Balancing
Web App Automatic Recipe Balancing – Complete Guide
Introduction
Automatic balancing is a powerful tool that helps you create well-balanced ice cream recipes by automatically adjusting ingredient weights to achieve target properties. A balanced recipe achieves the right texture, creaminess, flavor, sweetness, and firmness through the careful selection and proportion of ingredients.
The balancing system works by:
- Setting target properties (like fat %, sweetness, serving temperature) using charts
- Automatically adjusting ingredients to reach those targets
- Maintaining recipe weight while respecting your constraints
Understanding the Color System
The chart uses colors to show how well your recipe matches the target ranges:
- 🟢 Green bars – Property is within the target range (good!)
- 🔴 Red bars – Property is outside the target range (needs adjustment)
- 🟡 Yellow bars – No target range set (for reference only)
Black error bars show the acceptable min/max range for each property.
Getting Started with Balancing
Step 1: Select a Chart
Charts define the target properties for your recipe. Different ice cream styles need different targets.
- Click the Charts button in the chart sidebar
- Browse available charts (Default charts or your Personal charts)
- Select a chart that matches your ice cream style (e.g., “Ice Cream”, “Gelato”, “Sorbet”)
- The chart will display showing your recipe’s current values
Tip: Start with a Default chart like “Ice Cream Base” and adjust from there.
Step 2: Check Your Recipe Status
Look at the chart bars:
- If most bars are green, your recipe is already well-balanced
- If several bars are red, balancing can help
- Yellow bars won’t be used in balancing (no target set)
Step 3: Lock Important Ingredients
Before balancing, lock any ingredients you don’t want changed:
- Click the lock icon (🔒) next to ingredients like:
- Flavorings (vanilla extract, cocoa powder)
- Stabilizers and emulsifiers
- Special ingredients critical to your recipe
- Locked ingredients show a red lock icon and won’t be adjusted
Step 4: Run the Balance
- Click the Balance button in the chart sidebar
- Watch as the system adjusts unlocked ingredients
- The chart updates to show the new values
- Most properties should turn green
Balancing typically takes 1-4 seconds.
Manual Balancing Methods
While automatic balancing is powerful, you often need manual control for precision adjustments. The web app provides several manual balancing tools.
Weight
You can change the weight of an ingredient in different ways. Change the weight directly in the table or use the weight slider. You can also change the W% edit or use the advanced weight dialog.
Ratio Adjustment Tool
Control two ingredients together:
- Select first ingredient
- Click Tune button to open ratio panel
- Select second ingredient from chips
- Use dual sliders to adjust ratio
- Total weight of both ingredients stays constant
- Click Apply when satisfied
Use cases:
- Adjusting milk/cream ratio
- Balancing different sugars
- Fine-tuning stabilizer blends
Volume Conversion
You can open the volume conversion dialog to convert a volume to weight. The calculator works in grams so if you have a recipe with volume units you need to convert volume to weight.
Quick Adjustments
For fast, targeted changes without full balancing:
Scoopability Adjustment (PAC)
The Scoopability Bar shows how firm your ice cream will be:
- Click minus (−) to make softer (decrease PAC by ~3 units)
- Click plus (+) to make firmer (increase PAC by ~3 units)
Use this when: Your ice cream is too hard or too soft at serving temperature.
Sweetness Adjustment (POD)
The POD Card shows relative sweetness:
- Click minus (−) to make less sweet (decrease POD by ~3 units)
- Click plus (+) to make sweeter (increase POD by ~3 units)
Use this when: You want to adjust sweetness without changing texture.
Controlling Individual Ingredients
Locking Ingredients
Lock an ingredient to exclude it from balancing:
- Click the lock icon (🔒) next to the ingredient name
- Icon turns red when locked
- Locked ingredients keep their exact weight during balancing
When to lock:
- Flavorings (vanilla, cocoa, fruit purees)
- Stabilizers and emulsifiers
- Critical ingredients that define your recipe
- Any ingredient where the weight is already perfect
Setting Amount Ranges
Control how much an ingredient can change. This is an alternative to the Lock method, this enables you to control how much an ingredient can change.
- Click the Amount button for an ingredient
- Set Min % (minimum percentage of recipe)
- Set Max % (maximum percentage of recipe)
- Click Apply
Example: Set sugar to Min: 10%, Max: 20% to ensure it stays between 10-20% of recipe weight.
Default range: 0% to 100% (ingredient can be adjusted freely)
Understanding Charts
What is a Chart?
A chart is a collection of target properties that define a well-balanced recipe. Each property has:
- Min value – Lowest acceptable value
- Max value – Highest acceptable value
- Target value (optional) – Ideal value within the range
- Priority flag – Whether this property is critical
Chart Types
Default Charts:
- Created by ice cream experts
- Cover common ice cream styles
- Cannot be edited (but you can copy them)
- Can be edited temporarily from the Recipe Editor but these changes are not saved permanently.
Public Charts:
- Shared by other users
- Good starting points for specific styles
- Cannot be edited (but you can copy them)
Personal Charts:
- Your own custom charts
- Fully editable
- Can be created from scratch or copied from Default/Public charts
See the Charts documentation for details on creating and editing charts.
Advanced Balancing Techniques
Using Priority Properties
Some properties are more important than others. In charts, you can mark properties as High Priority (⭐):
- High priority properties get 2.5x more weight during balancing
- The algorithm tries harder to get these in range
- Use for critical properties like fat % or total solids
Example: In a gelato chart, you might prioritize:
- Fat % (must be lower than ice cream)
- Total sugars (affects texture critically)
- Serving temperature (defines the style)
Controlling Property Ranges
When creating or editing charts:
Tight ranges (e.g., 38-40% total solids):
- Give precise control
- May be harder to achieve
- Use for critical properties
Loose ranges (e.g., 5-15% protein):
- Easier to achieve
- More flexibility
- Use for less critical properties
Best practice: Set tight ranges on what matters most, loose ranges on secondary properties.
Using Target Values
Within a Min-Max range, you can set a specific Target value:
- Without target: Algorithm aims for the middle of the range
- With target: Algorithm aims for the specific value
Example:
- Min: 40%, Max: 47%, Target: 42%
- Recipe will aim for 42% (not the center at 43.5%)
When to use targets:
- When you know the exact ideal value
- When the ideal isn’t in the middle of the acceptable range
- For fine-tuning after getting the recipe in range
Quick Edit
You can click on a bar in the chart to quickly edit that property. This changes you chart temporarily in your current recipe. To save the change permanently press the Save button to the left of the chart.
Snapshot Comparison
Compare your current recipe against a saved version:
Taking a Snapshot
From current recipe:
- Click the Snapshot dropdown in the chart sidebar
- Select Current Recipe
- Orange bars appear showing current values
From another recipe:
- Click the Snapshot dropdown
- Select Select Recipe
- Choose a recipe from the list
- Orange bars show that recipe’s values
Using Snapshots
Once a snapshot is active:
- Orange bars = Snapshot (comparison)
- Edit your recipe and see how it compares
- Great for making adjustments while preserving a reference
Common uses:
- Before/after comparison when adjusting a recipe
- Comparing your recipe to a known good recipe
- Tracking changes during development
Clearing Snapshots
Click Snapshot ON button to remove the comparison and hide orange bars.
Balancing Best Practices
Before Balancing
1. Use enough ingredients
Balancing needs flexibility. If you only have:
- One sugar source → Hard to control both sweetness AND texture
- One dairy source → Hard to adjust fat without changing other properties
Add variety:
- Multiple sugars (sucrose, dextrose, glucose syrup)
- Multiple dairy sources (milk, cream, milk powder)
2. Avoid conflicting targets
Don’t set targets that contradict each other:
- ❌ Total fat > Total solids (impossible!)
- ❌ Very high water + very high solids (conflicting)
- ✅ Make sure your chart targets make sense together
3. Make sure ingredients have the property
Don’t target properties your recipe can’t provide:
- No emulsifiers in recipe → Don’t set emulsifier targets
- No alcohol → Don’t set alcohol targets
4. Lock or restrict ingredients
- Lock flavor ingredients or restrict them to avoid large changes
- It’s a good idea to lock or restrict ingredients that are used in very small amounts like stabilizers and emulsifiers.
After Balancing
1. Check the results
Look at:
- Are critical properties green?
- Do ingredient weights make sense?
- Is anything surprisingly high or low?
2. Make manual adjustments
Balancing is a starting point. You might want to:
- Round ingredient weights
- Slightly adjust a flavor ingredient
- Fine-tune a specific property
3. Test and iterate
- Make the recipe
- Taste and evaluate
- Note what needs adjustment
- Update your chart based on results
Tip! Sometimes you can try to press the Balance button again to improve the recipe. The balancing is time limited so pressing the button again can many times work.
Examples and Workflows
Example 1: Basic Vanilla Ice Cream Balance
Starting point: Simple recipe with basic ingredients
Goal: Create a well-balanced vanilla ice cream
Ingredients:
- Whole milk: 500g
- Heavy cream: 300g
- Sugar: 150g
- Skim milk powder: 30g
- Vanilla extract: 5g
Steps:
- Select chart: Choose “Ice Cream Base” from Default charts
- Check initial status:
- Total solids: RED (37.1%, target 39-45%)
- Serving temp: RED (-11.7C, target -17 to -14)
- POD: RED (160, target 165-180)
- Lock vanilla: Click lock icon next to Vanilla extract (keeps exact amount)
- Run balance: Click Balance button
- Wait 2 seconds: Algorithm adjusts ingredients
- Review results:
- Milk Solids RED Value:25.3 Target 16-22
- Stabilizers/Water 0
- Emulsifier 0
This recipe needs another sugar source, a stabilizer and an emulsifier!
- Add Dextrose 100g
- Add Stabilizer 2g
- Add Emulsifier (Lecithin) 2g
Lock Vanilla again if needed and Press Balance
Result: Well-balanced vanilla base ready for churning
Troubleshooting
“Balance button doesn’t work”
Possible causes:
- ✅ No chart selected → Select a chart first
- ✅ Chart has no target ranges set → Edit chart to add Min/Max values
- ✅ All ingredients are locked → Unlock at least 2 ingredients
“Balancing makes strange changes”
Possible causes:
- Too many properties with tight ranges → Relax some ranges
- Conflicting targets → Review chart for logical conflicts
- Not enough unlocked ingredients → Unlock more base ingredients
Fix: Start simple:
- Use fewer target properties
- Use wider ranges
- Unlock more ingredients
“Some properties won’t turn green”
Possible causes:
- Conflicting targets (impossible to achieve together)
- Not enough ingredient variety
- Locked ingredients preventing necessary changes
Try:
- Remove or relax less critical targets
- Add more ingredient variety
- Unlock more ingredients temporarily
“Balancing removes flavoring ingredients”
Solution: Lock or restrict all flavoring ingredients before balancing!
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Will balancing change my recipe completely?
A: No. Balancing only adjusts unlocked ingredient weights. Lock critical ingredients (flavorings, etc.) and the recipe character stays the same.
Q: How do I know what targets to use?
A: Start with Default charts (Ice Cream Base, Gelato, etc.). These are based on professional formulations. Adjust based on your results.
Q: Can I balance without a chart?
A: No. Charts define the target properties. Without targets, the algorithm doesn’t know what to optimize.
Q: Why does balancing sometimes fail?
A: Usually because targets conflict or not enough ingredients are unlocked. Try relaxing ranges or unlocking more ingredients.
Q: Should I balance every recipe?
A: No. Use balancing for:
- ✅ New recipes
- ✅ Recipes with problems (too hard, too sweet, etc.)
- ✅ When replacing ingredients
Don’t balance:
- ❌ Recipes that already work well
- ❌ Just to see what happens (it will change your recipe!)
Q: What’s the difference between Balance and Quick Adjust (PAC/POD)?
A:
- Balance: Optimizes ALL chart properties simultaneously
- Quick Adjust: Changes ONE property quickly with minimal impact on others
Use Quick Adjust for tweaks, Balance for comprehensive optimization.
Q: Can I undo balancing?
A: Yes! Use the Undo button (Ctrl+Z) to revert changes. The app tracks your recipe history.
Summary
Automatic balancing is a powerful tool for creating well-balanced ice cream recipes:
Key points:
- Select a chart that matches your style
- Lock critical ingredients (flavorings, stabilizers)
- Click Balance and let the algorithm optimize
- Use Quick Adjust (PAC/POD) for small tweaks
- Take snapshots to compare versions
- Test, taste, and iterate
Remember: Balancing is a tool, not a replacement for your expertise. Use it to handle the complex math while you focus on flavor and creativity.
Next steps:
- Try balancing a simple vanilla base recipe
- Experiment with different charts
- Create a snapshot before making changes
- Use Quick Adjust buttons for fine-tuning
- Build your own custom chart based on successful recipes
Happy ice cream making! 🍦
Technical Note! Why Recipe Balancing Can Be Difficult
Recipe balancing is a mathematically complex problem with no guaranteed solution method. Here’s why:
The Challenge: Your recipe has multiple ingredients, each affecting several properties (sweetness, fat content, texture, etc.). You’re asking the system to find ingredient amounts that put ALL properties within their target ranges simultaneously.
Why It’s Hard:
- Conflicting Constraints – Sometimes the ranges you’ve set are impossible to achieve together. For example, you might want high sweetness AND low sugar content – these can conflict.
- Complex Interactions – Ingredients don’t work in isolation. Adding milk affects fat, protein, sweetness, freezing point, and texture all at once. These interactions are nonlinear and unpredictable.
- Narrow Solutions – Even when a solution exists, it might require extremely precise amounts (like 47.3829g of something). Small variations push properties out of range.
- Local Minima – The balancing algorithm might find a “pretty good” solution but can’t improve it further without making things temporarily worse. Like being stuck in a valley and not knowing there’s a better valley nearby.
What This Means For You:
✅ When it works – The system finds a solution in seconds and your recipe balances beautifully
⚠️ When it struggles – The algorithm might:
- Get stuck in a “good but not perfect” solution
- Need multiple attempts with different starting points
- Simply not find a solution because your constraints are too tight
How To Improve Success:
- Loosen ranges slightly – Wider target ranges give more room for solutions
- Unlock more ingredients – More flexibility = more possible solutions
- Use fewer constraints – Every additional target range makes the problem harder
- Start from a working recipe – Modify successful recipes rather than starting from scratch
- Adjust one property at a time – Use Quick Adjust for small tweaks instead of full rebalancing
Remember: This isn’t a limitation of the software – it’s a fundamental mathematical challenge. Even the most powerful optimization algorithms can’t solve problems that have no solution or require impossibly precise values.