Today's Case:
Recipe Symbols?
Re: Need help on recipe symbol, does this mean 1/8 or 1/3? Thank you.
From: Terry
To: Phaedrus
Date: 6/29/2025, 6:42 PM
On 6/28/2025 12:27 PM, Terry wrote:
æ 3/4
Ω (Omega)1/2
º(Degree)1/4
? (Question)1/8? 1/3?
Hello Terry,
Who uses these symbols in recipes? Where did you find the ones that you found?
Please send me the recipe that you have with these symbols and explain where you found it.
Phaed
On 6/29/2025 9:34 PM, Terry wrote:
Hi, Phaedrus,
I didn’t keep a record of what online site I found recipes that had
the ? symbol. I can try to find recipes using the symbols and send to
you. It will involve a lot of time as I have downloaded maybe a
thousand recipes or more. I did find one, see below.
Years ago [Jan. 2021 but likely earlier] I found an explanation of all
the symbols except the ? at: https://store.cookbookpeople.com
See attached screenshot of what I saw; the site likely does not have
even this anymore that I can see. The attachment had to be compressed
to send.
Here’s one recipe, see pizza sauce:
Zucchini Crust Pizza with SautÈed Tomatoes and Mushrooms
8 cups shredded zucchini, about 5-6 large zukes
1 Ω teaspoons salt, divided
1 cup shredded parmesan (Parmesan Romano mix is great)
Ω cup flour
º cup yellow corn meal
2 large cloves garlic, minced
1 large shallot, minced
2 large eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon pepper
*Ω to ? cup pizza sauce (I prefer Trader Joe's Pizza Sauce)*
1 cup shredded Mozzarella
1 16 oz package fresh white mushrooms, sliced
2 tablespoons butter
Ω large red or sweet yellow onion
1 pint cherry tomatoes
1 teaspoon brown sugar
Thin slices of prosciutto, optional
Fresh basil for garnish, rough chopped
Preheat oven to 475 degrees.
In a large bowl, toss the zucchini with 1 teaspoon coarse salt and set
aside for 15 minutes. Squeeze the excess moisture out of the zucchini
by wrapping it up in a clean tea towel or cheese cloth and wringing it
out, discarding the water.
Place the shredded zucchini back into a large bowl. Add fresh grated
parmesan (or parmesan Romano mix), flour, yellow corn meal, garlic,
shallot, eggs, 1 teaspoon salt and pepper. With a large spoon, mix
until well incorporated.
Place parchment paper on two round approx. 12-inch pizza pans (cutting
paper to fit pan) and spray with cooking oil.Using your fingers,
spread the zucchini crust mixture on each pan to form circles about 8
inches in diameter and about Ω" thick. Bake for approximately 15
minutes or until the crust starts to brown.Remove from oven, add
toppings (see suggestions below) and return to oven for 7-8 minutes or
until cheese has melted and toppings are cooked.
Spoon pizza sauce over cooked zucchini crust pizza. Sprinkle
mozzarella over top.In a skillet, heat butter and add mushrooms,
cooking on high heat until browned.When done, spread over pizza. In
same skillet, add onions and cook until caramelized.(add a little more
butter or olive oil if necessary).When done, distribute over pizza.
In same skillet, a tomatoes and brown sugar. Cook for about 5 minutes
on medium high heat to soften.When done, spread over pizza.
Bake for about 8 minutes or until cheese has melted. Remove from
oven.Top with prosciutto and fresh cut basil.
Hello Terry,
I cannot find anything at all about using those symbols to stand for
those measurements. None of the links you sent led to anything useful,
and the attachment that you sent has nothing it it but images of logos.
It's a riddle wrapped in an enigma.
I have investigated this before. See: Weird Characters
Perhaps at one time, Apple and Windows operating systems used different "ascii"- type codes for some symbols and that resulted in this problem. Maybe the recipes you are seeing this in are old and were typed in using an older Apple computer. I believe this problem has been corrected and does not occur anymore except in older text that was entered using Apple computers with that old operating system.
I did find a pizza recipe that is a duplicate of the pizza recipe that you sent except for the lines with those symbols.
In the recipe that you sent, the line with "?" is this: "Ω to ? cup pizza sauce (I prefer Trader Joe's Pizza Sauce)".
In the duplicate recipe, that line is rendered as this: "1/2 cup pizza sauce (I prefer Trader Joe's Pizza Sauce, can use up to 2/3 cup)"
Therefore, I would suggest that the "?" is equal to "2/3".
See the recipe at: Jandatri
Phaed
