Guardian perfectionist Felicity Cloake can often be found scaling recipes when testing for her column: “When you’re making six or seven versions of the same thing, sometimes you have to for your own sanity.” Generally speaking, it’s an easy thing to do, too, says Helen Goh, co-author of Ottolenghi Comfort – “assuming you didn’t fail maths, or you have a calculator.” But success really depends on what you’re making, of course. “In baking, for instance, trying to cream a small amount of butter and sugar in a mixer will have the beaters going round and round without making a jot of difference,” Goh says.
Pasta sauces, meanwhile, are “fair game” in Cloake’s book, as are most stews and soups. That’s not to say you can simply double the ingredients and be done with it, mind. “Seasoning such as salt, pepper, spices and lemon juice don’t always scale up or down in a neat way,” Goh explains, so her trick is to add them in increments, tasting and adjusting accordingly.
Next, consider how the volume of ingredients in the original recipe will impact on the cooking process, Cloake says: “If you cut down, say, a slow-cooked scrambled egg recipe, unless you have a very small pan, the smaller volume of liquid will get too much exposure to heat, and will dry out and overcook as a result.”
Cookware is very important, too. “I found out the hard way recently, when making a Dutch baby for a bunch of hungry kids,” confesses Goh, who simply doubled the batter but used the same size pan. The result? The batter rose just a quarter of the way up the sides: “It looked OK initially, but without the surface area to puff up majestically, it pooled in the centre and ended up dense and rubbery.” So if, for example, you want to double a recipe, be sure to double the size of your tray or dish as well, especially if it’s going in the oven. That said, it’s often also best to scale up but cook in batches. Let’s take a stir-fry as an example: “A good one depends on wok hei [literally, “the breath of the wok”] to impart the essential flavour, aroma and texture,” Goh says, so overcrowding not only lowers the temperature, but also makes ingredients trickier to toss, leading to “steamed rather than al dente vegetables”.
Cooking times might also vary, and Cloake’s advice is to trust your instincts: “Check early, check often.” And if you’re playing around with cakes, it’s going to be trial and error. “A larger amount of batter in the same tin might not cook in the time specified in the original recipe,” Goh says, while a smaller amount will result in overcooked cake. “Adjusting the size of the pan or baking time will help, but there’s no easy formula.” It’s much easier to scale the likes of muffins, says Meliz Berg, author of Dinner Tonight. “If you’re making six instead of 12, for example, it shouldn’t make a difference, as long as you’re using the same size muffin cases [as in the original recipe].”
Ultimately, however, leftovers aren’t something to be feared, but embraced. “We used to live off them when we were children,” Berg says, “and we still do in my house.” Storing made-ahead meals in the fridge or freezer will just make dinners and snacks easier, and can be economical to boot.
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