How to scale recipes up or down for your family size

Most recipes serve four; most households are not four people. Scaling quantities is easy math, but a few things do not scale linearly.

What scales cleanly

• Main ingredients: proteins, vegetables, grains — multiply directly.
• Liquids in stews and soups — multiply, then adjust to the pot.

What to watch

• Seasoning and heat (salt, chilli): start with ~75% of the scaled amount and adjust to taste.
• Baking: chemistry is per-pan — prefer making two batches over doubling one.
• Cook times barely change with quantity; oven times change with thickness, not weight.

A planner that lets you set a per-meal serving multiplier — and carries the scaled quantities straight into the grocery list — saves you doing this arithmetic in the store aisle.