Written Recipe Format - What's your preferred method?

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We have a ghost drive/RAID system, so with the external drive we should be good. I don't keep the external plugged in all the time. Just have a sometimes annoying reminder set up that won't stop until you actually do the backup so it gets done every 7-10 days unless we do something that needs immediate backup.
 
For recipes not requiring baking I write them as follows:

My Perfect Fish Batter (IMHO)
Ingredients:
3/4 cup AP flour
2 Tbs. cornstarch
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 Tbs. fresh snipped dill (optional)
3/4 cup ICE cold water
juice of half of a fresh juicy lemon (about 3 Tbs.)

Directions
Use a med. bowl, and with a wire whisk, whisk dry ingredients to be sure they are well blended. Have a large skillet ready with an inch of vegetable oil nearly smoking hot.

Squeeze half a juicy lemon into a measuring cup, and fill to the 3/4 line with ICE cold water. Mix quickly into the dry ingredients, till only small lumps remain. It does not need to be smooth.

With tongs, drag each piece of fish through the batter till well coated on each side. Lay the piece in the hot oil, and continue.

Do not crowd the pieces. You can do this in batches, keeping cooked fish on a rack in a warm oven. It will take a very short time, depending on the thickness of the fish. Do not overcook. Serve with lemon slices

For baking right after the title I always state to preheat oven to ?ºF. right after the title.


Classic Pineapple Upside-Down Cake
Preheat oven to 375°.

Ingredients:
1/3 cup butter, melted
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 can (20 ounces) sliced pineapple
1/2 cup chopped pecans
3 eggs, separated
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:
1. In an ungreased 9-in.-square baking pan, combine butter and brown sugar.

2. Drain pineapple, reserving 1/3 cup juice. Arrange 9 pineapple slices in a
single layer over sugar (refrigerate any remaining slices for another use).

3. In a large bowl, beat egg yolks until thick and lemon-colored. Gradually add
sugar, beating well. Blend in vanilla and reserved pineapple juice. Combine
flour, baking powder and salt; add to batter, beating well.

4. In a small bowl with clean beaters, beat egg whites on high speed until
stiff peaks form; fold into batter. Spoon into pan.

5. Bake 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
Let stand 10 minutes before inverting onto serving plate.

I write them in 14 pt. and Comic Sans. Easy on "Eyes for the elderly"

I keep my recipes on my computer and a flash drive.:angel:
 
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...I write them in 14 pt. and Comic Sans. Easy on "Eyes for the elderly" :angel:

When I started to set the format for my recipes, I increased font size from 11 pt. to 12 pt. so I could read the recipes without my glasses. Sadly, 12 pt. no longer does the trick. I don't think 14 pt. is practical so I probably should go back to 11 pt and use my glasses.
 
We have a ghost drive/RAID system, so with the external drive we should be good.
A RAID array is hard drive fault tolerant, but you still need to have multiple backups, preferably on different media. At work we had a 10 tape rotation, which is overkill for home use, but necessary for business use (if you want to keep your job).

If you get hit by ransomware (such as cryptolocker), you will appreciate multiple backup sets so you can go back in time to recover files. A backup copy of corrupt files is not of any value.
 
Sometimes recipes are badly written. In order to save them you have to rewrite them so that they make sense. I try to rewrite them in the order they should be done.

When listing the ingredients, I write them in the order they are added to the recipe. For baking I always list preheating temperature for the oven right after the title. You don't want your cake batter or bread dough sitting around waiting for the oven. Title, Ingredients and Directions are always in bold and underlined. And I print them out in 14 pt. Eyes For The Elderly.

Unfortunately, I copy a recipe to Word just as it is. By the time I get back to writing it as I like and want it, I don't remember where I got it or who wrote it. So I feel safe in sharing it because I change it so much when rewriting it to my liking. I hate recipes where they list the ingredients in paragraph style. Makes for difficulty in reading. But if it looks like a recipe that I like, I will take the time to try and convert it so it is more readable.

Pirate wants to keep my collection of recipes. So I do try to keep them so that he won't be left trying to figure out what I meant. That has been a big problem for CWS. She inherited her grandmother's and mother's recipe box with notes for just a lot of the recipes. It has been quite a challenge for her.

I have only one cookbook that I go to. And that is for certain bread recipes. Otherwise it is the Internet for me. So folks, if you think your children or the next generation will want your recipes, keep these little tid-bits of information about how to keep your recipes. And let a family member that doesn't live with you know where all your recipes are. That small recipe box is no longer used today. It seems to be all computer run.

Some members keep their recipes on Cloud. I don't know how to use Cloud and really at age 77, I have no interest in learning new programs. I know how to save to my computer and to a flash drive. I do often write a personal note on my recipes such as I did with my Boston Baked Beans. Such as I prefer using a sifter rather than a whisk for the dry ingredients in a bowl. I am stuck in a rut of the 30's. That is where my mother cooked and she is the one who taught me. I have made and accepted some changes. My mother had a hand egg beater that she used to make whipped cream. I fortunately have not only my KA mixer but also a hand held electric beater. :angel:
 
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When I started to set the format for my recipes, I increased font size from 11 pt. to 12 pt. so I could read the recipes without my glasses. Sadly, 12 pt. no longer does the trick. I don't think 14 pt. is practical so I probably should go back to 11 pt and use my glasses.

Andy, I have one of these recipe holders.

http://www.amazon.com/Architec-RR3R...&qid=1463847675&sr=8-3&keywords=Recipe+holder

I love it. I print out my recipes and have it sitting right above on the shelf where I can read the recipe as I follow it. You just have too make sure you leave at least a four inch margin for the bottom when doing a page setup. I never print out or copy the picture. Waste of ink. :angel:
 
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A RAID array is hard drive fault tolerant, but you still need to have multiple backups, preferably on different media. At work we had a 10 tape rotation, which is overkill for home use, but necessary for business use (if you want to keep your job).

If you get hit by ransomware (such as cryptolocker), you will appreciate multiple backup sets so you can go back in time to recover files. A backup copy of corrupt files is not of any value.

And i guess you didn't read the rest. The external is NOT hooked up all the time so i think I'll know about malware prior to hooking up the external.
 
When I finalize a recipe, I use the format used for the food photographer. The template includes time needed, level of difficulty, tools, ingredients, any steps to before starting, prepping ingredients, e.g. Lemon: zest and juice. Cooking instructions, including while the rice is cooking, prepare the salad. Finally, at the end a plating suggestion. When developing the recipe, I use shorthand symbols (brackets, arrows, a lowercase c with a line overr it, etc.) to indicate which ingreds are timed, etc. The next time I make it, I weigh ingredients. I take my notes and write up the recipe using the format and pictures. Often I with an idea and run with it.
 
For recipes not requiring baking I write them as follows:

My Perfect Fish Batter (IMHO)
Ingredients:
3/4 cup AP flour
2 Tbs. cornstarch
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 Tbs. fresh snipped dill (optional)
3/4 cup ICE cold water
juice of half of a fresh juicy lemon (about 3 Tbs.)

Directions
Use a med. bowl, and with a wire whisk, whisk dry ingredients to be sure they are well blended. Have a large skillet ready with an inch of vegetable oil nearly smoking hot.

Squeeze half a juicy lemon into a measuring cup, and fill to the 3/4 line with ICE cold water. Mix quickly into the dry ingredients, till only small lumps remain. It does not need to be smooth.

With tongs, drag each piece of fish through the batter till well coated on each side. Lay the piece in the hot oil, and continue.

Do not crowd the pieces. You can do this in batches, keeping cooked fish on a rack in a warm oven. It will take a very short time, depending on the thickness of the fish. Do not overcook. Serve with lemon slices

I'm flattered you enjoy my recipe Addie. http://www.discusscooking.com/forums/f16/my-perfect-fish-batter-71933.html
 
Flash drives are magnetic media, too. They're not designed to be used for backup, but for moving files from one computer to another.
I don't want to stray off topic, but flash drives are non-volatile electronic memory, similar to the memory chips in your computer. Prices have dropped enough so that solid state drives are replacing traditional hard drives in computers (desktops, laptops, notebooks), mostly for performance reasons. iPads have solid state drives. Flash drives will work just fine for backups, although they are about ten times the cost of an external hard drive for the same capacity.
 
They're not designed to be written to multiple times. I'm not willing to risk it.

Can USB flash drives serve reliably as backup drives?

The Answer

SuperUser contributor Brendan Long has the answer for us:

I cannot think of any reason to use USB flash drives for backups. First off, read the reviews of the most popular 128 GB USB flash drive on Newegg and ask yourself if you want to use that for backups:

PNY 128GB Turbo USB 3.0 Flash Drive Model P-FD128TBOP-GE (Newegg)

Some Choice Quotes:

Cons: Bought four and they all worked in the beginning, all but one stopped working. One was only used three times and only contained one small file. RMA-ed one last week, two others failed today.

Pros: It was defective from the onset, so my friend did not lose any data.

Cons: Died after one use, tried it on three different PCs and it was no longer recognized. Had to pay to return it.

I think you get the idea.

http://www.howtogeek.com/218390/can-a-usb-flash-drive-be-used-reliably-as-a-manual-backup-drive/
 
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Sorry, but that's no longer true. Modern flash drives are designed for more rewrites than a consumer will ever encounter.

Okay. They do fail, though.

I guess I'm going to be irrational about this one ;) I have lost too much data over the years with different types of media, so it gives me great peace of mind to turn the responsibility over to a professional company. It's well worth the $50 or so per year to me. YMMV, of course.
 
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Sorry, but that's no longer true. Modern flash drives are designed for more rewrites than a consumer will ever encounter.

I don't rewrite over anything ever on my flash drive. I have never had a problem with it yet. I recently plugged in one that was several years old. I came across it when cleaning house. I was curious as to what I had stored on it. No problem opening it or reading anything that was on it. :angel:
 
I don't rewrite over anything ever on my flash drive. I have never had a problem with it yet. I recently plugged in one that was several years old. I came across it when cleaning house. I was curious as to what I had stored on it. No problem opening it or reading anything that was on it. :angel:

I'll see that anecdote and raise you two! :LOL:
 
I hadn't seen your recipe before, Kayelle, so I just gave it a glance. It sounds like something I'd like to make. Two questions. First, do you think this would work in a fish taco? When I finally get around to making them, I was planning on just dusting the pieces with flour and doing a shallow-fry. Second, I was thinking that fish might benefit from the dry brining process that is suggested on Serious Eats when preparing shrimp. I tried this process, fell in love with it, and use it all the time when I cook shrimp now, no matter how I cook it. It reads:

You're looking for about 1 teaspoon of kosher salt and 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda for every pound of shrimp; give it a quick toss and rest the shrimp in the fridge for anywhere from 15 minutes to about an hour. After that 15 minutes, I rinse, pat dry, and return to the fridge to cool its heels for at least an hour.
 
Yes, that batter and method would work great for fish taco's CG. I'd chunk up the fish before frying to have more surface area, or maybe cook strips of fish to lay in the tortilla.

Interesting about the shrimp at Serious Eats! SC came home with a bag of big raw frozen shrimp yesterday, so I'll be trying it soon!
 
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