Mara has three ingredient notes. Jo has one request: “Please keep the red onion. It has a job.”
Fictional neighborhood story. Twelve synthetic ingredient lines; an agent-built calculation, not a test of AI recipe-reading accuracy.
Three notes on the kitchen table
Every line below is an additional requirement, except the explicitly marked citrus choice. Quantities already reflect the desired recipe sizes. No pantry subtraction or serving adjustment.
Note A
A1: 2 yellow onions
A2: 250 g dry rice
A3: 30 ml olive oil
Note B
B1: 1 yellow onion
B2: 0.5 kg dry rice
B3: 20 g olive oil
B4: 1 red onion
Note C
C1: 2 cans tomatoes, size unknown
C2: 400 g canned tomatoes
C3 or C4: 2 lemons OR 3 limes
C5: Basil, amount unspecified
Here’s what made the list.
Combined quantities
3 yellow onions = 2 + 1 (A1, B1)
750 g dry rice = 250 g + 500 g (A2, B2)
1 red onion stays separate. (B4)
Keep these separate
Olive oil: 30 ml + 20 g. No density conversion supplied. (A3, B3)
Tomatoes: 2 cans + 400 g. We don’t know the can size. (C1, C2)
Choose: 2 lemons OR 3 limes. (C3, C4)
Ask: How much basil? (C5)
“Some basil” remains a conversation.
Change the plan
Two changes help check whether the result follows the instructions. These are saved results from the local calculation.
Repeat note A
Yellow onions become 5; rice becomes 1,000 g; olive oil becomes 60 ml + 20 g. Requirements outside note A stay unchanged.
Measure the rice in cups
Replace B2 with 0.5 cups. Rice stays 250 g + 0.5 cups. No mass conversion was supplied. Onions stay at 3 yellow and 1 red; oil stays at 30 ml + 20 g.
Try this instruction
Combine matching ingredients with compatible units. Keep different varieties separate. Preserve alternatives and missing quantities. Show which source lines contributed to each total. Ask before guessing package sizes or converting between weight and volume.
Prompt suggestion for review. This experiment used structured inputs and a local routine; the prompt was not sent to a separate model.
What actually ran?
A local Python routine grouped exact item names and compatible units. I annotated the citrus choice and supplied the conversion of 1 kg to 1,000 g. Nineteen checks passed across the original list, repeated-note case and rice-in-cups case. Checks covered source-line preservation, totals, ingredient distinctions, alternatives and unknown quantities.
I designed the data, routine and checks. This establishes the displayed behavior on prepared inputs. It does not establish accuracy on unfamiliar recipes, independent evaluation, human usefulness or time saved.
Mara, Jo, their dialogue and the illustration are invented. No dinner, shopping trip or human trial took place. No nutrition, allergy or food-safety claims are made.