North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Ginda Fisher <list@ginda.us>]

...... Original Message .......
On Mon, 8 Sep 2008 12:12:17 -0700 "Stephen Sadler" <Docshiva@Docshiva.org> 
wrote:
>You almost answer your "why's that?" with your next words: "unless there's 
a
>health risk."  Although recipes can be made safe to double with the right -
>commercial - equipment, home cooks measurements of are often inaccurate.
>Four teaspoons of lemon juice might be 3 7/8; . . .

Yes, I understand why halving a recipe might be  dangerous, as the same 
size error (for instance, an eight of a tablespoon) becomes a much larger 
proportional difference.  But doubling your recipe ought to bring you 
closer to the 'true' value, assuming you are using the same equipment.

>From other responses I wonder if the more common problem is with recipes 
that give a cooking time, instead of a temperature when done, or something 
like that.  Times will obviously vary in a non-linear way with batch size.

But as I said, my food preserving experience is limited to jelly (which can 
be stored for a year after it's been opened), open-vat sour pickles, 
super-sweet cooked pickles, and stuff that will be stored frozen.  I'd be 
afraid to can things like meat or green beans.  Neither I nor my equipment 
is all that precise.
___
Ginda