Shop'NCook Home 3.4.2 User's Manual
Recipes - Editor
To reach the recipe editor, go to the recipe panel by selecting the Recipes tab. Open the cookbook to which the recipe belongs, then select the recipe. If the cookbook is locked, you need to unlock it before editing the recipe. Click on the edit button of the toolbar to display the recipe editor. The editor pane is formed of two tabs: the recipe tab and the ingredient tab.The recipe tab
In the recipe tab, you can edit the following information:- recipe title,
- picture,
- categories,
- recipe source,
- number of portions,
- portion size,
- preparation time,
- total recipe ingredients,
- recipe preparation instructions.
The ingredient tab
In the ingredient tab, you can link the ingredients to the item database, specify the default selection states and comments of the ingredients, change the recipe units to units more convenient for shopping lists, and give unit information for the nutritional analysis. Although you can also add ingredients in this tab, it is recommended to do it rather in the recipe tab. Note that if you add, move or delete an ingredient in the ingredient tab, you have a corresponding change in the recipe tab.
Creating a recipe
Click the "New" button in the recipe panel to create a new recipe. If the recipe wizard option is selected in the preferences, the recipe wizard window opens first where you can type or paste the recipe. The recipe wizard can recognize with a great accuracy ingredients, quantities and recipe yield information. After inputting the recipe in the wizard, click the OK button to display the recipe in the editor. Allow a few seconds to the wizard to complete its parsing of the recipe. Check then in the recipe tab that the recipe was correctly interpreted, and in the ingredient tab that the ingredients have been correctly linked with the item database. Shop'NCook uses a sophisticated algorythm to recognize quantities and ingredients and should be able to link most of the ingredients to the item database and calculate their weights automatically. The items that could not be linked are displayed in red. You will have to link them manually. Ingredients in blue have an unit unknown to the software. To compute correctly the nutritional information and allow automatic unit conversion, you should specify the weight information.
If you by-passed the wizard, an empty recipe will be created and opened in the recipe editor. Go first to the Recipe tab to input the data. After inputting the whole recipe in the Recipe tab, switch over to the Ingredients tab.
Modifying a recipe
When modifying a recipe, edit it first in the Recipe tab. Switch then to the Ingredients tab and check that the modifications to the quantities have been correctly mirrored. You may need to relink by hand some ingredients to the item database. Note that when you change the quantity of an ingredient in the recipe tab, the quantity in the Ingredients tab will be automatically scaled to reflect the change. If you want to specify a different quantity in the Ingredients tab, change first the unit to the desired shopping unit (if different), then edit the quantity field to the desired value. The change will not be reflected in the Recipe tab.
Linking an ingredient to the item database
Shop'NCook knows many ingredients as well as their orthographic variations, plural, synonyms and also their preparation instructions, which allows it to link automatically a wide range of ingredients. Automatic linking is dynamic, meaning that the link is always up-to-date and linked to the closest item of the database. If there are several link possibilities, the ingredient will appear in the Ingredients tab as a pull-down menu. By clicking on the arrow to display the menu, you are presented a choice of possible items from the database. Select one of those to link the ingredient to the database. If you do not find the item you are looking for in the pull-down menu, you can edit the ingredient's name in the field of the pull-down menu and display the menu again. You will be presented with a different choice of items. Once an ingredient is linked to the item database, you have to select it and press the Relink button to link it to another item.Linking an ingredient to another recipe
Recipe ingredients can be linked to another recipe of the same cookbook. If no item of same name exists in the item database, the software will link the ingredient automatically with a recipe of the same name, if any. If several recipes are available, it will link the ingredient with the first one available. An ingredient that has been linked with a recipe is displayed in bold. If you have specified the yield of the linked recipe, the software will try to convert the quantity of the ingredient into the yield unit to compute the quantities of the ingredients of the linked recipe. For example, in a recipe for Brussel sprout with Hollandaise sauce, the ingredient "1/2 cup Hollandaise sauce" will be automatically linked to the recipe "Hollandaise sauce". If the yield of the recipe Hollandaise sauce is 1 cup, the software will automatically scale the ingredients of Hollandaise sauce recipe by one half to compute the nutritional information or add the ingredients of the Brussel sprout recipe to the shopping list. If the yield of the recipe is not specified, it is taken as one, and you can specify for example half of the quantities of the recipe by inputting 1/2 in the quantity field of the ingredient.If the ingredient is not linked to another recipe of the same name, the reason may be one of the following:
- the name of the ingredient and the recipe title are not exactly the same;
- the software does not know how to convert between the yield of the recipe and the specified quantity of the ingredient;
- an item of same or similar name exists in the item database.
Unit conversion and weight information
If an ingredient is linked to the database, the quantity and unit information are displayed next to the item name. If the ingredient appears in black, the software knows the weight of the ingredient for the unit used. You can change the ingredient's unit by clicking on the unit pull-down menu and selecting another unit. The quantity will be converted automatically. Example: the recipe calls for 1/2 cup of ketchup, but you want the quantity expressed in ounces in the shopping list. After linking the ingredient to the item database, the ingredient appears as "ketchup 0.5 cup" in black, meaning that the software knows the weight of a cup of ketchup and can make unit conversions. If you select "oz" in the unit pull-down menu, the software makes the conversion and displays "ketchup 4.286 oz". The item database knows the conversion factors between common household units for most of its ingredients.If the unit is unknown to the software, the ingredient appears in blue. You must first specify a unit known to the software or input a conversion factor to a known unit before being able to use the unit conversion function. For example, if the recipe calls for 3/4 cup of brown sugar, the ingredient appears as "brown sugar 0.75 cup" in blue, meaning that the software does not know the weight of the unit and cannot perform unit conversion. If you select "cup unpacked" in the unit pull-down menu, the ingredient is now displayed as "brown sugar 0.75 cup unpacked" in black and the unit conversion function is enabled. You can now select for example "lb" from the unit pull-down menu to have the quantity displayed in pounds. The software calculates the unit conversion and displays "brown sugar 0.243 lb". Another way of specifying the weight information is to click on the measure cup at the right of the ingredient. A window opens where you can input the conversion factor between 1 cup of brown sugar and another unit known to the software. If you set "1 cup = 1 cup unpacked", the ingredient appears now as "brown sugar 0.75 cup" in black, meaning unit conversion function is enabled.
If you are using often an unit that is not known to the software, you can add it to the known units. To do that, quit the recipe editor (click OK), and go to the shopping list panel. Locate the ingredient and click on the question mark next to it. The nutritional information window opens. Click then on Edit. The nutritional information editor opens. In the top part of the window, you can add and edit your own units and conversion information.
Weight information and nutritional analysis
Weight information is important not only for unit conversion, but also to compute correctly the nutritional analysis of the recipe. If you do not want to change the unit, you should specify the weight information by clicking on the measure cup and giving the conversion factor. For example, if the recipe calls for 1 tomato, after linking the ingredient to the item database it appears as "tomato 1" in blue, meaning that the software does not know the weight information of 1 tomato and cannot include it in the nutritional analysis. If you click on the measure cup, the weight information window displays "1 = " and a pull-down menu with the units known to the software. By selecting among the available units, you can specify that "1 = 1 medium whole (2-3/5" dia)". The ingredient will be then displayed as "tomato 1" in black, meaning that the software now knows its weight and will therefore include it in the nutritional analysis.You can alternatively define directly the weight by writing it in parenthesis after the recipe quantity. For example, if you write in the recipe 2 (9 oz) pkg artichokes, it indicates each package weights 9 oz and the software will uses this value instead of the default weight of the database. If you specifies the weight after the unit, like 2 pkg (18 oz) artichokes, the weight in parenthesis is taken to correspond to the total amount specified (2 pkg).
Note: If you do not want an ingredient to be included in the nutritional analysis, you can uncheck the checkbox next to the measure cup. It will then be excluded from the nutritional analysis. You can uncheck this box for optional or alternative ingredients for example.
About the Cooked indicator: Next to the measure cup, the word "Cooked" can sometimes appear. When it does, it means that the nutritional and weight information of the cooked item are used. It can appear when a dynamically linked ingredient contains the word "cooked" or "prepared". This is important for an accurate estimation of the nutritional information since prepared ingredients have usually a different water content than raw ones and therefore weight differently. For example, 1 cup of raw rice yields about 3 cups of cooked one. If you want to force the use of the nutritional and weight information of the raw ingredient, press the relink button and link it by hand to the item of your choice. Note that this indicator does not indicate that the ingredient will be cooked in the recipe, only that the quantity refers to the cooked ingredient.
Default selection state and comment of an ingredient
The checkbox at the left of an ingredient specifies if the ingredient is automatically selected to be added to the shopping list or not. You can deselect optional ingredient. If you specifies in the ingredient comment in the recipe tab that the ingredient is optional, it will be automatically deselected. You can also input a default comment that will be added to the shopping list in addition to the quantity information. You can write there any information you will need to know at shopping time.If there are ingredients that you always want deselected by default - because you have them in stock, for example, - you can enable in the Shopping List tab of the Preferences the list of ingredients automatically deselected and add them to this list.
Exiting the editor
You exit the recipe editor by clicking the OK button to save the modifications, or the cancel button to discard the modifications to the recipe.Copyright Rufenacht Innovative 2004.