. list, with divided written after it, then have it specified in the instructions how much to use in which step. That's how I grew up with it. Even in my grandmother's recipes that she wrote down from friends, that's what she did, even when not writing the complete directions.

I am taking her recipes, or some of them, with me for the week and working on transcribing some. I'm taking mom & dad camping with the cool weather, and will have lots of time to sit with them, visiting and typing!

Tami

Oye..... has anyone ever seen a Pampered Chef Recipe? Drives me up the wall! Here's an example:

Preheat oven to 425°F (220°C). Arrange tortilla chips in a single layer on Large Round Stone with Handles. Finely chop artichokes using Food Chopper. Squeeze out excess moisture using paper towels. Grate cheese using Rotary Grater. Hull and core tomato using Core & More. Dice tomato and chop cilantro using Color Coated Chef's Knife. Combine artichokes, half of the cheese, tomato, half of the cilantro, mayonnaise, bacon and rub in Classic Batter Bowl.

Using level Small Scoop, divide artichoke mixture evenly over tortilla chips; sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake 9-11 minutes or until cheese begins to brown.
Remove baking stone from oven to Stackable Cooling Rack. Sprinkle with remaining cilantro. Serve immediately.

Drives me batty to follow one of their recipes because I dont have all the utensils etc., they say to use and all those words just get in my way.

It'd be fun to see you all re-write one of the Pampered Chef recipes and see who could get it written with the least amount of words but still make perfect sense.

I will re-write recipes if I make changes, and like Ann T I just don't understand the mentality behind keeping recipes secret or leaving out an ingredient.

I do keep many of the words that I think are superfluous and I try to make measurements as specific as possible, because both of my girls use some of my recipes. I want to make sure that they can use them as well as I can, and avoid some of the problems that I had/have with Grandma's recipes that say things like "a chunk of butter" or "a teacup full of water". She cooked by feel and by appearance, which is great if you are right there to show someone, but if you aren't there, a more exact method and measurement is much easier for them.

Tami, have fun this weekend, I ought to do that with my mother....

Annie

I like to simplify for my own purposes. I agree that many recipes are too dumbed down and I simply don't need the step by step instructions because I already know how to do it. OTOH, for yeast breads, I need it as dumbed down as it gets so I understand why it's done in other recipes.

But if I have to type a recipe into my computer, I don't want to bother with a bunch of instructions that for me are redundant.

It never has occurred to me that anyone else would ever look at my recipes but I'm sure my kids will some day come to think of it! But by then I expect them to be pretty experienced themselves. They are both already pretty comfortable in the kitchen.

I almost always mess up and put the entire amount of whatever divided ingredient in the list when I should have saved some. My first choice is to have the ingredient listed twice, with the proper amounts in the proper order.

Southern Living magazine is notorious (in my mind) for instructions which say something like, "Mix in the next 8 ingredients". I hate that! I have to sit there and count the 8 to make sure I got them all? Ick.

And yes, salt, pepper, water, or whatever, ALL ingredients should be listed above.

Oh, and back to Claire's original post, I also don't bother writing "Ingredients" or "Preparation" when I'm copying over a recipe. Again, it's redundant!

Some of you are so lucky to have your grandmother's recipes. My grandmother cooked three meals a day and probably never went out to eat more than ten times in her life if that many. When we asked how she made a certain thing she couldn't tell us except to say, "a little" flour in a bowl, a knob of butter," etc. We have all tried to duplicate some of her cooking and have not been able to.

Shaun, I had not seen Pampered Chef recipes before. That kind of directions drives me crazy too. If someone can't give better instructions than that I don't try to use them or if I already know I really like the recipe I will rewrite it into a more usable form.

Lowspark, I don't like that Southern Living and many other recipes I've seen say "the next seven ingredents" either. That's just laziness on the part of the writer.