Recipe - Mnemonic for identical quantities?

Culinary Mnemonics
1

Hi guys,
My goal is to memorize 60 cocktails recipes, (scroll to the end to only read my question)

I found that I work well with 2 methods :

  • Basic Linking
  • Story Method

Here an example of how I work:

Summary

Amaretto Sour

1 little spoon of sugar
2cl of egg white
2cl of lemon juice
5cl of Amaretto liquor

  • In french, Sour is pronounced the same exact way that “sourd” which means “deaf”
  • In my story this cocktail is ordered by someone who’s deaf
  • The first thing this customer says is “hein?” which means “what” and also is pronounced the same way that “1 (un)”

Like the amount of the 1st ingredient: 1 little spoon

  • Since he doesn’t hear correctly the bartender has to repeat 2 times the other 2 ingredients which are also the quantity of these said ingredients

2cl of egg white
2cl of lemon juice

  • And at the end, the most important: the Amaretto liquor, which is in the name of the cocktail and I find it by the addition of the other ingredients: 1+2+2 = 5 so 5cl of Amaretto liquor

For some cocktails, I build very quickly (“naturally”) a story and links that makes complete sense for me, but for some others, it’s more difficult.

So to have a better “general” combination, here how I’m planning to work: (nothin new here)

  1. Using a memory palace/locus for each cocktail recipe
  2. Placing the ingredients inside
  3. Linking them together by a story

:warning: The problem that I have is for the quantity of each ingredient,

  • I read about “images for numbers”, but a lot of recipes have >2 ingredients with the same amount of liquid (so the same number): if my image for number 2 is Batman, it would be a story with clones of Batman?

:question: Do you guys have methods or tips for this that I don’t know/didn’t think about?

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How to learn cooking recipes with memory techniques
2

I actually did a similar task many decades ago. Although I no longer recall exactly how I did it, I have an idea how I might manage memorizing the ingredient list.

Initially, I might look at all the ingredients of all my recipes combined, then create mnemonic tokens for each of the following:

  1. ingredients
  2. units (or descriptions) of measure
  3. number of each units

So, ingredients would include things like: rum, vodka, gin, soda, sugar, min, lime juice. So, I would up with a mnemonic token for each. I think I would make them into weird characters. For example:
Rum => Robin Hood
Vodka => Valmont (from Dangerous Liaisons)
Gin => Gollum (from LOTR)
and so on.

Units of measure might include:
Cup, shot glass, ounce, teaspoon, ml, sprig, large, handful, pinch, etc

These I might turn into action words:
Cup => cut
Shot glass => shoot
Ounce = bounce
etc.

For the number of units, I would probably do something like make a simple rule like:
A = 1
B = 2
C = 3
and so on.

Then, any object or thing starting with A= 1, B = 2, C = 3, etc.
Automobile = 1, Apple tree = 1, Abacus = 1
Bagpipe = 2, Beachball = 2, Big Bird = 2

So now, for each entry on the ingredient list, I can quickly make a short S-V-O sentence. For example:

2 ounces of Rum

becomes

Robin Hood bouncing Big Bird

Hopefully you see that encoding the number of units in this way gives you a way to avoid repetitiveness.

Hope this helps,

Darn

4 Likes
3

I should add that you might encounter some ingredients that call for fractions. For example, 1/4 cup of vodka, 1/2 teaspoon salt. If I were using the A, B, C method for the number of units, I might simply designate the letters of the alphabet for some of those: L is the 12th letter of the alphabet, and it seems unlikely I would have 12 of anything in my ingredient list, so maybe objects starting with L (lamp, lollipop) would represent 1/2. Likewise, N is the 14th letter, so maybe those words (negligee, notebook) could stand for 1/4). R is the 18th letter, so it could stand for 1/8.

1 Like
4

You’re the best !

Funny thing is that I was currently working and I came (just a few minutes ago) to the conclusion that Alcohol should be people/characters. But using the same first letter for them is even better.
And most of all I was still stuck on the numbers/amount.

So I can’t thank you enough, I feel like I can properly begin now (for real I’m really happy, thank you)

1 Like
5

I was just thinking. It might be fun if you have a coworker who uses the same system.

Then when you are working together and one of you asks about a new recipe, the other can give cryptic answers like:

Bambi cuts cheese (3 cups of Brandy)
or
Supergirl pinches butt (2 pinches of salt)

I hope that’s not too risqué. Anyway, it would definitely puzzle any customers nearby listening in.

:smiley:

1 Like