Recipe scaler

Paste a recipe’s ingredients, say how many people it serves and how many you’re feeding, and get the new amounts in fractions you can measure.

How to scale a recipe

Divide the servings you want by the servings the recipe makes. That’s your scaling factor: feeding 6 from a recipe for 4 is 6 ÷ 4 = 1.5. Multiply every ingredient by it. The scaler does that for each line, then rounds to amounts you can measure, like ⅓ cup instead of 0.33 cups.

What doesn’t scale evenly

• Salt and strong spices. When you double or triple a recipe, start with about 1½ times the salt, chili and spices, then taste and add more.
• Baking powder and baking soda. These scale fine for doubling, but for big batches it’s often better to bake two separate batches than one huge one.
• Eggs. If you end up with half an egg, beat one egg and use about half of it (roughly 2 tablespoons).
• Pan size and cooking time. A doubled cake in a bigger pan bakes longer at the same temperature. A halved recipe in a smaller pan bakes for less time, so check it early. Times on the stove stay much the same.
• Liquid for simmering. In a wider pot, liquid boils off faster, so you may need less extra liquid than the math says.

Scaling recipes you’ve saved

Recipes in ClipaRecipe have this built in. Change the servings on any saved recipe and the ingredients scale, along with the amounts written into each step, so you never have to work out “the rest of the butter” mid-recipe.

Cooking for a crowd with help

If everyone is bringing a dish, you don’t have to scale everything yourself. The potluck calculator on BringaList works out how many mains, sides and desserts a group needs, and a potluck sign-up sheet lets guests claim them from one link.