Tips for good recipes

A recipe everyone makes the same way

A good kitchen recipe leaves no room for interpretation.

Name and yield

Start with a clear name and the yield: how many litres, how many pieces or for how many covers.

Ingredients

List all ingredients in the order you use them, with quantities in grams or millilitres rather than spoons or cups. See Ingredients and quantities.

Method

Write the method in short steps, one action per step. See Writing the method.

Critical points

Always note the critical points: temperatures, times, the desired thickness or colour and what to watch out for. “Reduce by two thirds” or “core temperature 58 °C” prevents more mistakes than a nice description.

Read more

Why standard recipes pay off: Standardised recipes.

Scaling without mistakes

Savour does the maths. Tasting is still your craft.

The factor

You scale with a factor: the target yield divided by the yield of the base recipe. If you have a beurre blanc for 1 litre and need 3.5 litres, the factor is 3.5. Always work by weight; then the result is exact. In Savour you do this with More scaling options.

What doesn’t scale

Not everything scales one to one:

• Reduction takes longer, because a bigger pan evaporates relatively less.
• Salt, acid and spices need tasting again in large batches.
• Baking times change with a different tin or a full oven.
• Gelling agents such as gelatine and agar do scale exactly with the liquid.

Read more

In more depth: Scaling recipes without errors.

From scribbled note to recipe card

Turn a note into a fixed recipe while you still remember what you meant.

Capture it quickly

Many recipes start as a note at the pass. Turn it into a fixed recipe as soon as possible, while you still remember what you meant.

The photo

Photograph a handwritten recipe in good light, straight from above, with the whole page in view. In Savour you use the camera.

Checking

Then check the numbers in particular: a 3 and an 8 or a 1 and a 7 are easily mixed up on a stained note. The original is kept with the recipe.

Read more

Digitise old recipe notes.

Using categories and folders well

What a recipe is, and how you work with it: two different things.

Category: what it is

Use categories for what a recipe is, such as sauces, garnishes or pastry. A recipe is in one category.

Folder: how you work

Use folders for how you work, such as the current menu, an event or the cold kitchen. A recipe can appear in several folders.

Names

Keep names short and recognisable, so everyone in the team finds the recipe with one search word.

Read more

Recipe folder examples and Organising recipes in the kitchen.

Working from one source

A kitchen works best with one source for every recipe.

One source

Share recipes through a kitchen team instead of loose photos or messages. When you change a recipe, everyone works from the new version straight away, and nobody loses an old version in a group chat.

Rights

Give the sous-chef rights to edit recipes and the rest of the team rights to view them. See Roles.

A new cook

With all recipes on their phone, a new cook is up to speed faster. Read also Onboarding new cooks.

Allergens and fixed agreements

Know exactly what is in a dish when a guest asks.

In the ingredient list

In every recipe, list components with allergens clearly in the ingredients, also when they come from another base recipe.

Base recipes

For a composed dish, name the base recipes in it. Link them and one tap shows what is in the stock or sauce.

Notes

Put fixed agreements and allergen information in a note on the recipe, so they appear on the print too.