Equipment

When you change the size of a recipe, you must often change the equipment, too. This change often means the recipe does not work in the same way. Cooks must be able to use their judgment to anticipate these problems and to modify their procedures to avoid them. The example just given, of cooking a large batch of soup in a steam kettle or in a tilting skillet, is among the kinds of problems that can arise when you change cooking utensils.

Other problems develop because of mixers or other processing equipment. For example, if you break down a salad dressing recipe to make only a small quantity, you might find there is so little liquid in the mixing machine that the beaters don’t blend the ingredients properly.