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Scaling down recipes for 24 to 4

post #1 of 29
8/28/07 at 5:32pm
Thread Starter 
How do you do that!?
When you have a recipe that is for 12 or 24 and you just want to serve 3 or 4 how do you do that? and not loose quality?
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post #2 of 29
8/28/07 at 6:19pm
Why would you lose quality?

Just divide everything by 3,4, 6 or 8
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post #3 of 29
8/28/07 at 6:31pm
Careful you don't end up with recipes like this:

ROFL! :D :D :talk: :smiles::smiles:
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post #4 of 29
8/29/07 at 3:53am
Thread Starter 
THATS WHAT I WAS AFRAID OF!!!!!
What do I do!??!?!?!?:cry:
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post #5 of 29
8/29/07 at 6:04am
Cut the recipe in half and let the visitors take home what's left. Then there's always the ability to package well and freeze what ever you have left. (In most cases).:D
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post #6 of 29
8/29/07 at 6:38am
For many recipes you can just round off the fractions ...

Shel
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post #7 of 29
8/29/07 at 6:41am
first off what are you making? Can't you guesstimate?
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post #8 of 29
8/29/07 at 8:27am
I don't understand, are you saying you can't divide 2/3 by 8? It would be 1/12

I don't see how suzanne's recipe is going to feed 12-24 people.

Surely any recipe that feeds that many will have easily divisible proportions.

If not what I would do is take a scale, weight it out in grams, then divide the grams by 8.

For example if the orginal recipe calls for 2/3 cups chopped onion, weigh that out, lets say it weighs 400 grams, then you would want 50 grams of onions, so just weigh out 50 grams on your scale.
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post #9 of 29
8/29/07 at 8:41am
Just to clarify, that's not Suzanne's recipe. Suzanne was posting an example of how not to do it. For example, what do you make of

2/3 red onion, quartered.

Hmm...
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post #10 of 29
8/29/07 at 8:43am
will if 2/3 onion feeds 24 people, 1/3 would feed 12, cut that 1/3 in half and it would fee 6, and then in half again to feed 3.
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post #11 of 29
8/29/07 at 8:47am
Yeah but how would you quarter 2/3 of an onion?

Anyway Carl, what are you trying to do? Post the big recipe and we'll try and help.
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post #12 of 29
8/29/07 at 1:25pm
Thread Starter 
OH MY GOD YOU PEOPLE WITH THE MATH!!
I'M A STRIPPER FOR CHRIST SAKE!!!!!!!
Didnt you check my myspace!??
But there are some recipes that would come down to 1/2 of a third of a cup of something
I'm looking at Martha Stewart's Entertaining book
Because its the Best selling cookbook since Mastering the Art of French cooking I assume NOT EVERYONE is using this to cook for 24..or 40! but most of the recipes are for those large parties
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post #13 of 29
8/29/07 at 1:35pm
= .25 * .66 => 0.165 of an onion, red.

:D
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post #14 of 29
8/29/07 at 1:37pm
Carl, the best advice is never to divide a recipe by more than four.

Give us the quantities and we can work it out for you. Also, if you have Mastercook, it will automatically scale recipes for you. With that, however, you must be careful because it's just looking at the numbers, not the logic.
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post #15 of 29
8/29/07 at 8:21pm
OK, pretend one cup is equal to eight one dollar bills... :D
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post #16 of 29
8/30/07 at 2:39am
:D:D:D:D:roll:couldn't resist, sorry

Anyway, there are many online cooking sources and always a chance to find same recipe measured for 3-4
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post #17 of 29
8/30/07 at 3:21am
Thread Starter 
That seem like sound advice!:)
the one about the dollar bills is still tough because
I ALWAYS GET TIPS OF $10s and $20s
THANK YOU!:lol:
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post #18 of 29
8/30/07 at 9:45am

hee hee that's funny.
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post #19 of 29
9/8/07 at 5:08am
Thread Starter 
I just read somewhere that the "Entertaining" book by Stewart is not really a cookbook at all! But was meant as a fairtale for housewives everywhere to escape to a world of Martha where everyone is from New England...(including Polish Martha)

:(
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post #20 of 29
9/8/07 at 5:16am
Just get joy of cooking. And no need to disparage people for whatever reason.
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post #21 of 29
9/8/07 at 7:53am
Carlarid,

You are baker, correct? That is a little more precise.
I keep a a sheet of paper taped to the inside of my cabinet at home, and laminated on the wall in the baking area of my kitchen at work. It gives a conversion for 1/3 cup to tablespoons (5 1/3); 1/2 cup to 8 tablespoons, etc. You can break most ingredients from cups to tablespoons. But you want to look at the eggs and the quantity required, as a basis for how far you can reduce the recipe. Then depending on the recipe, quantify to use one egg. Or if the recipe process will allow; beat your egg in a small dish and spoon in half.

The most precise way is to weigh everything, but for some of the common recipes that we use in this country, we have to start by weighing and converting everything. That becomes a little involved for most of us; but the conversion to tablespoons will get you by.

Here's a good page, go to: Italian Food Forever - Italian Recipes! on the bottom right you can link to a page on conversions.

Here's another one I'd saved. GourmetSleuth - Kitchen Conversion Calculator
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post #22 of 29
9/8/07 at 8:10am
Also, if you are baking, the pan size becomes critical. The Wilson cake site has a page with pan size and the cups of batter to fill them.

Whatcha convertin'?
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post #23 of 29
9/8/07 at 8:41am
Heh heh, 10's to 1's. :D

Sorry, couldn't let that go. Cummon Carl you gotta sense of humor right? ;)
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post #24 of 29
9/8/07 at 9:19am
Kuan,
Right now, do you feel like you are in one of those commercials with the dropped call?
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post #25 of 29
9/8/07 at 3:13pm
great reply...=) Winnie the Pooh - Tigger its really Radickorous (tiger from Whinnie da pooh) that you can't break down a recipe from 12 to 4 what would be wrong with 1/3 clove of garlic.you dont have a knife that would cut it in 1/3 rds.?
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post #26 of 29
9/12/07 at 8:10am
this whole thread has made me giggle - especially Kuan being very cheeky:lol::lol:
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post #27 of 29
9/12/07 at 3:48pm
bwahahahahahahahaahahahahaha! I'm crying! I have tears rolling down my face!!!

Sorry CarlAird not laughin AT you. But that was priceless!!!

Ok now the next bit of bad news...Martha Stewart recipes are notorious for sucking, for the most part! You have to watch them carefully and tweak many like **** before they're edible! :(

I would rather cut a raw oyster into 1/8ths!!! :bounce::roll::roll::smiles::smiles::smoking:
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post #28 of 29
9/12/07 at 8:10pm
Indeed - I've never made a martha Stewart reciope that tuerned out well. As far as I'm concerned, Sandra Lee is a better cook.

Shel
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post #29 of 29
9/12/07 at 8:48pm
Kuan...you're terrible! :):lol: I heard that too, about the Martha Stewart books. At least the early ones. People said the recipes were obviously not tested as there were some for say, pasta salad for twenty five people that called for two cups of macaroni. I never read any of her books, so I don't know if it's true.
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