Sausage & Meat Curing Recipe Template w/Scaling & Calculators......

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diggingdogfarm

Master of the Pit
Original poster
Jun 23, 2011
4,648
176
Southern Tier of New York State
Below is a spreadsheet recipe template that I put together, I thought that some folks may find it useful.

It includes three types of scaling and additional calculators.

It's intended to be used with gram measurements only for best accuracy, especially when scaling.

An accurate gram scale should be used (preferably high resolution.)

Before starting, click “File” in the upper left and then “Save as...” (or equivalent) to name the new spreadsheet and save the original template.

The green column is the batch multiplier...change the number in the upper green box (cell G3) to take the numbers in the base recipe “Amount” column and multiple them by cell G3 to get the scaled ingredient amounts. Example multipliers, "0.5" for half a batch, "2" to double the batch, etc. etc. etc.

The yellow column is the meat weight scaler, enter the weight of meat on hand in to the upper yellow box (cell G4) to take the numbers in the base recipe “Amount” column and multiple them by cell G4 to get the scaled ingredient amounts.

There's a Baker's Percents column to the right as an additional scaling option.

The spreadsheet was created in LibreOffice Calc (*.ods) and converted to Microsoft Excel (*.xls). I don't have Microsoft Excel (I absolutely HATE Microsoft) to check for formatting errors, so some formatting errors are possible. I've included both files and screenshots to confirm the formatting.

I've also included a sample recipe in the same file to demonstrate some of the options.

Please inform me of any errors.

Any and all feedback is welcome.

Please let me know what you think.



Here's a screen shot of the template:




Here's a screenshot of the example recipe:


In the above example the the scalers are used as well as the cure calculator. The cure calculator was used to to adjust the salt in the recipe to 1.8%, the 15.66 grams of salt from the calculator was entered into the "Amount" column of the base recipe.

Click to download template in LibreOffice/OpenOffice .ods format (Recommended.)

Click to download template in Microsoft Excel .xls format.

Check, double-check and triple-check all recipes for safety and accuracy.

Have fun!

~Martin
 
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You rock Martin! 

Can't even begin to explain how much time you have saved me.  Well I guess you already know.  This is a nice tool for the belt.

I just typed in the numbers for the last batch of my home cured bacon and they look correct.

great idea and thanks

Aaron.
 
I see they got it working Martin, that's good.

Thanks for sharing this, I know it will be a big help to many!
 
Thank you Martin, my wife wants me to print out and organize the recipes I've saved. I'll try to convert them as I go over them.



You rock Martin! 
Can't even begin to explain how much time you have saved me.  Well I guess you already know.  This is a nice tool for the belt.

I just typed in the numbers for the last batch of my home cured bacon and they look correct.

great idea and thanks

Aaron.

You're welcome.


~Martin
 
Thanks Martin, this general template is very helpful!!!!!

One more thing to remember is don't get volume measurements like fluid ounces confused with actual weight ounces when trying to convert from English/Imperial to Metric.  A cup of "X" may not necessarily weigh 8 ounces, a quarter cup 2 ounces, etc...

Example - two cups of flour will actually weigh about 8 ounces, but it will fill 16 fluid ounces volume (a two cup measure).  And to make matters more confusing, different milling fineness and if the flour is sifted or not can change that even more. That is one reason why physical weights are always more accurate than volume. 

Another great thing about metric recipes is it makes working with recipes posted in "percent" instead of volume easy to figure out and adjust for different weights of meats.  This method is apparently very popular in Great Brittan, Australia and the EU.  If you visit other forums you will see a lot of recipes posted in percent and grams as the general rule (not that I'm recommending anybody stray from SMF, but there is a big world of ideas out there).

Here is a link to the USDA food nutrition database if you don't know the weight per volume of a given spice (or other ingredient for that matter).  Just search by item and you should find the info you need.  You can often find this on the USDA nutrition label on the product, but not all have the actual weight per serving like the database does.

http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/search/list#

Here is an example of Onion Powder.  Their database shows a teaspoon of onion powder will weigh 2.4 grams and a tablespoon 6.9 grams.  There is other data about the chemical and nutritional makeup, but the weights are what you want.  You can even change the volume to get new weights as I did in this screen capture, ie... 3 1/2 tablespoons weighs 24.15 grams.  If you had a recipe that called for 1 cup of onion powder, 1 cup is 16 tablespoons, so change the tablespoon value to 16 to get the weight of 1 cup of onion powder in grams (110.4 grams per cup).  Then you can work with Martin's template.

 
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I'm putting together a chart of volume to gram conversions for the most common herbs and spices used in sausage making and meat curing along with recommend amounts to start with when formulating new recipes. It should be done soon.

~Martin
 
re: USDA Nutrition Database

I use the nutrition database frequently because I'm on a somewhat restricted diet.
I've found a lot of errors and have pointed them out to the folks there several times, so take what they list with a grain of salt.
The USDA doesn't generate all the data.

Quoting part ofan email from them:

"Our data comes from the scientific literature, food companies and contracts sponsored by USDA."


~Martin
 
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re: USDA Nutrition Database

I use the nutrition database frequently because I'm on a somewhat restricted diet.
I've found a lot of errors and have pointed them out to the folks there several times, so take what they list with a grain of salt.
The USDA doesn't generate all the data.

Quoting part ofan email from them:

"Our data comes from the scientific literature, food companies and contracts sponsored by USDA."


~Martin
So another "you might be able to trust our data, but then again you might not" project funded by our tax dollars.   Great......
 
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