Cooking guides
How to scale a recipe up or down
What changes when you cook for two instead of six: amounts, pan size, time, and the ingredients that do not scale in a straight line.
In short
- Multiply the amounts first, then check the pan size and the time.
- Salt, spices and chilli: scale gently, then taste.
- Change the pan, not the depth of the food in it.
- Weigh ingredients when you can. Cups and spoons are less exact.
Start with the servings
The scale factor is the number of servings you want divided by the number the recipe makes. A recipe for 4 that you want to serve to 6 has a factor of 1.5, so multiply every amount by 1.5. To cook it for 2, the factor is 0.5.
Deal with fractions and odd amounts
Half of 1 teaspoon is half a teaspoon. Half of a third of a cup is about 2⅔ tablespoons, which nobody wants to measure. Round to something you can measure, or switch to weighing. A pinch stays a pinch.
Scale salt, spices and chilli gently
Strong flavours do not always need the full multiple, especially when you double or triple a recipe. Many cooks start with a little less than the full amount, then taste and add more.
Change the pan, not the depth
If you double a recipe in the same pan, the food crowds and steams instead of browning. Use a wider pan or two pans. If you halve a recipe, use a smaller pan so the liquid does not boil away and the food does not catch.
Time changes less than the amounts
On the stove, time depends more on the heat and the pan than on the quantity. In the oven, the same depth of food takes about the same time, while a deeper tin takes longer. Use the signs of doneness, such as colour, tenderness and temperature, and not only the clock.
Know what does not scale neatly
Baking is the least forgiving. Eggs, raising agents and the size of the tin all affect each other. To halve an egg, beat it and use about half by weight. If you scale a cake or bread by more than half or double, test it before a special occasion.
Where ChopCue helps
In ChopCue every amount in a recipe is saved as structured data, so when you change the servings on a recipe, every ingredient rescales. The same scaled amounts go to your grocery list when you add the recipe.
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