Recipe Multiplier
Adjust ingredient quantities instantly. Perfect for batch cooking, meal prep, or scaling down for two.
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Scaled Result
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The Chef's Guide to Scaling
Baking Chemistry
Scaling baked goods is tricky. While flour and sugar scale linearly, leavening agents (baking powder/soda) do not. For large batches, start with slightly less leavening to avoid off-flavors.
Surface Area & Time
Doubling a recipe usually means deeper food in the pan. This requires a longer cooking time at a slightly lower temperature to cook thoroughly without burning.
Weight vs Volume
For high precision, try using grams. Scaling by weight is 100% accurate, whereas "cups" can vary significantly based on how you scoop the ingredient.
Scaling recipes up and down
Enter the original yield and your target, and every ingredient quantity is recalculated. Most of a recipe scales linearly and gives no trouble at all. The exceptions are worth knowing before you double a cake.
What does not scale linearly
Cooking time is governed by geometry, not quantity. Doubling a cake batter and baking it in one larger tin means heat travels further to reach the centre, so it takes longer than the original and much less than double. Judge by internal temperature or a skewer rather than by arithmetic.
Salt and strong spices often need slightly less than the calculation suggests when scaling up. Scale to around three quarters, taste, then adjust. Chilli, garlic and cloves in particular become overpowering when doubled exactly.
Leavening is the trickiest. Doubling baking soda or powder exactly tends to produce a batter that rises fast, collapses and tastes metallic. Around one and a half times is a better starting point for a doubled batch.
Alcohol and liquids for reduction behave differently at scale, because a wider pan evaporates faster and a deeper one slower. Expect to adjust reduction times by eye.
Practical technique
Halving an egg is the classic obstacle. Beat one whole egg, weigh it, and use half by weight — around 25 grams. Guessing is the difference between a tender crumb and a dense one.
Check your equipment before you commit. A doubled batch needs a pan with genuinely twice the volume, and crowding a roasting tray steams food rather than browning it. Two trays beat one overloaded one every time.
For baking especially, convert to weights. Volume measures compound their inaccuracy as you scale, so a cup measured generously three times over drifts much further than it would once.
Weigh, don't measure
Scaling amplifies volume-measure error. Grams stay accurate at any multiple.
Taste before serving
Scaled seasoning is an estimate. Adjust at the end rather than trusting the arithmetic.
Check the pan
Double the batter needs double the volume, not just a slightly bigger dish.
Frequently asked questions
Do cooking times scale with quantity?
No. Time depends on the depth and surface area of the food, not its total mass. A doubled batch in a larger tin takes longer, but nowhere near twice as long.
How do I halve an egg?
Beat a whole egg, then weigh out half of it, roughly 25 grams. It is far more accurate than estimating by eye.
Should I double the salt exactly?
Scale to about three quarters of the calculated amount, taste, and adjust. Seasoning perceived intensity does not rise linearly.
Does this work for baking?
Yes, with care. Scale leavening slightly under the calculated figure and use weights rather than cups wherever the recipe allows.