Were Cooking in Math

A Kitchen Project
DUE Thursday, October 22nd

For this project, students will select a recipe of

their choosing. It could be a family recipe, a
favorite food, or something they come across
in a recipe book or on the web that looked
interesting to them.
The goal is twofold: 1) to adjust the recipe so that it will feed 1012 people, and 2) to rewrite the recipe using another unit of
measure.

1) This part is straightforward. Using the recipe below, which

serves 48 as an example, the student would have to quarter the
amounts. So, instead of the recipe reading to use cup of butter,
it would read to use 1/8 cup of butter. The entire recipe should be
rewritten with adjusted amounts.
2) The newly adjusted recipe from step 1) should now be rewritten
using different units of measure. Using our example again,
instead of 1/8 cup butter, the recipe would read 2 Tbs of butter (1
cup = 16 Tbs). Some common unit conversions are listed below:

1 teaspoon (tsp)
1 cup (c)
2c
1 pt
qt
16 fl oz

1/3 Tablespoon (Tbs)

16 Tbs
1 pint (pt)
quart (qt)
16 fluid ounces (fl oz)
1 lb

Example: The original recipe might look like this (from

http://www.pbs.org/parents/kitchenexplorers/2011/07/05/eat-yourmath-homework/):

Recipe: Tessellating Two-Color Brownies

Prep Time: 5 min(s)

Cook Time: 12 min(s)

Total Time: 17 min(s)

Servings: 48 brownies

Ingredients
o cup butter or margarine at room temperature, plus extra for pan
o cup orange juice (secret ingredient!)
o 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
o 2 eggs
o 1 cups sugar
o teaspoon salt
o 1 teaspoon vanilla
o 1 cup flour, plus extra for pan
o 1 teaspoon baking powder
o cup powdered sugar
Instructions
o Ask an adult to preheat the oven to 350 Fahrenheit.
o Place all the ingredients except the powdered sugar in a medium mixing bowl.
Use a large, sturdy spoon (or an electric mixer if you like) to mix all the
ingredients together thoroughly.

o Prepare the pan to prevent the Tessellating Brownies from sticking. Put some
margarine or butter into the pan and spread it around using a paper towel. Dust a
spoonful of flour on top of the margarine and tilt the pan back and forth so a thin
layer of flour sticks to the margarine.
o Spoon the dough into the pan. Ask an adult to place the pan in the oven.
o Have an adult remove the brownies from the oven after about 1215 minutes,
when the edges are slightly browned. To test for doneness, poke a toothpick in the
middle of the brownies and then pull it out. There should be no gooey dough
sticking to it.
o Allow the brownies to cool in the pan for at least 15 minutes. Then turn the pan
upside down on a cooling rack to remove the brownies.
o Use the knife to cut the large rectangle carefully in half to make two smaller
rectangles. Sprinkle the powdered sugar onto one half of the brownies only.
o Cut the powdered portion into squares. Then carefully cut each square diagonally
to form two triangles.
o Cut the unpowdered side of the brownies the same way: first squares, then
triangles.
o Take one powdered triangle and one plain triangle and place them together to
make a rectangle. Continue the tessellation by alternating one powdered triangle
with one plain triangle. If you like, you can make a tessellating design like the
fish.

The conversions could be written into a table like this:

Original
48 brownies
c butter
c orange juice
1/3 c cocoa
2 eggs
1 c sugar
tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 c flour
1 tsp baking powder

Adjusted
12 brownies
1/8 c butter
1/8 c orange juice
1/12 c cocoa
egg
3/8 c sugar
1/16 tsp salt
tsp vanilla
c flour
tsp baking powder

Converted
-2 Tbs butter
2 Tbs orange juice
1 1/3 Tbs cocoa
-18 tsp sugar*
1/48 Tbs salt
1/12 Tbs
1/8 pt flour
1/184 c baking
powder

 c powdered sugar

1/16 c powdered
sugar

1 Tbs powdered
sugar

*Note that I could have continued to convert to Tbs but converted to tsp
instead. There is no wrong choice; the point is to get practice converting.

Final Product
Students should submit a copy of their recipe and a conversion
table like the one above (a template follows at the end of this
document). I will collect these materials and bind them into a 5 th
Grade Math Cookbook.

Optional: On Thursday, October 22nd, students can bring in their

culinary delights if they choose. We will be happy to sample. If a
student does bring food on this day, please note if the food
1) has nuts of any kind (i.e., tree or otherwise),
2) has dairy,
3) is gluten free or not.

We do have students who need to be aware of certain ingredients.

N.B., no actually cooking is actually required. While the tangible

experience of implementing the recipe would be great, I recognize
that not all of us are big cooks/bakers. The only requirement is
that students work with a recipe and do the math.

Name __________________________
Original

Adjusted

Homeroom _____________
Converted