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1. Calories From FatQ. I gathered a BUNCH of Nutrition Facts labels, prices, store locations etc and sat down for a marathon data entry session. I got as far as the Calories from Fat (CFF) listing before I hit a snag. I can not remove the 0.00. I have tried putting in the actual calories and I tried putting in the percentage, the 0.00 remains. I finished filling all of the remaining info in the hopes that the program would automatically fill in the elusive Calories from Fat column. No luck. A. Did you press the [SAVE] button? MasterCook will calculate both calories from fat and the percent of calories from fat. It need two pieces of information to do that: 1) Total calories and 2) Grams of Total Fat. Enter the ingredient, SAVE the entry, and you should notice MasterCook has filled in those fields. In MasterCook version 6.2 and above, the CFF field no longer appears to be editable. IMPORTANT NOTES! Enter as much info as possible (i.e. values for carbs, fiber, etc.) because the more info you enter, the more accurate the program will be with your "new" ingredient. The program uses ALL of these values to calculate the nutrition properly. You can "index" your new ingredients as well. See the More Info tab inside the Ingredient List window. This is what causes the program to track how ingredients are linked together in a hierarchy system. For example, if you perform an advance search to search by ingredient, you can have the program find all "beef" recipes, which include beef steaks, beef roasts, ground beef, etc. The reason it is able to do this is because ground beef is INDEXED AS "beef" in the Ingredient List. Scan other ingredients in the Ing. List to learn how to "index" your new ingredient. Furthermore, this is a reason to never delete ingredients just because you don't think you'll use them or they look odd (values all set to zero), like the ingredient "meat" in the Ing. List. The ingredient is in there for a reason. And, most importantly, if you do edit the ingredient list keep the ING file backed up for safe keeping of your labor! Any changes you make to the Ingredient List within the program are actually stored inside the MC Ingredients.ing file which is inside the MC TOOLS folder (inside the MasterCook folder) on your computer. I've seen people come to the MasterCook message boards wondering why their recipes don't work properly. It was found that the ING file became corrupt (caused by a virus, computer crash, or whatever) and reduced WAY down in size to around 35 KB. Their ING file was no longer good. Normally the ING file is around 3.5 MB. It is also important that this file never be set to read-only (a setting which CD-RW drives normally set during backup to disk) or it will cause problems for the program. Any time you have a corrupt ING file, you can easily replace it with the one on the disk or one you have backed up. [ Top of Page ] 2. Copying IngredientsQ: I want to add a new ingredient to the ingredient list that is simply a variation on an existing one. There's no copy button. A: To enter a new ingredient that is a variation on an existing one, go to Tools - Ingredient List to open the box to edit ingredients. Using your example, type in "salt and pepper", then click on the More Info tab (next to Exchanges). Click on the New button opposite Synonyms and enter "salt and freshly ground pepper". Click Save and Done. There is now a new ingredient - salt and freshly ground pepper - that is a copy of salt and pepper. It doesn't show up until you exit the edit ingredients list. Also, if you delete the main ingredient that you created the synonym from, it will delete both of them. [ Top of Page ] 3. Creating New IngredientsQ: I entered Kikkoman Lite Soy Sauce, at 1 TBSP (15 ml) serving size. Per serving: 10 Cal, 0 Fat, 575 mg Sodium, 1 g Carb, 1 g Protein. The nutritional analysis for 1 cup of the above ingredient gives me the following: 157725 Calories, 90691 sodium, 15772 carbs and protein. In the Ingredient List I have it marked for 'fluid'. I tried both ways not much difference. I don't understand why the numbers are so high. Perhaps I don't understand the serving size, equal to volume or weight section of the nutritional analysis. I entered for soy sauce, serving size 1 tablespoon and weight 15 ml. Now, I realize that MC has a version for lite soy sauce but the ingredient listing does not match the soy sauce I use. I am afraid to use it in my recipes because for 1 cup of MC soy sauce (lite) gives me 9599 mg sodium. Is this right? A: You must enter information in at least one of the two middle fields: Is equal to Weight It is from those two fields that MC draws the information for its calculations. When I entered the new ingredient data as you gave it, but also put "1 tablespoon" in the field for "Or equals Volume," the results for one cup of soy sauce was 9200 mg sodium. Compare the amounts for 1 cup each of these ingredients: * "soy sauce" (regular ingredient) 16, 459 mg Sodium Those two boxes "Is equal to weight" and "Or equals volume" are ways of describing the size of the sample that contains the nutrients listed in the chart below. That's the reason MC must have at least one of them filled in. If you can -- if you can tell from the label -- you will want to fill both of them in. That way, you can use either a weight measure (1 pound sugar) or a volume measure (2 cups sugar) in your recipe and MC will have the basis to make a more accurate calculation. Otherwise, MC will have to make estimations to come up with the data. MC will alert you that it's doing this, though.
A: I would look in the ingredient list for other soups and see how they are entered. Then add a soup modeled on how they are entered. The rules of thumb that I personally use are: 1) find a soup that is already in the database that is nearly identical and link my ingredient to it. 2) add the ingredients per serving -- that's easiest since that is the way the info is presented to us on the product label. 3) multiply -- if I only use the product by the can, then sure !-) -- enter it that way, doing the math. But beware. Manufacturers do change the can sizes.
I put in for the serving size, 1 can (I would add one or two cans for a recipe), 305 grams for "equal to weight" and or equals volume of 1 1/4 cups (1 can = 2.5 half cup servings the label states). I then took the calories, fat content and other values and multiplied them for a total that the can would contain. (1 serving = 70 calories; then 2.5 servings, or 1 can would be 175 calories) Am I doing this right? I am using the contents right from the can and not adding water or milk... The recipe with all ingredients will be divided into serving size which then would give me an accurate nutritional value - Right? If I have got this all wrong, would you give me the specifics of the nutritional values (everyone has Campbell's soup -- especially the condensed! I will be able to see how you did it. A: Did you consider the MC 6 ingredient: "condensed reduced fat cream of mushroom soup"? That should serve as a good guide, if not a complete fit. Q: I think the question is: In creating a recipe, if the ingredient is used as a whole instead of a serving size (i.e. can vs. 1/2 cup), do we use the total nutritional value of the whole can? A: I'm sitting with a can of Campbell's 98% Fat Free Cream of Chicken Soup. The label info says: Serving Size: 1/2 cup If it were me, rather than multiply each of the values by 2.5 in order to get the values for a whole can, I would enter the info for the 1/2 cup label serving size. In the MC field for "serving size," I would enter 1/2 cup. For the "is equal to weight" I would enter 122 grams (this is the total package weight in grams -- 305 -- divided by the servings per package -- 2.5). Or you could do this in ounces (10 3/4 oz. divided by 2.5 = 4.3 ounces). For the "or equals volume", I would enter 1/2 cup. In my recipe, to use a whole can, I would specify: [Amount] 1 [Unit] 10 3/4-oz can [Ingredient] Campbell's 98% Fat Free Cream of Chicken Soup You could also do it the way you suggested -- entering the values for a whole can -- by multiplying the values on the package by the appropriate number. [ Top of Page ] 4. Entering Costs Under the More Info TabIf you flip thru the ingredients in the list (ctrl+e), you'll see that everything with food value must be listed first by metric weight. Then we have a choice. If the ingredient can be measured by cups or tablespoons etc., then we list its equivalent volume. If the ingredient is a discrete thing that we buy by the each or whole, like a tortilla or sausage link or apple, etc -- then the ingredient gets described by the serving size. When costing the ingredient there are three "info boxes" or variables to describe it: [Cost] per [amount] [unit] Swiss cheese: [3.99] per [1] [pound] carrots: [0.19] per [1] [pound] chocolate chips: [2.95] per [12] [ounces] The cost does not have to be entered for the serving size on the nutrition facts tab. We can enter cost as we would buy the item in the grocery store. MasterCook will calculate from that. Some people say it will cost me $4.00 even if I only use a part of it. MasterCook handles that kind of cost thru the shopping list, not thru the cost per serving. Also, MasterCook will figure the unit cost per serving. If you want to know how much the cake costs, enter "1" in the "serving" field of the recipe. MasterCook 5.x/6.x does not assume "1" serving if serving is left blank. Yield does not enter into it. NOTE: On the nutrition facts tab of the ingredient list, serving size is relative to the data entry, i.e. the ingredient list. It does not reflect any USDA recommended serving per 2000 calorie per day diet. The role of the Yields and Equivalencies table. If an ingredient is in the Yields and Equivalencies tables, then we can list the ingredient's metric weight, the 1 serving size and its yield chopped, e.g.: onion, 1 medium about 121 grams, 2/3 cup volume. Q: I need help with the cost analysis portion of MasterCook. I have put in my correct prices into the ingredients lists; however, when I perform the analysis I do not get a true cost. I don't know if it is leaving something out or adding something incorrectly. Is there a way to see the ingredient by ingredient cost analysis of the particular recipe that you are costing out. Just giving me a cost per serving does not help me solve my dilemma. Also what about the cost analysis on embedded recipes. Mine does not seem to take those into account. A: First, let me reassure you that MasterCook does include embedded recipes when performing a cost analysis. One thing that you might be noticing is that MasterCook has to do some rounding when the cost is given by weight (say, $4.00 per pound) but the amount in the recipe is given in volume (say 1/2 cup). You will get a fairly accurate cost analysis in this instance, but it will not be as precise as if the recipe amount was given in weight as well. You can watch this happening if you make up a few simple recipes using limited ingredients, and then give those ingredients imaginary costs. I gave butter a cost of $4.00 per pound and sugar a cost of $2.00 per pound (2 cups sugar or butter is approximately 1 pound). Then I made up a recipe using 1 pound butter and 1 pound sugar to serve 1 person. The cost analysis of that recipe was $6.00, which is correct. But when I changed the amount of butter in the recipe from 1 pound to 2 cups, the cost analysis showed $5.99 per serving -- because MasterCook did not have information on the cost of a cup of butter. Now try embedding a recipe that uses just butter and sugar as ingredients -- you can see that MasterCook is using the embedded recipe for the cost. One other thing you might want to check is whether you have yield information on the recipes you are embedding. For example, if your main recipe (the one you are costing) calls for 1 cup béchamel, but your embedded recipe for béchamel does not show that the recipe yields 4 cups, you will not get correct results. Q: When I enter a recipe and use an ingredient that is not in the ingredient list the cost analysis is not being performed correctly. For example I have a recipe for BBQ chicken that uses 10 pound of BBQ chicken. I enter the recipe then go to the ingredient list and add BBQ chicken at 2.00 per pound. When the cost analysis is being performed it does not take 10 pounds into account but is only using the cost for one pound. If I enter a new recipe and use an ingredient that is already in the ingredient list and enter it's cost the cost analysis is performed correctly. A: If you create a new ingredient and the *only* the information you enter is cost, then MasterCook will not correctly calculate cost per serving or total cost. MasterCook is ingredient based and needs to have some basis for calculating portions of that ingredient. It needs to be sized. It need something in either of the two middle fields of the "Nutrition Facts" tab: "Is equal to Weight" or "Or equals volume." But you don't seem to have to enter any of the detailed nutritional information if all you want to do is calculate cost. If most of your recipes call for weights of BBQ chicken, like pounds or ounces, then I would enter information in the field "Is equal to Weight", and give the cost by weight as well. If most of your recipes call for a volume of BBQ chicken, I would fill in the field for "Or equals volume" and give the cost by volume. (MasterCook will figure the cost no matter which of the fields is filled in, but has to do some estimating if you fill in weight and the recipe calls for volume, or vice versa.) What numbers to fill in? You may need to experiment a bit. But I surmise that the weight or volume of a single serving (what you would ordinarily allocate per person) would be the most useful for your purpose. You can test it by using one of your recipes (or simple test recipes you make up with only a few ingredients) where BBQ chicken is the only "unknown" -- all the other ingredients have complete nutritional information and you have added cost for them. Then calculate cost without using BBQ chicken as an ingredient, and then using various combinations of information for the BBQ chicken. You could also try filling in both fields on the nutrition tab, but you will only be able to enter the cost one way (weight or volume). [ Top of Page ] 5. Finding the Correct Ingredient NameSometimes it's hard to think of the way an ingredient we're looking for might be worded. For example, "minced fresh ginger" is not in the Ingredient List, but "fresh minced ginger" is. "Shredded sweetened coconut" is not in the Ingredient List, but "sweetened coconut flakes" is. So how do we find every way "ginger" or "coconut" might be listed? The enclosure below is a text file of all the ingredient names as they appear in the MC 5/6 Ingredient List (but note that the plural form of the name is not listed here). You can open it in a word processor like Word and use Word's Find feature to locate all the ways your ingredient might be phrased. Then check out likely possibilities in MC's Ingredient List to see which is the one you're looking for (raw, ground, fresh, canned, etc.). Click the link below: and download the file to your computer. Extract the TXT file within. You can import it into Excel and use its awesome functionality to sort the list by certain words. 1. Open the MCIngTxt.txt file with Excel. 2. At this point a wizard starts up asking how you want to import the data. 3. Insert a new row at the top. In the first cell of that new row type in the word INGREDIENTS. 4. Select/highlight the first cell that you just created labeled INGREDIENTS. 4. Select the Data menu and choose Filter > Auto Filter. At this point a drop-list gets added to the INGREDIENTS cell that you created. Now you can choose from the drop-down list to pick an ingredient. Or, from that drop-down list choose (Custom...). In the Custom AutoFilter window that appears select SHOW ROWS WHERE INGREDIENTS CONTAINS and in the box to the right of CONTAINS type in a text sting, such as "beef". Now it will only list all the lines that have the word "beef" in there, while not showing you any other ingredients. You can return to it showing you all ingredients by choosing (All) in the drop-down list. I then saved this file with a different name, preserving the original MCIngTxt.txt file. [ Top of Page ] 6. Sugar Values MissingQ: How come MasterCook doesn't include sugar as part of the nutritional analysis? A: MasterCook gets its Ingredient List values from the USDA database <http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/cgi-bin/nut_search.pl>. The USDA doesn't provide these values. In 1999, the USDA Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, Release 13 -- included data on total sugars for some but not all foods. Whether more foods will be included later depends on whether or not the USDA goes to a ruling. At present they are hearing evidence pro and con for implementing this. It's the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) that petitioned for the labeling: they want "added sugars" to be required on certain product labels. Notice the words "certain product labels" -- especially cereals and soda pop. A CSPI survey concluded that soft drinks contribute one-third of the added sugars in the U.S. diet, and fruit "drinks" add another 10 percent. Intake of sugar continues to rise. At this time compliance is voluntary. I am noticing more labels telling me "no sugar added" We have to wait. In the meantime, ask your doctor or nutritionist how counting carbs and using the glycemic index will help you. Also, the ADA has added "sugar" back to it's exchange list. Perhaps you could track down a copy. Search the net for "added sugars" and you will find lots plus these two: http://www.nsda.org/About/dietguidecomments.html http://www.fda.gov/OHRMS/DOCKETS/98fr/062600a.txt Sugars are carbohydrates. The nutritional value of the sugar is included in the carbohydrate value, which you do enter into MasterCook's Ingredient List. The designation "added sugar" on a label is extra, non-governmental-required information (individual manufacturers responding to public requests). [ Top of Page ] 7. Upgrading the USER.ING FileUPGRADE versions 2 AND 3 TO 4: "Warning. The USER.ING Ingredient file is from an older version of MasterCook. MasterCook will update it to the new format and save the old file with the name USER_ING.OLD." After clicking OK, the file will be updated and you will be able to access your 2.0/3.0 ingredients through the MCook 4 ingredients list. Only the user.ing file can be updated, not the mstrcook.ing file. UPGRADE VERSIONS 4 TO 6: SierraHome's VERSION 6.0: Here are some things to keep in mind during the installation to upgrade your ING files with version 6.0: 1. Default Install: Allow (or direct) MasterCook 6 to install itself in your MasterCook 5 folder. It will update your version 5 to version 6. During the installation it will merge your v4 user.ing file and v5 MC Ingredients.ing file. If it finds duplicate ingredients you will be prompted about what to do. At the prompt select "Yes" *OR* "Yes to All" and it will keep your existing ingredient values. If you select "No," the ingredient list from the v6 CD will install. Note that your shortcuts will still read as they did for the version 5 program, but the version 6 program will open when you click on them. If you want to change the wording of the shortcut, right click the shortcut with your mouse and choose Rename from the menu. Press the right arrow key one time so the current wording will stay visible, then edit the name. Press Enter to accept the new name. 2. Version 6 Only Install: Uninstall MasterCook 5 using either the Uninstall utility from the Start>Programs>Sierra menu or the Add/Remove Programs from Start>Settings>Control Panel. Manually delete the v5 directory from Windows Explorer, taking care that your files are backed up elsewhere, and delete any shortcuts from Start>Programs or your Desktop. Reboot your computer to reset system resources and update Windows. Disable your virus scanner and close all running programs (see the Basic Install Guidelines above) and install version 6. This will NOT merge your v5 ING file since it can only do this during an installation over the top of v5. If you want to use this option and still want to merge your v5 ingredients file into v6, use Windows Explorer to create a folder named MasterCook 6, and create a subfolder called Mc Tools within it. Place your v5 ING file inside of the Mc Tools folder you created, then direct the installation to the new MasterCook 6 directory you created. This will merge your v5 MC Ingredients.ing file with the MC Ingredients.ing file on the v6 CD. During the installation, you will be prompted about what to do if it finds duplicate ingredients. At the prompt select "Yes" *OR* "Yes to All" and it will keep your existing ingredient values. If you select "No," the ingredient list from the v6 CD will install. 3. Keep Version 5 on Your Computer: You can keep version 5 and version 6 on your computer at the same time, but you CANNOT have them open at the same time. To do this, use Windows Explorer to create a folder named MasterCook 6. If you want to use your v5 MC Ingredients.ing file, create a subfolder called Mc Tools within the new MasterCook 6 folder. Place a COPY of your v5 ING file inside the Mc Tools folder you created, and then direct the installation to the new MasterCook 6 folder. (Be sure to follow the Basic Install Guidelines above and turn off your antivirus, and running programs.) This will merge your v5 MC Ingredients.ing file with the MC Ingredients.ing file on the v6 CD. During the installation, you will be prompted about what to do if it finds duplicate ingredients. At the prompt select "Yes" *OR* "Yes to All" and it will keep your existing ingredient values. If you select "No," the ingredient list from the v6 CD will install. IMPORTANT NOTE: IF you decide to keep both version 5 and 6 on your computer, you *cannot* have them open at the same time. They will "share" cookbook files. For example, if you open an existing v5 cookbook with v6, it will create a "shortcut" to that cookbook on the v6 Cookbook Browser (opening a v4 cookbook would cause v5 or v6 to make its own copy), so don't delete that cookbook unless you want it to disappear from both versions. ValuSoft's VERSION 6.2: Please see the separate instructions for "Installation - Version 6.2 (ValuSoft) Merging ALL SierraHome/ValuSoft Versions 5.x/6.x Products" title inside this cookbook. ValuSoft's VERSION 7.0: Please see the separate instructions for "Installation - Version 7.0 (ValuSoft) Merging Ingredient Lists and Tips" title inside this cookbook. [ Top of Page ] 8. Use Caution When Editing Ingredient ListIn MasterCook 5.x/6.x we are able to search on ingredients and MasterCook is aware of its ingredient hierarchy. So, if you wanted to search for recipes that do not contain dairy, you could choose Ingredients to Avoid: dairy. Now it will avoid all recipes that have cheese, milk, yogurt, etc. in the ingredient section. For this reason, you do not want to delete "dairy" from the Ingredient List. It points (links) to the dairy products like cheese, milk, etc. You will find several of these types of ingredients with no nutritional values listed. DON'T delete them because they are empty, since they are entered for a reason. Use the More Info tab in the Ingredient List window to see what the ingredient is Indexed As. [ Top of Page ] |
