How to scale a recipe and switch units
Most recipes are written for someone else’s table and someone else’s measuring cups. Scaling and converting by hand is where mistakes creep in, especially turning a cup of flour into grams, which depends on the ingredient, not just the unit.
Need a number now? See the cups to grams chart.
Scale a recipe
- Open the recipe and find the Servings card.
- Use the stepper to scale from a quarter of the recipe up to eight times it, in quarter steps. A badge such as ×2 shows the current scale.
- Every ingredient updates, with originally … beneath it so you can always see the recipe as written.
Plate & Page remembers the servings you chose for each recipe. The next time you open it, or plan it for the week, it starts at your number. Cooking Mode has its own servings control in the Ingredients sheet, and each step lists the scaled ingredients it needs.
Choose your units
In Settings › Unit settings, pick Metric, US or Imperial. Recipes and grocery lists are shown in that system.
- Cups, tablespoons and teaspoons are shown as familiar fractions like ½, ⅓ and ¾ rather than long decimals.
- Grams and millilitres are rounded to whole numbers once they’re large enough that decimals stop mattering.
Converting units while you scale
Converting a volume to a weight needs the ingredient’s density: a cup of flour and a cup of sugar weigh very different amounts. With Convert Between Volume and Weight turned on (it is by default), Plate & Page uses a bundled reference table of about 450 ingredients:
- With Metric, ingredients with a known density are shown by weight — cups of flour become grams.
- With US or Imperial, weights of those ingredients are shown as volumes.
- Descriptions such as “dried”, “ground” or “fresh chopped” pick the right entry, because a cup of ground spice and a cup of whole spice differ.
- Ingredients without a known density are converted only within the same kind of unit — cups to millilitres, ounces to grams — never guessed.
On devices with Apple Intelligence, an unfamiliar ingredient name can be matched privately to an existing entry in that table, and the app asks before using it. It never invents a new density.
Want an ingredient left exactly as written? Add a keyword under Settings › Weight Conversion Exceptions and matching ingredients stay in their original units.
Keeping your preferred servings
Most households cook for the same number of people most nights. Because Plate & Page remembers the servings you chose for each recipe, you set a family of five once, and from then on the recipe opens scaled for five, the planner plans it for five, and the grocery list buys for five. If a recipe is usually doubled for leftovers, scale it to ×2 once and leave it there. You can always see the amounts as originally written under each ingredient.
What scaling can’t do for you
Ingredient amounts scale neatly. A few other things in a recipe don’t, and are worth a moment’s thought when you go far from the original size:
- Pan size and baking time. A doubled cake batter in the same tin will be deeper and take longer to bake. Use two tins, or a larger one, and start checking a little early.
- Eggs. Scaling a two-egg recipe by 1.5 asks for three eggs, which is easy, but a quarter recipe may ask for half an egg. Beat one egg and use half of it by weight.
- Salt, spice and chilli. These are often better scaled a little under, then adjusted by tasting at the end.
- Cooking time on the hob. A larger pot takes longer to come to the boil and to reduce. Go by the cue in the step, such as “until thickened”, rather than the clock alone.
Metric, US or imperial
US recipes usually measure dry ingredients by volume in cups, while much of the world weighs them in grams. British and Australian recipes may use imperial or metric, and older family recipes may mix both. Choosing your unit system in Settings means every recipe you import is shown the way your kitchen measures, whatever the original source used. Your preference applies to the grocery list too, so the shopping amounts match the scales or jugs you own.
Why cups-to-grams needs ingredient density
A cup is a measure of space, not weight. A cup of plain flour weighs roughly half as much as a cup of granulated sugar, and how you fill the cup changes the result again: scooped flour packs down, spooned flour stays light. That’s why bakers often prefer weights, which come out the same every time. Plate & Page converts using a density for each specific ingredient from its reference table instead of a single rule for every cup, and leaves an ingredient in its original units when it has no reliable density, rather than guessing. The cups to grams charts list the density used for 14 everyday ingredients.
What’s free
Scaling and unit conversion are included in the free edition, along with export and iCloud sync.
Common questions
How far can I scale a recipe?
From a quarter of the recipe up to eight times it, in quarter steps. Every ingredient updates, and the original amount stays visible beneath it.
Will Plate & Page remember the servings I chose?
Yes. Each recipe remembers the servings you last chose, and the meal planner starts from that number when you plan it.
Why does a cup of flour convert to a different weight than a cup of sugar?
Because converting volume to weight depends on the ingredient’s density. Plate & Page uses a bundled reference table of about 450 ingredients, and converts ingredients it has no density for only within the same kind of unit.
Is scaling free?
Yes. Scaling and unit conversion are part of the free edition, along with export and iCloud sync.
