500g recipes, 400g packs

[HisHobbyIsSex]

Grr. AIBU to think how cynical of supermarkets to put lots of ingredients that used to come in 500g packs into 400g - rhubarb, mince beef etc.
Means they don't work for many recipes which are all written for 500g or 1kg of something.
I love cooking, but also a bit anal about following recipes, as it gives me confidence I otherwise lack.

Divide by 5, times by 4 (other amounts I mean). Bit of a pain but doable if you make notes? I usually buy mince in 400g packs and always have, but I'm very slapdash about amounts in everything other than cakes when it really matters!

Just scale the recipe down 20% if necessary

I just use the 400g pack and it's fine. It's only for baking that it matters and then only with the ingredients that interact (so a rhubarb cake with 400g of rhubarb is fine).

Traditionally most recipes asked for measurements in lbs which would be around 450g.

The vast majority of recipes will still work with 400g rather than 500g, I can guarantee the person writing the recipe hasn't actually used exactly 500g of something, it's been put in as a 'sounds about right' measurement.

But if it really bothers you a butcher will give you whatever quanity of meat you want and it will probably be cheaper and better quality than supermarket rip off meat anyway.

Well you just use 80% of the other ingredients if you have to use exactly the right amount. Or you use a 400g pack of mine and pad it out with 100g of carrots or lentils.

Since when did packs ever match up with recipes anyway? That's not how it works.

Just scale it yourself, it's not hard. Not that you need to scale most things anyway.

It really wouldn't matter in most recipes. So for example if it is mince in bolognese or Shepherds pie add more veg. Many savoury dishes would work fine .
Baking is more tricky, but tbh I often reduce sugar in some recipes by 10 or 20% with no ill effect .
I think packets of food getting smaller and costing more is here to stay sadly .

We often have the same grumble about packs of 6 hot dog buns and jars of 8 or packs of 10 hot dogs.

It's a hangover from the imperial measurement system. Most people would get 1lb of mince for a recipe for example. Which is ~450g.

If you want 500g go to the butcher counter and get it measured out.

The good thing about recipes is that you scale them to the size you need

Food isnt sold in pack sizes to fit a random recipe, how would that even work?

Shrinkflation is very much a thing but has no effect on how you work out recipes

Quite a lot of recipe writers design their recipes around standard pack sizes though, which is useful. Nigella is very good for this, or else specifying an amount and then saying it's fine to use the standard pack amount if that's what you have.

I had a Paul Hollywood cookbook which was full of psychopathic quantities like 255g butter, very annoying.

How does the writer know how many people you're cooking for? Unless youre baking rather than cooking doesn't everyone adapt the recipe for the number of eaters?

Or have I turned into one of thos posters who doesnt realise that everyone is different, I haven't been doing cooking wrong my whole life have I?

The Paul Hollywood thing would be because he’s dealing with baking which can be very precise if you want a precise result - fine to slip stuff into a bowl if you’re making a rough and ready jam sponge for pudding, it so much if you’re making baguettes or patisserie. I would imagine those recipes are quite strictly tested for quantities.

For other things - most savoury dishes - precise amounts don’t much matter. A bit less or more mince in a shepherd’s pie just means it’s a bit more or less meaty. I would pay attention to amounts of herbs and
spices, and of liquid, in a recipe I was making for the first time but I rarely actually weigh anything for a savoury recipe. Just eyeball it.

99% of recipes have a little note somewhere at the top (or at the front of the book) telling you it serves 4.

Have you never noticed that recipes tend to specify 400g tinned tomatoes, a tin of chickpeas, a ball of mozzarella etc? Much easier for a home cook than 500g tinned tomatoes (1.25 tins) or 1.3 balls of mozzarella or whatever.

If the recipe said it served 4 and I was cooking for 5, I'd probably just make do with a bit less and only scale up the bits that were easy to scale or couldn't be avoided. I wouldn't measure out a quarter of a tin of tomatoes.

@AtomicBlondeRose I think at least some of the recipes were scaled down from catering quantities, so they'd just divided the figures. Life is too short to weigh out 133g flour 😂

All I ever do is make the receipt with almost exact quantities, or double it

80% of everything- fucking alexa would be on maths overdrive and I couldn't cope 😂

I have the mn face book "Mince", and they're all 500g or 1kg. At first packs were this, and now they are 400g.

It will be fine. You don't have to stick to recipes that exactly. Just follow the recipe and use whatever you have.

Or just go to the butchers counter?

most recipes (excluding baking recipes) are actually just supposed to be a guide not a hard and fast rule. I've never made a meal from a recipe that has been nicer than if I had just made it using my own judgement.

None of the chefs who write those recipes are sat there with a set of weighing scales each time they make something. They make it up as they go along using taste and appearance.

Multiply the original number by 0.8.

So 80% of 320g is 320 x 0.8 = 256g. Just make a note of the new amount next to the old one on the recipe.