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Main Dialog

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Byicecreamcalc

Introduction

WORK IN PROGRESS TO UPDATE TO VERSION 4

Welcome to the Ice Cream Calculator. This is the main dialog and this is where you work with your recipes. The dialog can be divided into a few different sections. The top row of buttons handles saving and loading of recipes as well as tools and settings. The tab control holds all your currently opened recipes in tabs. Below the recipe there are functions to modify the recipe and finally there is the chart and panels that lets you analyze and balance your recipe.

Top row of buttons

You can customize the available buttons. Right click to show the Customize buttons drop down. The functions in the list can be added as buttons in the toolbar.

Menu
New Creates a new recipe in a new tab.
Open file Open a recipe from a file
Save file Save recipe to a file
Settings Opens the settings dialog
Check for updates Check if there is a new version available
Help Opens this article
Print
– Print setup Print recipe and print settings
– Print Print recipe
– Quick Quick print recipe
Recipe
– Replace milk/cream Replace the milk and/or cream in the recipe with milk and/or cream with another fat percentage. Useful when copying recipes from books or online and the milk/cream they use is not the same as the milk/cream you have available.
– Save as ingredient Save the recipe as an ingredient
– Add to planning Adds recipe to the planning
– Produce Produce recipe
– Overrun Calculate overrun
– Baker’s percentage Opens the Baker’s percentage dialog.
– Append recipe Select a recipe and append it to the current recipe
– Weight grid Show the recipe in a grid for different weights
– Recipe flow chart Create a flowchart of the recipe (experimental)
Export
– PDF Export recipe as a PDF
– Excel Export recipe to Excel
– CSV Export recipe to a CSV file
– YAML Export recipe as a YAML file that can be used in Paprika recipe applicationExit

Wizard Creates a new recipe using the Ice Cream Wizard Recipe Generator.
Open Open a recipe from the recipe database.
Save Saves the current recipe in the database.
Save as Saves the current recipe as a new recipe in the database and let’s you set the name.
Save all Saves all recipes in all tabs.
Ingredients Opens the ingredients database dialog where you manage all the ingredients.
Reports Opens the reports dialog where you can create and generate reports.
Planning Opens the production planning dialog.
Inventory Opens the inventory and stock-taking dialog
Properties Opens the recipe properties dialog.
Add-Ins Manage add-ins
Profile Toggles the recipe profile. The chart and panels will be saved with the recipe. This is useful when you work with multiple recipes at the same time. For example you have one Sorbet recipe, one Gelato recipe and one Ice Cream recipe opened. When switching between the recipe tabs the chart and panels will change automatically when the Profile is activated.
+Link Press this button to add Link-buttons to websites or documents.

Buttons below recipe

Add Add an ingredient
AddR Add a recipe
Remove Remove selected ingredient
Replace Replace selected ingredient. Control-click to replace with a recipe.
Edit Edit selected ingredient
Clear Remove all ingredients from the current recipe
Move up Move selected ingredient up
Move down Move selected ingredient down
Undo Undo changes
Redo Redo changes

Size buttons

The Autosize height button will resize the recipe grid to fit all rows in the recipe. The grid can be set to a fixed position or it can be set to auto size itself to always show all rows in the recipe. This settings is available in the Settings dialog or can be toggled by double-clicking the thin colored splitter below the recipe. When this splitter is green it is in autosize mode and if it is blue it is in fixed mode. It is red if all rows are not visible.

The Compact table button will resize the columns in the recipe to fit the text in each column.

The Expand table button will expand the columns to fit the whole page.

Tabs

Each opened recipe is in a tab. So you can have multiple recipes opened at the same time.
Clicking the “empty” small tab to the right will create a new empty recipe tab. You can rearrange the tabs by dragging them with the mouse.
Right clicking on a Tab brings up the following options.

Close tab Closes the tab
Close all but this Closes all tabs except this one
Close all Closes all tabs
Copy Creates a copy of the recipe in a new tab
Rename Let’s you rename the recipe
Copy to clipboard Copies the ingredients to the clipboard
Reload Reloads the recipe from the database
Revision Revisions can be used to create variants of a recipe without the need to create multiple copies. This will keep the database cleaner and it is easier to handle.
– New revision Creates a new revision of the recipe
– Below are all available revisions of this recipe.
Flatten If the recipe has other recipes as ingredients it will replace these with the individual ingredients.
Merge If the recipe has multiple identical ingredients these ingredients will be merged to one row.

Ingredient weight area

Above the ingredients you have tools to change the weight of the currently selected ingredient. You can of course also change the weight in the table directly.

First you have the name of the selected ingredient and a weight input box.
Second is a small button “…” to open the Modify weight dialog. Here you can change the weight of the ingredient in different ways.

Then there is a slider you can use to change the weight. Drag the slider and see the charts and panels update in real time. Useful for fine tuning your recipe.

There is also a slider to change the weight as a percentage. Drag the slider the same way as for the weight slider. There are also two red dots that lets you set the min and max ranges for the ingredient. These min and max ranges are used in the balancing. To the right of this slider there is a button to set the min range to 0% and the max range to 100%.

Recipe grid

This is the actual recipe. One ingredient per row in the table. The picture above shows the default table layout. The table can be customized by adding, removing, resizing and changing place of the columns.
The two yellow rows at the bottom summarizes each column by weight and percentage. In some columns though the sum value has a different meaning. Each column will be detailed below.

Some cells can be edited, the Weight, W%, Min% and Max% cells. All other cells are read only.

Customizing the table

To customize the table you Right+Click in any of the cells to bring up a drop-down list of options.

Edit
Edit the ingredient.
Visible columns
Brings up a dialog where you select the columns to show in the table.
Select font
Select the font used in the table
Save table
Save the table layout.
Delete
Delete a table layout. A fly-out is presented with all saved layouts.
Default
This is the default read-only table layout.
Simple
This is a simpler read-only layout with fewer columns.

Below this all the saved layouts are shown and can be selected. This makes it easy to change between different layouts. You might have a certain layout for ice cream but a totally different layout for other types of recipes.

If you right click on an ingredient that is a recipe you will get two additional options.
Open
Opens the recipe in a new tab
Open scaled
Opens the recipe in a new tab scaled with the recipe scale factor

Recipe Columns

  • Ingredient
    Name of the ingredient. Double click to open the ingredient dialog and Control+double click to open the weight dialog.
    To the right in this cell there is a Green box. If you click the box you can lock the weight of this ingredient when balancing the recipe. When clicking the box it will toggle between green and red. So, green means the balancing can change the weight and when the box is red the weight is locked when balancing.
  • Weight
    Weight in grams of the ingredient. To change the weight just type in the new weight. You can also use simple expressions directly in the edit box. For example if the weight is 123.45 and you wold like to double that you can type in 123.45*2 and the weight will change to 246.90.
    It is also possible to write formulas in this edit similar to formulas in Excel. For example you would like one ingredient to always be a percentage of another ingredient you can type in a formula like this. =[ingredient name]*0.8
    More information on weight formulas below.
  • W%
    This is the weight of the ingredient as a percentage of the total weight.
  • Min% and Max%
    The Min% and Max% are used in the balancing. This is the minimum and maximum percentage of the ingredient. You can change the values in the edit boxes or in the slider above the recipe.
  • Volume
    The volume of the ingredient. The unit of the volume can be set in the Settings dialog and the default is Liter. The volume is only displayed for ingredients with the “Gram per mL” value set. This is the density of an ingredient and is needed to calculate the volume. If this is not set the Volume is blank.
    Double-Clicking this cell will open the Volume to Weight conversion dialog.
  • Total fat
  • Sugar
    Sugar is the total weight of sugars excluding lactose. If you want to display all sugars including lactose use the Total sugar instead. The reason for this is that some people do not want to count lactose in the sugars and instead display lactose separately.
  • MSNF
    Milk Solids Not Fat.
  • Other solids
  • Total solids
  • FWater
    FWater is the final water in the ingredient after evaporation.
  • PAC
    This is the PAC divided by Final weight.
    Example Sucrose has 100 PAC, if you have 50g sucrose in a 2000g recipe the PAC would be 100*0.5/2=25.
    In some ice cream and Gelato training classes where you do all calculations by hand you might display the PAC differently and instead divide the sum total of all ingredients PAC with the final weight of the recipe. In case you would like to work like that use the PAC* column instead. This column however is the preferred method in the calculator as you can directly see how much an ingredient contributes to the total PAC.
    The summary row Total % for PAC shows the normalized PAC. This is the total PAC in relation to the water in the recipe and calculated as PAC*FinalWeight/FinalWater.
  • POD
    This is the POD divided by Final weight.
    Same as for PAC.
  • B%
    Bakers percentage. The first ingredient in the list is the reference ingredient and is always 100%. Bakers percentage is not used in ice cream making but more in baking and pastry recipes.
  • W/Water
    This is the weight of the ingredient divided by final water weight.
  • Category
  • Butter fat
  • Cocoa fat
  • Fat
    This is the fat that is not butter fat or cocoa fat. Calculated as TotalFat-ButterFat-CocoaFat
  • Protein
  • Lactose
  • Total sugar
    Total sugar including lactose.
  • Cocoa solids
  • Stabilizers
  • Emulsifiers
  • TSNF
    Total Solids Not Fat.
  • Salt
  • Alcohol
  • Water
    Water in the ingredient. This is not affected by evaporation. Use FWater to show the water after evaporation.
  • KCAL
  • KJ
  • HF*
    Hardening factor. Each ingredient can have a hardening factor defined that acts like a negative PAC. This is used to control the hardening effects from chocolate and nut ingredients.
    Not scaled with final weight.
  • PAC*
    This is the PAC of the ingredient multiplied by the weight of the ingredient. Use this if you would like to show the PAC without scaling with final weight.
  • POD*
    Same as PAC*
  • HF
    Hardening factor. Each ingredient can have a hardening factor defined that acts like a negative PAC. This is used to control the hardening effects from chocolate and nut ingredients.
    Scaled by final weight.
  • Cost
    Cost of the ingredient.
  • User1 to User6
    User defined ingredient variables. The names of these can be set in the Settings dialog.
  • Formula
    In the ingredient has a formula defined the value is shown in this column.

Weight formulas

In the weight edit box you can write formulas. To add a formula type = followed by an expression.
To use the weight of another ingredient you type the name of the ingredient inside brackets [name].
After adding a correct formula the weight field will look like this. Ending with a =$ to indicate this cell contains a formula.

There will also be a tool-tip showing the actual formula.
If you make a syntax error when typing the formula you will get an error message.
The error message will indicate the error and also display valid tags to use in the formula.

Example. If we for example always would like the Dextrose to be half the weight of the Sucrose we would add this formula to the Dextrose ingredient. =[Sucrose]*0.5
All weight changing operations and balancing will use the formulas.
Note! Remember that it is possible to write formulas or combination of formulas that are impossible to solve.

Recipe weight area

Here you manipulate the total weight of the recipe.

Total weight
Changes the total weight of the recipe and scales all the ingredients uniformly.
Rescale button
Brings up the advanced rescale dialog where you can change the total weight or the weight of individual ingredients with the options to lock the weights of some ingredients. If an ingredient in the table has the red locked box checked then this ingredient is automatically locked as default when opening the rescale dialog.
So, basically to change the total weight and uniformly scale all ingredients use the Total weight edit and to have more control of the scaling use the Rescale button.
Final weight
The final weight is the weight of the mix after evaporation.
Evaporation
When cooking a mix on the stove you will get some evaporation. Normally between 3% and 5%. The calculator can account for this, just set the amount of evaporation and the Final weight changes.
If you however use a pasteurizer you normally does not have any evaporation.
Round proportional
Rounds all ingredient weights to a rounded value using smart rounding based on the weight. If you plan to publish your recipes it might look nicer if the weights are rounded.
When pressing any of the rounding buttons the recipe before rounding is added to the compare toggle so you can see how much the rounding affected the chart.
Round nearest
Same as above but rounds to the nearest integer weight if it is above 10g.
Ice cream volume
Sets the total weight to give a specified final ice cream volume. Say you would like to produce 5L ice cream, then press this button and specify 5L and the weight of the mix is calculated. The calculations are based on a density estimation of the mix and the expected overrun.
Ratio slider
This is a very useful tool to change the ratio of two or more ingredients. More info in the Ratio dialog.
Stabilizers
This is a tool to control the amount of stabilizers in the recipe. More info in the Stabilizer dialog.
More…

Under the More… drop down list you have additional methods to modify the recipe weight.
Mix volume
Change the weight to get a specified mix volume.
Final weight
Set the final weight and keep the same evaporation. This will thus change the total weight accordingly.
Final water %
Some applications needs to set the evaporation to reach a final water percentage.
Evaporation calculator
Opens the evaporation calculator where you can apply evaporation on a subset of the ingredients.

Scoopability

This shows approximately how hard the ice cream will be at -13C/8.6F and -16C/3.2F.
The black bar shows the temperature range so the left side is -13C and the right is -16C.
The green area indicates a scoopable ice cream where the left side of the green area is softer and the right is harder.

Overrun

The overrun slider enables you to change the expected overrun. Note! It is not possible to calculate the overrun automatically, so you have to supply this value yourself. The overrun affects the estimated final volume of ice cream.

Data grid

This grid shows useful data for your recipe.
Right click in the grid to modify what you like to display here.

Chart area

This is where you analyze and balance your recipes. By designing different charts you can balance and analyze your recipes for different types of ice creams and other products. The drop down list contains all available charts.

  • Add+
    Creates a new chart.
  • Add++
    Creates a new chart using the current recipe for min and max ranges.
  • Remove
    Remove the selected chart from the list.
  • Edit
    Edit the selected chart. More info in the Edit chart dialog.
  • Online charts
    Opens the online chart database where you can download charts for different types of ice cream, gelato, sorbet, soft serve etc…
    More info in the Online charts dialog.
    After downloading a chart you can modify it and fine tune it to your liking.
  • Auto
    Analyzes the recipe and automatically selects the best matching chart in the list.

Balance
Pressing this button to balance the current recipe using the selected chart and panels.
More info on balancing recipes in general can be found here. Balancing.
The balancing will obey the min-max ranges set in the ingredients as well as the locked red box. If the ingredient is locked the weight will not change.
To be able to balance you have to set a min and/or max range in the data in the chart or panels.
If the same data is present both in the chart and in the panels it will use the chart data item for balancing.

Compare
This will toggle the compare chart information. So, pressing this button will add bars to the chart of the current recipe. You can then modify the recipe or switch to another recipe and always be able to compare to the original. This is very useful when modifying a recipe or comparing different recipes.

More compare tools
The small … button will bring up more compare options.
Compare data
Opens the compare data dialog where you can compare all the open recipes.
Compare chart
Opens the compare chart dialog where you can compare all open recipes using the selected chart.

Nutrients
Brings up the nutrients dialog.
Chart from nutrients
Press this button to create a chart for reverse engineering a product. This lets you create a chart using the nutrient label information. More info in the Nutrient balance chart dialog.

Data
Opens the data dialog where you can see all the data calculated for the current recipe as well as create your own custom data using simple formulas. More info in the Data dialog.

Freezing curve
Opens the freezing curve dialog. Plots different freezing curves for the current recipe.

POD PAC +/-
Increase or decrease the PAC or POD. Use these buttons to quickly do small adjustments to the PAC and POD.

Chart

This is the selected chart.
Press the i button in the top left corner for a description of the chart.
Click on a bar to edit that data item. More info in the Edit data dialog.
Right+Click in the chart for more options.
You can Add, Edit, Delete and select new charts as well as copying an image of the chart to the clipboard.

Both chart bars and panels are color coded. If a min and/or max range has been set the color will be green if the value is in range and red if it is out of range. If no range has been set the color is yellow.

Panels

In addition to the charts you can also add panels with information.
The panels can also have min/max ranges and are used when balancing.
You can create your own panel designs and save them. Press the Save and Save as buttons to save your panel layout.
Pressing the + button or right clicking will bring up a drop down list with multiple options.

Add panel
Add a new panel. More info in the Edit data dialog.
Add chart
Add a new panel chart. Creates a donut chart to compare the relative amounts from multiple data items. More info in the Edit chart panel dialog.
Insert
Adds a saved panel layout to the current layout.
Delete
Delete a panel layout.
Clear
Clears all panels.
Auto arrange
If this is checked the panels will auto arrange automatically.

Notes

Here you can write notes for the recipe.
Pressing the Notes button will open the Notes dialog with more editor options.
There is a splitter bar between the notes and panels, just drag this splitter to resize the relative areas.

Right-Click to select the default font for the notes.

Shortkeys

There are a few short-keys defined.

Del
Deletes the current ingredient.
Control+S
Saves the recipe
Control+Z
Undo
Control+Y
Redo
Control+N
New recipe
Control+O
Open recipe
Control+P
Print recipe
Control+W
Close the current tab
Control+A
Add ingredient

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