Cut any recipe in half and have it turn out just as well as the full batch.
Halving a recipe sounds simple: divide everything by two. Most of the time that’s exactly right — the trouble is the handful of amounts that don’t split cleanly, like an odd number of eggs or a tablespoon of an odd-numbered teaspoon measure. Here’s how to cut any recipe in half and have it turn out just as well as the full batch.
For anything measured by volume or weight — flour, sugar, milk, oil, butter, broth — halving is genuinely just division. Two cups of flour become one; a pound of beef becomes eight ounces. Working in grams makes it even easier, because you never land on an awkward fraction. When cups and spoons do give you an odd fraction, convert to the smallest unit before dividing:
You can’t pour half a shell, so crack the egg into a bowl, beat it, and measure. A large egg is about 3 tablespoons, so half an egg is roughly 1½ tablespoons of beaten egg. For three eggs halved, use one whole egg plus 1½ tablespoons of a second.
Straight division is a fine starting point for salt, spices and other bold flavors, but taste as you go — a smaller batch can taste sharper. Add about 80% of the halved amount, then adjust at the end. You can always add more; you can’t take it out.
Halving the ingredients doesn’t halve the cooking time, but it usually changes your pan. A batter built for a 9×13 will bake thin and dry at half volume — switch to a smaller pan so the depth stays similar, keep the oven temperature the same, and start checking around two-thirds of the original time.
Let the Recipe Scaler do the arithmetic for you — it converts every amount, including the awkward ones, into clean kitchen measurements.