How Recipe Scaling Works

1. The Scaling Algorithm

When you paste an ingredient like "2 cups flour", the recipe scaler breaks it down into three components: quantity (2), unit (cups), and ingredient (flour). This parsing happens automatically, recognizing dozens of formats across multiple languages.

2. Supported Formats

The scaler recognizes many common ingredient formats:

Simple: "2 cups flour" • Fractions: "1/2 cup sugar" or "½ cup sugar" • Mixed numbers: "1 1/2 cups milk" • Ranges: "2-3 cloves garlic" • Packages: "1 (14 oz) can tomatoes"

3. Fraction Display

When scaling creates decimal results, the tool converts them to easy-to-read fractions. For example, 0.5 becomes ½, 0.25 becomes ¼, and 0.33 becomes ⅓. This makes your scaled recipe practical to measure.

4. Discrete Items

Some ingredients like eggs can't be divided. When scaling creates a non-whole number for these items, the tool shows a range. For example, 3 eggs scaled by 1.5× becomes "4-5 eggs", giving you flexibility in your cooking.

5. Non-Scalable Items

Some ingredients don't need scaling. Phrases like "salt to taste", "fresh herbs for garnish", or "optional" items are automatically detected and preserved unchanged in your scaled recipe.