Scaling a recipe

Scale a recipe up or down — halve it, double it — to match the batch you want to cook. Quantities, the yield line, and any numbers marked scalable in prose update in place.

Open the scaling bar

Open a recipe.
Tap Scale in the actions row (next to Edit, below the description and yield line).
The scaling bar drops open with four preset buttons and a text input.

Pick a preset

The four presets cover the common cases:

Preset	Factor
½×	Half
1×	Original (default)
2×	Double
3×	Triple

Tap one. Quantities update across the recipe and the toggle shows the active factor — for example, Scale (×2). The active preset stays highlighted.

Type a custom factor

For anything else, type into the input labelled Custom — beside the presets on a wide screen, below them on a phone. It accepts:

Whole numbers: 4
Decimals: 1.5, 0.75
Fractions with a slash: 3/2, 2/3

Invalid input shows an error state on the field; the recipe doesn’t change until the value parses.

Scaling to a serving count

There’s no dedicated target-servings control. Divide the servings you want by the recipe’s Serves number and type the result as a custom factor — fractions welcome. For Serves 4 and a party of 10, type 10/4.

When Serves is a range, use its midpoint, rounded to a whole number: Serves 4–6 → 5, so a party of 10 is 10/5, i.e. 2.

Reset to 1×

Tap the 1× preset, or tap Reset — the Reset button appears next to the input only when the factor isn’t 1×.

Where the scale factor is remembered

The current factor is saved in your browser’s local storage, scoped to the recipe. Reopen the recipe on the same browser within two days of your last tap on it, and it comes back at the same factor. A scale change and a cross-off both count as a tap. Any change that keeps the recipe’s title keeps the factor too: an edit, a new photo, an import over it, a restore. Renaming the recipe usually starts it back at 1×, because the factor is saved under the recipe’s slug, which changes with the title.

The factor is browser-local. A second device, a private window, or a different browser won’t see it. The same browser does see it across kitchens, though — if two of your kitchens have a recipe with the same slug, they share the saved scale.

What scales

Surface	How
Ingredient quantities	Every numeric quantity, including ranges (`1-2 eggs` becomes `2-4 eggs` at 2×)
An approximate amount	`about 1½ cups` scales its number and keeps the word — `about 3 cups` at 2×
Ingredient names	Pluralization tracks the scaled count — `1 egg` becomes `2 eggs`. A name Mirepoix has no forms for keeps your spelling at every count
Quantity units	`1 loaf` becomes `2 loaves`, and a fraction keeps the unit singular — `1 cup` at ½× reads `½ cup`. A unit word Mirepoix doesn’t know stays singular at every count — `2 grandma-teacup`
Alternate measures	A second measurement in parentheses scales with the main quantity — `1 cup (125 g)` becomes `2 cups (250 g)` at 2×, and a range inside scales on both ends like the main quantity does (`2-3 tbsp (30-45 mL)`); scaled text renders the unit in its standard lowercase spelling (`45 mL` becomes `720 ml` at 16×)
A measure in parentheses on a wordy amount	`Butter, a knob (30 g)` reads `a knob (60 g)` at 2×. There’s no doubling `a knob`, so those words stay exactly as you wrote them, but the measure beside them is a total for the line — the same figure nutrition has always doubled — so it scales
Additive compounds	Two measures joined by `plus`, the same kind of measure, add into one number and scale as a whole — `1 cup plus 2 Tbsp` reads `1⅛ cups` at 1× and `2¼ cups` at 2×
The yield line	The number in `Makes:` and `Serves:` updates — both ends scale when the yield is a range (`Makes: 12-16 cookies`, `Serves: 4-6`), with the same singular/plural handling
Marked numbers in prose	Anything written with a `*` suffix in step text, ingredient prep notes, cross-reference prep notes, or the footer
Embedded cross-references	An embedded recipe’s own multiplier compounds with the parent’s factor — at 2× with a `, 2` cross-reference, the inner recipe scales 4×

Hover or long-press a scaled number to see its original value as a tooltip.

What doesn’t scale

Surface	Why
Times	A 30-minute bake is still 30 minutes at double batch — pan size and oven, not the scale factor, decide cooking time
Temperatures	Same reason. A Fahrenheit temperature still gets its automatic Celsius conversion — the conversion doesn’t scale, it just converts
Plain numbers in prose	Numbers in step text without a `*` aren’t scaled — only marked numbers are
Amounts with no number in them	`Salt, to taste` or `Active dry yeast, q.b.` has nothing to scale, so it reads as written at every factor. Put a measure in parentheses after one — `a knob (30 g)` — and that measure does scale; the words never do
A `plus` compound mixing volume and weight	`1 cup plus 30 g` has no total Mirepoix can add up, so it reads as written at every factor — same as a second measurement joined by `+`

To make a number in prose scale, add * after it in the recipe source. The full list of surfaces where * is recognized is on Recipe format.

How an amount reads

An amount reads the same way at every factor, 1× included. Scaling changes the number, never the style.

A unit Mirepoix knows uses its spelling, not the recipe’s. A line written 3 Tablespoons reads 3 tbsp, 3/4 teaspoon reads ¾ tsp, and 3 lbs. reads 3 lb — before you open the scaling bar and after. Your own spelling is kept where you typed it: the recipe editor and an export both give the unit back in your words.
A fraction takes a singular unit. ½ cup, never ½ cups. Halve 1 cup and you get ½ cup; double it and you get 2 cups.
“About” stays in front. A line written about 1½ cups reads about 1½ cups, and about 3 cups at 2× — the word is yours, the number scales, and the unit agrees with it. Nutrition prices the number as if you’d written it exactly.
A unit Mirepoix doesn’t know reads singular at every count. Type 2 grandma-teacups and the recipe page shows 2 grandma-teacup, 4 grandma-teacup at 2×. The number scales; the word is never rewritten into a plural Mirepoix would have to guess. Your own spelling is still what the editor and an export give back.
Fractions show as glyphs. ½, 1¼, ⅔. Halves, thirds, quarters, fifths, sixths, and eighths each have one; anything else falls back to a decimal rounded to two places, so seven tenths of a cup reads 0.7 cups.
Metric amounts stay decimal. 0.5 l, not ½ l — for g, kg, mg, ml, cl, dl, and l.
Abbreviations don’t pluralize. 3 tbsp, 2 lb, 12 oz — that’s correct English, not a missing s.
A range agrees with its high end. ½–1½ cups, not ½–1½ cup.

Three things keep the exact words you wrote. A second measure in parentheses reads verbatim at 1× and picks up the standard spelling once you scale, and an amount with no number to scale — Salt, to taste or Active dry yeast, q.b. — reads as typed at every factor. Its words keep reading as typed even when a measure in parentheses follows them and scales: a knob (30 g) reads a knob (60 g) at 2×, never two knobs. An about amount isn’t one of these: it has a number, so it scales, and only the word in front stays put. Nor is a plus compound of the same kind of measure, like 1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp: the two measures add into one number, so it scales like any other amount — see What scales. A plus compound that mixes volume and weight (1 cup plus 30 g) has no total to add, so it reads as typed at every factor — so does an amount whose unit is really a second measurement: 1/3 block + 1 Tbsp, about 3 oz reads whole on the recipe page, because scaling the number in front would leave the rest of the phrase behind.

The Groceries list and the Pantry show amounts this way too, except for the word about: it stays on the recipe page. A shopping row adds up amounts from several recipes, so it shows the number alone. That last phrase is the recipe page’s, though: a shopping row has nothing countable in it to add up, so it follows the rule for an item with no countable amount — no amount at all, however many things on your Menu call for it that way.