Recipe Scaler

Snapping to common fractions is the point of the tool. Multiplying 2/3 by 1.25 gives 0.8333 cups, which is arithmetically correct and completely useless in a kitchen — nobody owns that measure. Rounding to the nearest eighth, quarter, third or half produces something you can actually scoop, and when no common fraction is within a small tolerance the tool shows a decimal rather than quietly lying about the amount. Baking deserves more care than cooking here: it is chemistry, so ratios between flour, fat, liquid and raising agent matter, and scaling by an awkward factor like 1.3 can throw those off. Where you can, scale by a simple multiple, and remember to increase the tin size rather than the depth.

The scaling factor is desired servings ÷ original servings. Each quantity is multiplied by that factor, then snapped to the nearest common kitchen fraction — eighths, quarters, thirds and halves — falling back to a decimal when nothing close fits.

Only quantities are scaled — cooking times, temperatures and tin sizes are not, and they do not scale linearly. A doubled cake needs a bigger tin and longer, often cooler baking, not twice the time. Judgement is also needed on strong ingredients: salt, spices, raising agents, yeast and alcohol usually want slightly less than the full multiple. Lines with no leading number are passed through unchanged.

Scaling from 4 servings to 6 gives a factor of 1.5: 2 cups of flour becomes 3 cups, 3/4 cup of sugar becomes 1 1/8 cups, and “pinch of salt” is left exactly as written.

1. Paste your ingredient list, one item per line.
2. Enter how many servings the recipe currently makes.
3. Enter how many you want.
4. Copy the scaled list, adjusting seasoning by taste.

• Scaling the cooking time along with the quantities.
• Doubling salt, spices or yeast by the full factor.
• Using the same tin for a doubled cake, so it cooks unevenly.
• Scaling a delicate bake by an awkward factor instead of a simple multiple.

The Recipe Scaler resizes an ingredient list for a different number of servings. It reads whole numbers, decimals, fractions like 3/4, mixed numbers like 1 1/2 and the Unicode fractions recipe sites use, then rewrites each quantity as a fraction you can actually measure.

Home cooks halving a recipe for two, doubling one for guests, or adapting portions for meal prep.

• Returns practical kitchen fractions, not unusable decimals like 0.833 cups.
• Understands mixed numbers and pasted Unicode fractions.
• Leaves lines with no quantity, such as “pinch of salt”, untouched.
• Works on a whole ingredient list in one paste.

• Halving a family recipe to cook for one or two.
• Doubling or tripling a recipe for a party.
• Adjusting portions for batch cooking and meal prep.
• Converting a recipe written for a different number of servings.