Recipe Scaling (Ingredient for a New Yield)

Also known as scale a recipe · double a recipe · batch scaling

Q_2 = Q_1 \cdot \frac{S_2}{S_1}

Worked example: 250 g for 4 servings → 375 g for 6 — press Try an example to run it live, then adjust anything.

Enter your known values, leave one input blank, and solves for the missing one. Tap a variable’s symbol to see what it means, with a typical value. Try different units for next level excitement!

Here the solver did the work — could you?

Scaling the recipe →

Grade 10Grade 10 Math

Test your skills in the Exam Room: new numbers every attempt — free lessons for students, no sign-up, just pure learning.

See your Report Card

Compete with your friends
share your results

Learning zone

Recipe Scaling (Ingredient for a New Yield) explained

Ingredients scale linearly with servings, so a recipe for four becomes a recipe for six by multiplying every quantity by $6/4$ . That much is just proportion, and it is the part a calculator can do for you.

The part it cannot do is everything else in the kitchen. Cooking time does not scale, because heat has to travel into the middle of the food and a doubled loaf is not twice as thick. Pan size scales with area rather than volume, so doubling a cake batter and pouring it into the same tin gives you a raw centre and a burnt rim. Salt, leavening and spice usually want less than a full multiple, since perception is nonlinear and a tripled recipe rarely wants triple the chili. Evaporation scales with surface area too, which is why a doubled sauce reduces more slowly and a doubled pot of rice needs proportionally less water.

Scale the ingredients with the arithmetic, then adjust the seasoning by taste and the timing by testing. Bakers who need real precision go further and work in baker's percentages, where every ingredient is quoted as a fraction of the flour mass and the recipe becomes scale-free by construction.

Recipe Scaling (Ingredient for a New Yield) formula

Q_2 = Q_1 \cdot \frac{S_2}{S_1}

Where

$Q_2$ = Scaled quantity (kg)
$Q_1$ = Original quantity (kg)
$S_1$ = Original servings
$S_2$ = Desired servings

Missing one of these? Work it out first, then come back

Scaled quantity — Unit Price (Price per Unit Quantity), Body Mass Index (BMI)
Original quantity — Unit Price (Price per Unit Quantity), Body Mass Index (BMI)
Original servings — Angle Between Clock Hands, Clock Hands Overlap Time
Desired servings — Angle Between Clock Hands, Clock Hands Overlap Time