Make more or less of a recipe

Change how many servings a recipe makes, and its amounts follow, in the ingredient list and in the steps.

Change the servings

Open a recipe. Above it, Adjust shows how many servings the recipe makes and the units it’s shown in. Open it, then use the minus and plus buttons beside Servings to change the count, and every amount changes to match: making 6 of a recipe for 4 uses half as much again of everything. Reset to the recipe’s own number puts it back.

When a recipe doesn’t say how many it serves, Scale offers ½×, 1×, 2× and 3× instead.

The change is only for now. The recipe itself keeps its amounts, and the next recipe you open starts at its own number.

Recipes shared publicly have Adjust too, so anyone can scale one without an account.

What changes

• The ingredient list. “1 cup sugar” at double is “2 cups sugar”, and “2 eggs” at half is “1 egg”. Amounts keep the recipe’s own units, so “3 Tbsp.” doubles to “6 Tbsp.”.
• The unit, when an amount outgrows it. An amount too small for its unit moves to a smaller one: “1/4 cup” at half is “2 tbsp”, and “1 tbsp” at half is “1½ tsp”. So does an amount under a cup that no measuring cup holds: “3/4 cup” at half is “6 tbsp”, not “⅜ cup”. An amount moves to a bigger unit only when it comes out even there: “4 tbsp” doubles to “½ cup”, “12 oz” to “1½ lb”, and “500 g” at triple is “1.5 kg”. Ounces of a liquid, and every ounce in a drink, stay ounces.
• Amounts in the steps. “Add 1/2 cup of the stock” at double reads “Add 1 cup of the stock”.
• Amounts given twice, such as “1/2 cup (125 g)”, change on both sides.
• Amounts round to what you can measure: cups and spoons to fractions a measuring set has, grams and milliliters to what a scale or jug shows.

In Traditional, Notecard and Cook mode, every number Platefolio changed is underlined with dots. Tap or point at one to see what the recipe originally said. Printed recipes don’t show the underline.

What stays as written

• Pan sizes, can sizes and temperatures. Doubling a cake doesn’t double the pan or the oven. A bigger batch may need a bigger pan or a longer bake, which only you can judge.
• Counts in the steps, like “beat in the 2 eggs”. The step may mean some of the eggs, not all of them, so read those with the new amount in mind.
• Amounts for one of something, like “1 ounce of brandy in each glass” or “4 salmon fillets (4 oz each)”. Making more means more glasses and more fillets, not more in each.
• A pace, like “add the sugar 1 tablespoon at a time”.
• Notes about another serving count, like “(For 4 servings, use 2 tablespoons)”. Some meal kit recipes give both amounts; when you pick the count they name, you get theirs.
• Anything that isn’t a plain amount: “a pinch”, “juice of 1 lemon”, “salt to taste”.
• Cooking times.

With your units

Scaling works with your units. A recipe doubled and shown in metric reads “470 ml” where it said “1 cup”.

Still stuck? Tell us what happened and we'll help.