Recipes compared

Pick a dish and you get a dozen recipes for it, each one insisting it is the right one. These pages put every version in the library side by side instead — flour and sugar by weight, the temperature and the time, and how many it feeds — so you can see what the recipes actually disagree about before you pick one.

Every figure is one the recipe itself stated. Where a recipe said nothing, the cell is empty rather than filled in with an average.

• Chocolate chip cookies

  Every chocolate chip cookie recipe in the library as one comparison: flour, butter and sugar weights, oven temperature and bake time, side by side.

• Banana bread

  Banana bread recipes from across the library in one table: flour and sugar weights, oven temperature, and how long each one actually bakes for.

• Fried rice

  Fried rice recipes side by side — what goes in, how long it takes, and how many the pan is meant to feed.

• Mac and cheese

  Macaroni cheese recipes compared: sauce base, bake temperature, timing and servings, from every version in the library.

• Carrot cake

  Carrot cake recipes as one table — flour, sugar and butter weights, oven temperature and bake time across every version in the library.

• Chocolate cake

  Chocolate cake recipes compared: flour, sugar and butter weights, oven temperature and bake time, side by side.

• Butter chicken

  Butter chicken recipes side by side — timing, servings and what each version actually puts in the sauce.

• Cinnamon rolls

  Cinnamon roll recipes compared: flour, butter and sugar weights, proving and baking times, and oven temperature.