Back to Cooking & Nutrition

How to Use Our Recipe Scaler

2 min read

How to Use Our Recipe Scaler

Cooking for two when the recipe serves eight? Doubling a recipe for a party? Our Recipe Scaler adjusts all ingredients proportionally so your dish turns out right every time.

How It Works

  • Original Servings -- The number of servings the recipe was written for.
  • Desired Servings -- How many servings you want to make.
  • Ingredients -- Enter each ingredient with its quantity and unit.

The calculator multiplies each ingredient by the scaling factor (desired servings / original servings) and converts units when appropriate. If a recipe serves 4 and you want 6, each ingredient is multiplied by 1.5.

Scaling Tips

Spices and seasonings -- Scale these to about 75% of the calculated amount, then taste and adjust. Spice intensity does not always scale linearly, especially for salt, chili, and strong flavors like garlic.

Baking is less forgiving. When scaling baked goods, stick to exact proportions for flour, sugar, eggs, and leavening agents (baking soda, baking powder). Even small deviations can affect texture and rise.

Cooking times change. Doubling a recipe does not double the cooking time. Larger volumes take longer to heat through, but the increase is usually 25-50%, not 100%. Use a thermometer to check doneness rather than relying solely on time.

Related Calculators