Since I can gather the correct amount of diluted Karo from the quick-start recipe, I am less concerned about how much to use than I am about figuring out how I could be misinterpreting the general formula for calculating how much to use: PPM * volume(ml) /16000. It just seems to indicate way too little diluted Karo. And that formula is in a number of posts.
I am skeptical of the formula. Is the result in grams, milligrams, or ml of Karo.
Also, I'm not sure anymore of the actual composition of Karo.
Here's the latest analysis I found:
Analysis of the corn syrup (Karo Light Corn Syrup)a using the following method (Longland, personal communication) found it to contain 356.3 mg/mL of maltose and glucose combined ...
But this analysis does not agree with the label on the Karo which claims 120 calories per 30 ml of Karo.
From the analysis above, Karo would have only 43 calories per 30ml, instead of 120. Any type of sugar has 4 calories per gram of solid weight.
IE: 30 ml of KARO * .356 gr/ml = 10.6 grams combined sugar. <-- by the veterinary analysis
30 ml 0f Karo = 120 calories = 30 grams of combined sugar <-- by the label.
Obviously, these numbers do not agree. Also, we do not know the weight of 30ml of Karo (we could weigh it), so we do not know how much water there is in it. This would suggest that there is less sugar per ml. One of these numbers or both are incorrect.
Then there is the problem of the ratio of glucose to maltose. When making a syrup, two different kinds of sugars have to be used to keep the syrup from crystallizing. Normally, the ratio would be half and half by molecular weights. That is one molecule of glucose and one molecule of maltose. Assuming the one to one ratio of molecules, and that a molecule of maltose weighs twice as much as a molecule of glucose, then there would be a one to two ratio of glucose to maltose by weight.
The point is that there is not enough solid data to calculate the amount of Karo based on ppm and volume. If anything, the formula result is too low. Basing the formula on the veterinary analysis would be safer.