FoodBanter.com - View Single Post - reducing a commerical receipe to home use? help please

Bob (this one)

wrote:

> I have a commerical size receipe that calls for 4 ounces of liquid
> ingredient "A" to 2 gallons of liquid ingredient "B". I want to cut
> this down to home use size so I'd like to know how you convert to get
> the proportional usage for "A" for 1 pint of "B" and for 1 quart of
> "B". (I know once I get either the pint or quart measurement, the
> other is easy). I'm pretty good at math, but I falter I start to deal
> with fractional teaspoon measurements (plus I don't know how a weight
> (ounces) relates to a volume (teaspoon) in baking. If anyone can
> provide any help, I would much appreciate it. Thanks,

One US gallon is 128 fluid ounces. Two gallons is obviously twice any of
these units. These numbers are how many of the units make a gallon.
4 quarts (32 ounces)
8 pints (16 ounces, 2 to the quart)
16 cups (8 ounces, 2 to the pint)
256 tablespoons (1/2 ounce, 16 to the cup)
768 teaspoons (3 to the tablespoon)

There's no useful relationship between volume and weight. It varies with
the ingredient. There are no fractional teaspoon measurements in this.

To convert the "A" amounts, you derive a factor for "B" as a ratio
between the original amount and the desired amount, and multiply. For a
quart of "B," you need 1/8 of the amount the original recipe calls for
(8 quarts in 2 gallons). 1/8 means - to get the percent - to divide 1 by
8 = .125 or 12.5%. You only need 12.5% of the original amount of "A" for
the new recipe.

For a pint, 1/16.

For a quart, it's what percent of the original "B" is the new amount?
Multiply original "A" by that.(0.125 x 4)=.5 ounce or one tablespoon.

For a pint, same process. It's 1/4 ounce or 1/2 tablespoon or 1 1/2
teaspoons.

Having said all that, not all recipes can be "scaled" like this just by
simple arithmetic. Ingredients have a funny way of misbehaving when so
drastically changed from the original formulations. Seasonings come out
different, batters and doughs stray... like that. It's experiment time.

Pastorio