Recipe Scaler

Scale Factor is Desired Servings divided by Original Servings. If your original recipe makes 4 servings and you want 8, Scale Factor is 2.0x, and every ingredient amount you enter gets multiplied by that same 2.0 to produce the scaled amounts shown.

Original Servings sits in the denominator of the Scale Factor formula, so raising it (without also raising Desired Servings) shrinks Scale Factor -- the calculator now believes the source recipe already produces more food, so a smaller multiplier is needed to reach the same Desired Servings target, and every ingredient scales down accordingly.

No. Each ingredient's scaled result depends only on its own entered amount and the shared Scale Factor -- there's no cross-dependency between ingredients. Editing Ingredient 1 Amount changes only Ingredient 1 (Scaled); Ingredient 2, 3, and 4 stay exactly where their own inputs and the current Scale Factor put them.

Change expresses Scale Factor as a percent increase or decrease from the original recipe rather than as a multiplier. A Scale Factor of 1.5x shows as a +50% Change, meaning you're making half again as much as the original recipe, while a Scale Factor of 0.25x shows as a -75% Change, a recipe cut down to a quarter of its original size.

The math on this page does, and that's the right answer for flour, liquids, sugar, and most fats and proteins -- straight proportion holds well for those. It's the wrong answer for a few categories worth watching by hand: leaveners (baking soda, baking powder, yeast), salt, and strong spices should generally be scaled by roughly 75-80% of the multiplier past about 2x, then tasted and adjusted, since their effect compounds faster than their quantity. Cooking and baking time don't scale with quantity at all -- a doubled batch usually needs a similar or only slightly longer cook time, not double the time -- and for baked goods, pan surface area (not volume) governs how a batter actually bakes, so switching pan size can matter more than the ingredient math.