How to double a recipe.
Whether it’s a few unexpected dinner guests or you’re preparing a feast for a crowd, here’s how to easily double the portions of any recipe.
Most recipes create two to four portions of whatever dish you’re making. This can be a big problem for large families or when your “intimate” dinner party suddenly becomes twelve people. At first glance, doubling a recipe should be as simple as adding twice the ingredients, right?
Well, as many disappointed home chefs can tell you, it’s rarely that easy. But never fear; we’ve got all the tips and tricks to help you double a recipe without ruining the dish.
Tips and tricks for doubling any recipe.
The biggest pitfall that most cooks encounter is thinking that all ingredients in a recipe are equal. When doubling a recipe, you need to treat different kinds of ingredients differently to recreate the flavor of a dish across more portions.
Here are some common ingredients and how much of each you should add when doubling a recipe:
- Meats/Seafood: Use twice as much
- Eggs: Use twice as much
- Produce: Use twice as much
- Stock/broth/water: Use twice as much
- Dried herbs: Use 1.5 times as much and add more as needed
- Spices: Start with 1.25 times as much and add more as needed
Some other essentials to keep in mind when doubling a recipe are to:
- Divide your ingredients into two equal pans, or increase the heat if using a larger pan
- Calculate the amount of each ingredient you will need in the doubled recipe before you start cooking
- Keep in mind that cooking times may not be exactly the same, so keep an eye on things as they cook
With a bit of practice and a lot of tasting, you’ll find that creating the perfect double recipe is more of an art than a science. Remember, you can always add more of something, but you can’t take it out, so add ingredients slowly until you get just the right flavor.
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