I've shown how I print the values because that's where I'm having the problems. If I delete the default and type in the correct value (say "1 1/2") It works fine. However, when it prints the form, instead of printing the actual value of $ingredientAoH[$i]{qty}, it just prints the first number before a space or a slash. I've verified that $ingredientAoH[$i]{qty} contains the correct value because of the extra print statement in there.

Oh and I don't want to evaluate the expression because I most recipes have things like 1/2 tsp salt... not 0.5 tsp salt. The only thing I can think of is that "-default=>"$ingredientAoH[$i]{qty}"" converts the string into a number. (which I don't want to do)