You’ve probably asked yourself whether you can turn a recipe that makes four servings into dinner for two or a feast for eight. It seems like a matter of simple arithmetic until you start to cook a dish and discover that twice as many chicken thighs can’t possibly fit into the same pan, or that halving the ingredients in a sauce made it too thin or too thick.
So when engineers at The New York Times steered a generative artificial intelligence model to scale our recipes, I worked with them to address common questions that math alone can’t answer and create nuanced rules for a range of situations. (How do you halve three whole eggs?) Our recipe editors, all of whom have decades of professional experience, then reviewed rounds of scaled recipes, and the engineers incorporated that feedback into their model to help ensure the best possible outcomes.
Clicking the dropdown menu for the scaling feature allows you to select from options to halve or double a recipe (or restore it to the original).Credit…New York Times Cooking
After extensive revisions, The New York Times Cooking app now offers the option of automatically doubling and halving all its recipes (over 25,000 and counting) with a simple tap. Scaled recipes, unlike the originals, haven’t been tested to ensure successful results exactly as written, so they’ll require more attention from you in the kitchen. You’ll have to taste and season as you go and use other senses (and your common sense) to make sure the dish comes out delicious.
Once scaled, the changes to the recipe appear in orange.Credit…New York Times Cooking
As you cook with scaled recipes, keep these tips in mind:
Figure out the cookware you need.
When some recipes are doubled, you’ll see a tip noting that you may need to divide the ingredients between two pots or pans. Follow this advice when preparing larger-format dishes like sheet-pan meals, holiday roasts or big braises if the ingredients won’t fit in your largest cooking vessel.
Halved baking recipes will automatically include adjusted pan sizes, and doubled ones generally suggest using two of the same pan. If you’re an experienced baker with an assortment of bakeware, you can also choose another pan that holds half or double the volume of the original.
If a doubled recipe calls for a slow cooker, air fryer, wok, pressure cooker or grill, you may need to work in batches. (The same goes for recipes that use a blender, stand mixer or food processor.) For halved recipes, you may need to scrape down the bowl more to mix smaller quantities.
Weigh eggs for the most accurate results.
Doubling eggs is easy, but halving an odd number of whole ones, yolks or whites gets tricky. In recipes where eggs are cooked and served whole, simply cook as many as you want to eat. For custards, pancake batter and baked goods such as quiches, cakes and pastries, we’ve given the weight of eggs, along with a range for the number of eggs. For example, half of “3 large eggs” is listed as “1 to 2 large eggs (about 75 grams).” To get what you need, crack two eggs into a bowl, beat them to blend and weigh out 75 grams. Follow the same process for egg yolks or whites as needed.
Taste and adjust seasonings as you go.
In doubled recipes, think twice about whether you’d want twice the amount of seasonings like spices or dried herbs in your final dish, especially if the spices are fresh and therefore at their most potent. Start with slightly less than the recipe calls for (you can always taste and adjust later). Alternatively, if they’re a little past their prime but you still want to use them, go ahead and double them (or even sneak in a little more)! CATHY LO
Focus on cooking cues rather than cook times.
When recipes are doubled, they’ll usually take longer to cook, while halved recipes will often cook faster. The cooking times remain unchanged in the scaled recipes, since any differences can’t be computed as reliably as ingredient amounts. Pay particular attention to doneness cues (“until golden,” “until puffed” and the like) in addition to cooking times. In general, check doneness earlier for halved recipes and note that doubled recipes might need to cook (or bake) for longer. ALEXA WEIBEL
Adjust the stove temperature as needed.
The recipe scaling tool does not adjust the original stove or oven temperature, since it usually does not need to change. On occasion, though, you may need to lower the heat on a burner to bring a boil down to a proper simmer, or raise the heat if food seems to be steaming instead of searing. ADINA STEIMAN
Swap oven racks to ensure even baking.
For doubled recipes that use two sheet pans or baking dishes or pans, start by arranging racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven before heating. Oven heat tends to be uneven, so be sure to swap the pans between the racks halfway through the bake time to ensure both cooking vessels get a more consistent amount of heat. ADINA STEIMAN
A module above the recipe reminds you that the recipe has been scaled but not tested.Credit…New York Times Cooking
As you can see, scaling recipes (like cooking itself) is an inexact science. The benefit of trying a scaled recipe, aside from ending up with the number of servings you want, is how much it can teach you: Figuring out any necessary (and nuanced) adjustments is a great way to become a more skillful cook. We’re also constantly working to improve this generative A.I. feature. If you come across something you think should change, click on the “Send us feedback” email link that appears below the scaled ingredient list or share your thoughts here.
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