Scale a recipe by servings, in fractions a cook can measure.
1 lines had no quantity and were kept as written
What it's for
Make a recipe for more or fewer people — every amount multiplied, written in measures you can actually use, with a warning about what does not scale.
Before you start
Have the ingredient list, with each amount written as a number at the start of its line, and know how many servings the recipe makes.
Paste the ingredients
Replace the sample in Ingredients, one per line with your list, one ingredient on each line and the amount first — "2 cups rice", "1½ tsp salt".
Set the servings
Type how many the recipe makes in Recipe makes and how many you need in You want. Or press Half, Double or Triple to fill in You want for you.
Choose the units
Leave Move to friendlier units ticked to turn awkward amounts into easier measures — a pile of teaspoons becomes cups. Untick it to keep the units you typed.
Press Scale
Press Scale. The new amounts already update as you type; the button brings them into view.
Reading the result
If it goes wrong
Nobody measures 0.667 cups. You are standing in a kitchen holding a cup marked in thirds and quarters. So ⅔ cup is what comes back here, not a decimal.
Metric is the other way round: a scale reads 1.2 kg, so grams and millilitres come back as decimals.
But the more useful thing this says is what does NOT scale linearly.
Raising agents — baking powder, baking soda, yeast — usually need less than the multiplication says. Double a cake and double the baking powder and it can rise fast and collapse. Start at about three quarters of the scaled amount.
And time does not scale at all. A double batch in the same tin is deeper, so it takes longer — often at a lower temperature, so the outside does not burn before the middle is done. Across two tins it takes roughly the original time.
Go by temperature and by how it looks, never by multiplying the minutes.
For most of a recipe, yes. Not for the raising agents: baking powder, baking soda and yeast usually need less than the multiplication says, and a doubled cake with doubled baking powder can rise fast and collapse. Start at around three quarters of the scaled amount. Salt and strong spices are worth adding to taste rather than by the figure, because perception of them is not linear either.
No — time does not scale at all, and this is where most scaled recipes go wrong. A double batch in the same tin is deeper and takes noticeably longer, often at a lower temperature so the outside does not burn before the middle is done. Split across two tins it takes roughly the original time. Go by internal temperature and by how it looks, never by multiplying the minutes.
Because you are standing in a kitchen holding a measuring cup, and the cup is marked in thirds and quarters. "0.667 cups" is a number nobody can act on; ⅔ cup is one you can. Metric amounts are the other way round — a kitchen scale reads 1.2 kg, so grams and millilitres come back as decimals.
They are kept exactly as written, and the page tells you how many there were. Dropping them would lose part of the recipe, and inventing a quantity for them would be worse than leaving them alone.
Because 48 teaspoons is one cup, and measuring it as a cup is quicker and less error-prone. It works downward too: an amount that gets too small for its unit steps down, so an eighth of a teaspoon is shown as a fraction of a teaspoon rather than as "0.13". Metric and imperial ladders are kept separate — a recipe in grams never comes back in pounds. Turn the option off if you would rather keep the units you typed.
The US one: 1 tablespoon is 3 teaspoons and 1 cup is 16 tablespoons, the same measures the Unit Converter on this site uses. An Australian tablespoon is 4 teaspoons, and an imperial cup differs too, so a recipe from those places is worth checking before you scale it.
Important
Runs entirely in your browser; nothing is transmitted. Not everything scales linearly — raising agents, salt and cooking time all need judgement, and the page says so rather than implying the multiplication is the whole answer. Measures are US: 1 tbsp is 3 tsp, 1 cup is 16 tbsp. Nothing you type here is sent to our servers — the calculation runs entirely in your browser.
