Writing down what the batch read
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The minimum that is worth anything
There is a floor below which a record stops being useful, and it is higher than a date and a fruit. A log you cannot compare two entries from is a diary rather than a diagnostic.
- The date and a lot number you can read off a jar.
- The fruit, where it came from and its condition.
- Weights of fruit and sugar as actually used, not as the recipe says.
- The reading you stopped at, and which test gave it.
- Jars filled, and jar size.
- Anything that went differently.
Why the reading and not just the time
Time tells you what you did and the reading tells you what you achieved, and only the second transfers between batches. Two batches cooked for the same duration can finish in different places for reasons nothing to do with the cooking.
Because the failures in this craft are diagnosed backwards from the jar. A soft set with a recorded stop temperature is a different investigation from a soft set with nothing written down: one of them you can narrow to the acid or the proportions, the other you can only guess at.
Why weights as used
Weighing what actually went in rather than what the recipe said is the difference between a record and a copy of a recipe. Fruit varies and what you actually put in the pan is the only version worth knowing later.
The standard is a ratio by weight. If a batch came out short on fruit because the last punnet was light, the only record of that is the number you wrote down at the scale.
What it costs
One line on a page, and about two minutes at the end of a run. The reason to do it is that the jar goes out with a lot number on it, and a lot number that points at nothing is decoration.