How to deal with variable multi-serving recipes?

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squishycatmew
squishycatmew Posts: 151 Member
in Food and Nutrition
How do the rest of you deal with recipes that make multiple servings, which are going to be eaten by multiple people, and which don't necessarily have exactly the same ingredients each time? Right now I'm cooking exclusively for myself, but my mother's birthday is in a week an a half and I've promised her a pie, and by mid-June I'll be cooking for my boyfriend as well as myself again. Right now I just put down whatever fraction of the total ingredients I'm eating in a sitting (so, kale sautéed with green garlic and sausage, I weigh everything and measure the oil before cooking, and then say I'm going to eat 1/3 of it, I weigh out the entire cooked amount, take a third of that, and log it as 1/3 of the uncooked ingredients), but that's not really feasible for an entire pie.

Obviously I can use the recipe builder, but there are a number of issues with that, like, how much is a serving? Do I have to weigh the pie pan, weigh all the ingredients so I can input them into the recipe builder, decide how many servings I think are in a pie, then weigh the baked pie, subtract the weight of the pie pan from that, and calculate what of that equals a serving? And then I'm an avid baker - I'm not going to make a pie once and then never again, but it will never be the *exact same pie*. I will not use the same amount of crust each time, even if I weigh it out, because how it's rolled makes a difference in how much gets trimmed. If I make a lattice crust instead of a full crust, that's different yet again, but it's still the same pie recipe. The amount of sugar in the filling varies based on the sweetness of the fruit that day, and so does the amount (and type) of thickener based on how juicy the fruit is. I'm really not looking forward to having 10 entries for "blueberry pie" in my recipes because of minor variations. I'm already on my way there with bean recipes.

Replies

  • Strokingdiction
    Strokingdiction Posts: 1,164 Member
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    Measure each ingredient in grams as you add it. At the end, measure the cooked product as a whole. You now know the total calories for that dish. With the recipe builder, use the serving size as 1 gram. When you serve yourself, weigh it in grams. If you serve yourself 350g of that dish, put in that you ate 350 servings.
  • squishycatmew
    squishycatmew Posts: 151 Member
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    Measure each ingredient in grams as you add it. At the end, measure the cooked product as a whole. You now know the total calories for that dish. With the recipe builder, use the serving size as 1 gram. When you serve yourself, weigh it in grams. If you serve yourself 350g of that dish, put in that you ate 350 servings.

    I definitely like the idea of making the serving size 1 gram, but that still doesn't solve the (probably unsolvable as MFP is right now) issue of ending up with multiple recipe entries for what's basically the same thing, except early in the season the berries were sour so I used a cup of sugar, but a month later they were perfect and I only used half a cup.
  • ChrisM8971
    ChrisM8971 Posts: 1,067 Member
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    Measure each ingredient in grams as you add it. At the end, measure the cooked product as a whole. You now know the total calories for that dish. With the recipe builder, use the serving size as 1 gram. When you serve yourself, weigh it in grams. If you serve yourself 350g of that dish, put in that you ate 350 servings.

    This sounds familiar, although I would use a system of 3.5 servings of 100 g but effectively the same thing.

    OP unfortunately MFP hasnt gotten around to making recipes changeable yet so the only way of modifying them is to delete the ingredients and re enter each time you make the dish and reset the serving size each time
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
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    I modify the recipe as needed. It's a pain, but it still only takes a few minutes.

    Or you could copy it and just add a '2' in the end or something if you don't want to lose the original one.
  • vorgas
    vorgas Posts: 741 Member
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    Option 1:
    Only enter the part that doesn't change into the recipe.
    Add stuff that does change manually.
    Of course, the trick is to remember what changes.

    Option 2:
    Skip recipes entirely.
    Save the entire thing as a single meal. When you select that meal, it enters each item as an entry into your diary. Then make adjustments as needed.
    Downside here is it can be tough to figure out what's in an individual portion.
  • kellyjellybellyjelly
    kellyjellybellyjelly Posts: 9,480 Member
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    Bump!
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    edited May 2015
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    Note to self - this thread is a year old and I already replied last year.
  • theston412
    theston412 Posts: 47 Member
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    I make everything in a casserole dish, and then slice it like a cake. It's probably not super accurate, but it works for me.
  • kenrenme
    kenrenme Posts: 2 Member
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    Strokingdiction wrote: »
    Measure each ingredient in grams as you add it. At the end, measure the cooked product as a whole. You now know the total calories for that dish. With the recipe builder, use the serving size as 1 gram. When you serve yourself, weigh it in grams. If you serve yourself 350g of that dish, put in that you ate 350 servings.

    That's fantastic!! I over complicate things. I'm going to try that. I deal with the same issue, so I've always resorted to cooking separate. Very time consuming and I can never go back for second servings.

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