Summary > Balancing mistures > The list of mixes | The mix panel | Balancing table | Directions panel | Add images and other media | Overrun calculation | Print panel > Ingredients archive


Balancing mixtures

This is the heart of the program, its primary function it is to calculate the correct balance of the mixtures.

The list of mixes

The view as a list of mixtures allows fast selection by category. Click on the Category field, if it is empty you can assign a category to the mix, but if the field contains a value, it will select only mixtures of that category. The other fields on the right shows the most important values in relation to the balance, caloric intake, the ideal temperature and cost.

You can scroll through the list using the arrow keys on your keyboard: left and right arrows to go up or down, up arrow to go first row, down arrow to go to last row. Press <Return> to open the highlighted row, or click the mouse on the name of the mixture.

On the far right of the screen the checkbox can be used in two ways:
1. to quickly select mixtures to be printed in the size selected in the options with this switch

to print, just click the printer icon located above the column of boxes.

To de-select all the mixes, please <ctrl-clic> the printer icon.

2. selected mixtures are also exported by the "Publish package ..." command available from the File menu. If no box is checked, the export procedure will give an error message.

The buttons in the toolbar for this screen perform the following functions, respectively, from left to right:

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1) Show card, 2) Show list (disabled), 3) Show all mixes, 4) Sort ascending, 5) Sort descending 6) New mix, 7) Print the selected mixtures using the format "mixture on screen", 8) Delete the current mix.

Rightmost bar buttons for options and to access this help.


The Mix panel

The button bar has a few little differences from the display list:

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Respectively, from left to right:

  1. Go to card (disabled),
  2. Show List
  3. Save as ingredient registers mixture as a new ingredient in the Ingredients archive. The new ingredient will have the name of the mixture and the same characteristics with regard to the components on the board ingredient. If you already have an ingredient linked to the mixture and press this button, the data of the ingredient will be updated.
    The new ingredient is related to details of the mixture that has originated and is visible from the small icon
    that appears in the far right of the name of the mixture. Conversely, the card will bring a little icon of the ingredient mixture in the name of the archive, indicating the source from the mixture. These little icons are active links to the respective screen: related to the ingredient from the mixture and vice versa.
  4. Show mixture to full screen is a useful feature for those who use the laptop in the lab: A table displays a full screen larger easy to read with the doses and directions of preparation of the mixture
  5. New mix to create a new mix from scratch
  6. Duplicate Mixture duplicates the current mixture renamed with the suffix "copy": useful for similar mixtures that differ only by a few elements.
  7. Delete mixture prompt and then removes the card mix

The lower part has five panels: Balance, Directions, Chart, Nutrients and Print.

Balancing Table

The ingredients must be selected from the available ones in Ingredients database. If an ingredient does not appear in drop down list, first must be added to the ingredients, and only then can it be used in mixtures.

Ingredient selection can be done in two ways:

1) clicking in the first available empty row in the list of ingredients opens a drop down list. Typing the first few letters of the ingredient to be added, the list will start to shrink, showing only the ingredients that begin with the letters you typed. The list can also be navigated using the arrow keys on your keyboard to move up and down, using the page-up and page-down to scroll the list one page at a time, or use the buttons to go home and end. The highlighted ingredient is added to the mixture with a click of the mouse or pressing Enter or Return. If an ingredient does not appear in the drop down list, must be first added to the ingredients and only then can it be used in mixtures.

 

2) the second selection mode is activated by clicking the button with the icon of the ingredients and the check mark that is located under the left portal

This opens a new temporary window displaying the list of ingredients. The new ingredients selection window arranges itself on the right side of the screen and allows you to add ingredients simply clicking on them once with the mouse. When clicked, the line background turns blue and the ingredient is associated with the mixture. Clicking a second time the ingredient unchecks it.

The list can be restricted to a single category, selected by the selector in the upper left corner, or by clicking one of the categories shown on the left side of the list. The letters at the bottom of the window allow you to select alphabetically. Eg clicking the letter "M" will display just the ingredients starting with M.

At the top right there is a switch that allows the display to show all ingredients or only those already included in the mixture.



At the end of the selection, to return to the balance card, press the red button "Done".

 

The ingredients that make up the mixture are classified according to some criteria. Sucrose or equivalent shall be considered "white primary" and has a background of blue color. Other sugars used as "second sugar" or auxiliary sugars, may have a background of light blue. The bases have orange background. In addition, according to the setting tab of the ingredient, they are proposed in the recommended amount if they are classified as bases. For example, when invoked a base that uses a certain weight per liter of milk, the quantity entered will be that specified in the tab of the ingredient. It 'can, however, enter a different value. The background color of the second sugar becomes visible only if the card is specified percentage of the ingredient used in relation to sucrose.
The two small arrows on the left side move up and down the ingredients in the list,
This displays the details of the ingredient,
This button updates the data from ingredients source table,
the button with the icon of the calculator allows you to exclude the ingredient from calculation: it is used for suspended solids, such as chocolate chips or other things, that if added at the end of creaming do not alter the balance, but that must be considered for nutrients. As they are part of the ingredients and their quantities, Gelato Italiano begins to calculate the balance of the mixture by relating it to the settings in the options and that are visible at the bottom of the screen.

The automatic balancing of the mixture can be obtained by pressing the button with the gears symbol. Gelato Italiano always calculate the doses in percentage. The predefined quantities of the various ingredients will be retained in the calculation: for example, if a base has a usage rate of 7% this will remain fixed, while vary the quantities of other ingredients.

Once the calculation is done is always possible to manually change the quantities in a very simple way that allows you to see real-time changes in the balance: just click the green field on the line of the ingredient to be modified and then using the arrow keys and + and - to increase or decrease the value: in column "g" the + and - keys increase and decrease the value of 10. The left and right arrows increase and decrease by 1. Column % however, the increase and decrease as the keys +, -, the left and right arrows respectively is +1, -1, +0.1, -0.1. The keys up and down arrows can be used to move up and down the cells in the column of the dose.

The button with the icon of an eraser cleans the columns of the doses. If after resetting the dose you enter one or more values​and then click the automatic balancing button, Gelato will ask if you want to maintain already entered values, or recalculate from scratch. If you keep the values​entered, these will remain unchanged and will be worth the calculation carried out only on the other ingredients.

For example, to perform an automatic balancing forcing Gelato to maintain the mixture in 15% of Strawberries:

1) press the reset button
2) insert the cell dose as a percentage of the ingredient Strawberries value 15
3) Click the automatic balancing button: Gelato will ask you if you want to keep the entered value. Confirming, the percentage of strawberries in the mixture remains 15%

The button with the icon of the percentage can be used to recalculate and return to 100 percent in the case that it is different as a result of added ingredients.

The central fields of the table shows the calculation of percentages of the components of the mixture.
At the bottom, beneath the totals, the percentages of each component are colored in yellow if insufficient and red if excessive, also under the indicator suggests a significant percentage increase or if you need diminure the quantity of the component. If the percentage of the parameters appear OK.

The calculation of the POD (Approximately) is expressed as a percentage of 1000 g. mixture, adding sweeteners to the powers of the ingredients put into the mix. Of course, should the value of the POD is associated with each ingredient where significant

The value of the PAC (Anti Freezing Power) is expressed as a percentage of 1000 g. mixture of uses for sugar and their molecular mass when it is inserted in the card ingredient.
The calculation of the freezing point referred to 1000 g of water for the difference, according to the molecular mass of sugar, provides a parameter more accurate in determining the coefficient used to calculate the ideal temperature of the window of exposure.

On the right side of the table you can see the breakdown of costs: the red values in the Cost column indicate that that ingredient is not specified the price. A total cost of a blend that has a single ingredient with no price will always be red, while all data are complete if the number is usually black.

The button with a lock on the top right allows you to lock the mixture to prevent accidental changes: When the lock is closed, you can change only the field production, or recalculate the production based on the available quantity of an ingredient (see below ).

The blue column "Dose per xx kg of mixture" contains the weights needed for the production request in Production



A red number in this column identifies the ingredient that has been scaling the mixture using the selector at the bottom right

In fact, using this switch you can choose one of the ingredients that make up the mixture and indicate the quantity available in grams, for automatically recalculating the total mixture and remaining ingredients in order to fully utilize the ingredient chosen. For example: "I have 5 kg of cream: how much mix do I get?"


Directions Panel

The second panel is used to enter instructions for the preparation of the mixture, a media content (photos, video or audio), and also contains a utility for calculating the percentage of overrun and a field to enter any notes.

Add images and other media

The space on the right is a field container: it can accept the insertion of various types of media by clicking the right mouse button pops up a context menu from which you can choose different voices

Cut, copy and paste follow the usual rules for these functions


The "store only a file reference", option available in the dialog boxes to insert image / QuickTime / file, prevents the image / movie / audio file to be physically inserted into the archive, but adds only a reference to it. However, if the original file containing the media is deleted or moved from its original location, the content is no longer available. We suggest to use this option because it keeps lighter the files and also prevents any corrupted media to corrupt data. The Media folder inside folder Bigatton Academy is intended to store photos, video and anything else you want to show in these fields.

Overrun calculation

The overrun percentage of the ice cream is the percentage increase in volume due to the air from the ice cream machine built during processing.
To calculate it, just use any container and a digital scale:

  1. Weigh the empty container
  2. Fill the container with the mixture prior to creaming, weigh, subtract the tare, and write the weight in grams in weight mixture
  3. Fill the same container or an identical with finished ice cream, weigh, subtract the tare weight and write the weight in ice cream
  4. % overrun field will show the percentage.


Print panel

The last panel contains buttons for printing in various sizes: the balance sheet of the mixture with photos and directions for preparation,
a list of mixtures with a list of ingredients in descending order and an indication of calorie intake (to hang or make available to the patrons), the recipe in two columns with weights refer to 1000 grams of mixture or production set and the card with the chart.


example of a list of ingredients in the mixes: the percentage can be displayed or omitted by checking a box whether or not the options of the program

Anyway using the radio buttons on the right side, you can specify whether the print must include the current record, those selected in the list, or all active ones

In the same pane, the button to send recipes by email and the .pdf icon button. This one is active only if Gelato is running under a FileMaker Pro client or on iPad with FileMaker Go 12 as the Runtime engine does not support native pdf printing.
If you need to print a pdf from the Runtime application, you can use a virtual printer on Windows or the native pdf generation function on Mac OSX.


Summary > Balancing mistures > The list of mixes | The mix panel | Balancing table | Directions panel | Add images and other media | Overrun calculation |Print panel > Ingredients archive