[Sca-cooks] OOP, somewhat on-topic...

[Elaine Koogler]

Thanks for these ideas, Master A...I never thought of using that particular
program to sort out my ingredients, but will try it the next time I cook a
feast.  I also plan to pass it on to my apprentice, who, with her lord
husband, is cooking our next event!

Another thought, though I haven't tried it...just finished learning about
the product yesterday...is another product by those self-same Forces of
Darkness, called MSProject.  Using that, you can come up with a list of
resources (ingredients/cooking utensils/help), along with a timeline for
accomplishing the project.  The next time I cook a feast I may try this.  It
would help me to see what I need to do when.  You can give it an end
date/time, and it will help you get things sorted out as to what needs to be
done when.

Kiri
----- Original Message ----- >
> Do people want to throw ideas into the ring?
>
> My totally non-period contributions, apart from the obvious stuff
> like food processors, are two which figured heavily last weekend. One
> is sort of anecdotal, but very simply a life-saver. Five or so years
> ago this would have been unheard of, but on Saturday I found myself a
> passenger in a moving car full of a meat order that had taken much
> longer than expected to assemble; we also took a wrong turn due to
> highway construction and bad signs, so we were fairly late. I hear
> this peculiar noise, and I realize it is the accursed device clipped
> to my belt, which I keep for emergencies, communicating with my wife,
> and in lieu of the eight billion broken pay phones in Manhattan. It
> turns out that my friend and frequent co-conspirator, Master Robin
> Argyle, was already on-site, looking at most of the supplies for the
> day, wondering what to do. It had never occurred to me to set up any
> kind of drop-dead contingency plan. I was just going to show up and
> cook for a small, quirky, and emotionally-charged event. Anyway, the
> bottom line is I was able to look at my notes, and get the dayboard
> and the feast started by remote, as it were. I arrived at least
> ninety minutes late, and we were still more or less on schedule.
>
> The second, probably obvious-to-everyone-else thing some of us may
> take for granted: a good spreadsheet program. I use the one that is
> part of an office suite produced by the Forces of Darkness, since my
> lady wife needs it for her job and can't seem to manage StarOffice
> for Linux. Here's what I've found helpful in the past.
>
> Column A is your menu or menus, subdivided by meals, if more than
> one, then by courses, and then by dish name. In column B, next to
> each dish, and working your way down, are your ingredients for each
> dish. It helps to spell consistently, capitalize or not capitalize
> consistently, etc. Column C is the quantity of each ingredient needed
> for each dish. Et cetera. Remember to include entries for salt and
> such, even if you don't know the exact quantities. You can also
> include a column showing total prep and cooking time, assuming you
> know these. Subtract these times from service time and you have your
> schedule, more or less. If you want to go hog-wild, include a column
> of basic instructions for each ingredient, as in Onions/6
> lbs/chopped, sweat in olive oil. This is your master chart.
>
> You can then make a copy, delete Column A, which is only confusing at
> this point, and sort alphabetically by entries in Column B. Suddenly
> you have a chart showing all instances of butter usage, together, and
> how much for each. Ditto milk, flour, etc. Say hello to your shopping
> list. Yes, you'll have to add up the quantities (and there's probably
> a way to make this unnecessary, too, but I don't bother), and figure
> out stuff like how much salt to buy (I usually waste a ton of money
> and splurge on a box of Kosher salt for every feast, use it for
> seasoning, throwing it on greasy floors, fighting fires, cleaning
> griddles, etc.).
>
> It also can be used to generate your ingredients list for those who
> need this information.
>
> I've noticed, though, that when you have your notes set up this way,
> the other cooks will actually go and consult them, and you have much
> more time to consult with the people with allergies to nutmeg, or
> whatever.
>
> So, what's the stuff that other people do to make life easier? We've
> talked about this before, but we also have a fair number of newish
> people on the list that might benefit from this.
>
> Adamantius
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