SC - big spice question

[Bonne of Traquair]

><< Any help would be greatly appreciated.
> Thank you,
> Helen >>
>
>Since I have been wroking with you in private a little on this 
project, you 
>will , hopefully understand that what I am about to say is serious 
but not 
>critical.
>
>I think you are putting the cart in front of the horse, so to speak. 
First 
>you get your recipes worked out and written in the final format. Then 
you 
>take a piece of paper and write down the amount of each ingredient. 
Then you 
>add it up. The resulting figures found under the individual 
seasioning names 
>will be the 'amount of spice  you need to buy'. It really is that 
simple. ;-)
>
>Ras

And then, when cooking, start by adding a little less than the math 
calls for and working your way up. Mass quantities don't always behave 
mathmatically correctly in taste and you could overdo it.  But do 
purchase the mathmatically correct amount, because you might well need 
it all, and you'd hate to need it and have bought less.  

For me, the hardest part in all this is going from the teaspoons and 
partial tablespoons called for in recipes for 8-12 to the ounces 
you'll need to make enough for 400. I tried measuring the weight of 
teaspoons- and tablespoons-full of each spice and estimating up.  I 
tried counting the number of spoonfuls in an ounce and figuring down. 
 I got inconsistent numbers on the few I did both ways. The whole 
issue was complicated by the call for measurements of ground spices, 
but I was buying whole.  In the end, the Whole Foods Market bulk spice 
aisle has measuring spoons and I counted out 22 teaspoons of cinnamon 
and 8 and 1/2 tablespoons of anise seed, etc.,  adding an extra 
heaping spoonful to the bag if I was buying whole but planning on 
grinding a spice. When I do this again, I'll do it by recipe and mark 
the bags: 10 tsp cinnamon for pie, 5 tsp cinnamon for the beef.

Bonne


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