Calling all cooks: how do you manage recipes with alternative options?

Knowledge management
1

I’m still new to Obsidian (imported all my OneNote notebooks) and I don’t know any programming, CSS or anything like it. I read all the discussions about recipe management without finding what I’m looking for.

I have several recipes with alternative options. One example is a Cauliflower Fried Rice recipe. It is currently a mess, with highlights pointing out what to do and skip depending on:

  • is the cauliflower already riced? → when to take out of the freezer; shred the carrots by hand; but if not: use the food processor for both, in the right order
  • are the mushrooms already cooked (and frozen)? → when to take them out of the freezer; if not: at what point in the recipe to make them, with which ingredients
  • which protein is used; has it already been cooked (and frozen)? → when to take it out of the freezer; thaw or not; if not: which ingredients for cooking them; if using an alt-meat: adjust the tamari to avoid overly salty dish

It doesn’t happen very often, but enough to make me wonder how others are handling this. Do you write whole versions for each case?

2

I’m not sure any of my recipes have that kind of variation, but by default I would use a single set of instructions, and prefix some of the steps with conditions (“If the cauliflower is already riced…”). Then when you follow the recipe you can skip the steps that don’t apply.

If multiple steps follow from a condition before any other steps come up, you could indent them as a sub list under it.

1. If the beans haven't been soaked yet:
    1. 1.5h before cooking, put them in the right amount of water, cover, and bring to a boil.
    2. Boil for 1m.
    3. Remove from heat and let soak for 1h.
2. Chop the onions and celery.

If the resulting recipe feels too unwieldy, then it may be worth making separate versions for major variants (focusing on differences that involve many steps).

Or maybe it will turn out that you just prefer separate versions; that’s valid too.

It could also be helpful to divide the instructions with headings, if that makes sense, and within a given heading provide multiple sets of instructions.

### Prep

#### If the cauliflower hasn't been riced yet

[full prep instructions for that situation]

#### If the cauliflower is already riced

[full prep instructions for that situation]

### Cooking

[single set of instructions because it's the same either way]

(Of course the headings might be finer grained than “prep” and “cooking”.)

If you know of or can find any published recipes with multiple variants, it may be helpful to look at how they handle it.