Final Reflection

This recipe standardization assignment was an important learning experience for the Institutional Foodservice II class. In any foodservice setting, a recipe is not appropriate for use until it is standardized by that particular institution. Preparation methods and ingredients need to be altered for the quantity of the recipe, the skill of the workers, budget, time, equipment, and various other factors. Once these are taken into account, as discovered through this assignment, the recipe can be considered standardized and ready to be used.

Through this project, our group became acquainted with the various obstacles in large quantity food preparation and recipe modification. It was critical to experience all aspects of recipe standardization, including preparation and evaluation, because we may face the same tasks in our future careers.

Our target audience was our fellow members of Grace SLO. We thought the Savory Lentil Stew would be perfect for them, as it is a familiar taste with a somewhat unfamiliar ingredient- lentils.

After analyzing the feedback we received from our test group, we came to the following conclusions:

1) The most positive aspect of the recipe was the taste, and people enjoyed a hint of heat from the cayenne pepper.

2) Most negative feedback came from the size of the portions. Our recipe made 48- 1/2 cup portions, but due to our limited crock-pot space, we could only hand out 1/4 cup portions. People generally liked the lentils and wished they could have more. If we were serving this again and had the capacity, a 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup serving would be more appropriate.

3)One thing that would be difficult to improve upon would be the appearance of the lentils. In our attempts to make them appealing, we added parsley for garnish. It helped a little, but some people were still hesitant to try this dish. Perhaps if the lentils could be served in ceramic bowls, that would make it more appealing.

4) Keeping the lentils hot was vital to good feedback from the "temp" category. Our crock pots helped keep them warm, but some lentils had a longer in-transit time and therefore were served lukewarm. Next time, we could serve them in smaller batches so they stayed at an appropriate temperature.

Savory Lentil Stew Recipe--Original and Scaled Up

This stew uses ingredients that you always have on hand, and it tastes incredible. The plethora of roasted onions and garlic with the spices creates a symphony of flavors that will make you want to keep eating.  Lentils are high in protein and fiber, so eat away!

Mise en place.  We used the Ninja food processor to chop the garlic and would also recommend doing the same for the onions.

Savory Lentil Stew: Original size
Printable Recipe

¼ cup olive oil
½ teaspoon cumin
4 cloves garlic (or 0.25 ounces)
1 medium onion (or 8 ounces before chopped)
1 cup brown lentils, rinsed
3 cups water
1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper.

Use a food processor or Ninja to chop the onion. Then remove the onion and process the garlic.

In a large pot, heat olive oil, then sauté onion until translucent.  Then add garlic and cumin and continue with sautéing.  When the garlic is brown, add lentils, stir, then add water. 

Bring to a boil, cover and simmer for about an hour until the lentils are mostly tender. Add salt and cayenne and cook for about 10 more minutes, or until they are the desired texture. 

Makes 4 (1 cup) servings.

Savory Lentil Stew: Party Size, Standardized

This is our standardized final recipe. As you can see, we changed the serving size to one-half cup, instead of the one-cup servings mentioned in the original recipe. When we did the tasting for our first test batch, we decided that since the stew was quite hearty, a half-cup was plenty, especially since we were not planning on handing out whole servings for our tasting. We did not want to be swimming in leftover lentils!

Our test batch actually made three cups of product, which when the new serving size was accounted for, came out to be six servings. Using the factor method, we figured out that in order to make 48 servings, we would need to multiply the recipe by a factor of 8.

We had already weighed the onions and garlic, so we just multiplied those weights by 8. We then multiplied the other quantities by 8 and used the tables in Food for Fifty to convert them to weight or volume as appropriate. The spices were converted to ounces, but when we actually made the large recipe, our scale was not sensitive enough for the fractions of ounces, so teaspoons worked out just fine.

In an ideal setting, we would have measured out how many servings the actual recipe made to make sure that it was consistent with the theory, but we were just content to know that we had enough samples to serve to our testers, and plenty of lentil leftovers for us!
Printable Recipe

Part 3: Distribution Sunday

We started heating the stew before church and kept it hot in crockpots for distribution after the service dispersed. 

We filled cups with 1/4 c sample servings and garnished with fresh parsley for a zap of color.

Cami ladled and Nicole and Stephanie passed out cups as quickly as possible to minglers in the courtyard.  Nicole's boyfriend, Ethan, was a great help as photographer and also handed out our mini surveys.

The courtyard where we served our samples.  Many people loved it and wanted the recipe!

Feedback!

Left pile= semi-pleased responses.  Surprisingly, college students were least receptive to the idea of lentil stew.

Right pile = overwhelmingly positive responses.  Many people asked for the recipe.

Part 2: Production Day!

Shopping List for 48 servings

~ 1 pint olive oil

~ small bag of cumin

~ 4 lbs. onion

~ 4 bags lentils

~ 2-3 heads garlic

Ingredients from grocery shopping.  We ended up using 2 heads of garlic and used cayenne pepper and salt from our kitchen since the stew didn't call for much of either. 

Used the Ninja to incrementally chop our 4 lbs. of onions.

Stephanie peeling and cutting the tips off garlic before putting in the Ninja.

Garlic minced very quickly in the Ninja.

Mise en place.

Cami and Nicole checking the onions post-roasting.

Cami stirring the garlic-cumin mixture.

Nicole adding the salt to the finished stew.  Two pots were needed to hold all the stew.  After deliberating on the best way to divide the stew between 2 pots, we went with a 5:7 ratio of ingredients.

Does it taste good?

Yes, it's delicious!

Time for clean-up.

We poured the stew into smaller containers to facilitate faster cooling.

Fridge full of lentil stew with knives to help conduct heat away.