Are there any recipe ingredients that scale in a non-uniform manner?
A question I asked on the stats Q/A has a comment that reads,
[...] to make 8 times the amount of food a recipe describes you don't just octuple all the ingredients mentioned (eg. salt)".
Some recipes, of course, don't scale well if you try to cook them in larger batches, but that's not what I understand the comment as saying. I understand it to say that, when scaling recipes you may need to use different multipliers for different ingredients.
I feel fairly certain that this is not the case for most recipes. I wonder though, if there any recipes where the ingredients do not scale uniformly.
Best Answer
Things applied in a non-linear manner do not scale linearly, i.e. when the 'Surface to volume ratio' matters, the recipe will not scale linearly. See http://kitchenscience.sci-toys.com/scaling for a discussion mostly on how the timings are affected.
One example is breading: You will not need to double the breading linearly on a single 200g piece of beef/chicken compared to a single 400g piece, since the surface area will not change with the same factor as the weight, i.e. the surface area will not double when the weight doubles.
On the other hand, if you use twice as many pieces of chicken, you will need twice as much breading.
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Are there some recipes that should not be scaled?
Are there recipes I shouldn't scale? Yeast breads, cakes, pies, souffl\xe9s and delicate custards do not adapt well to scaling. The proportions of ingredients are vital to their success, so it's best make multiple batches of them, one by one, according to the recipe.How do you scale ingredients?
How To Scale Up A Recipe: 4 Easy StepsWhat does it mean to scale ingredients?
When cooking and baking, we may find it necessary to increase or decrease the yield (the amount of what we are making) of a recipe. Yield may be expressed in quantity, serving, or portion. Increasing or decreasing the yield is called \u201cscaling\u201d a recipe.What two components does a recipe need to be considered a recipe?
A recipe really only needs either ingredients or directions ( the preparation method) to be considered complete. At a minimum most recipes have a title, ingredients list, and preparation method.Increasing \u0026 Decreasing Recipes
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Answer 2
Although it is not usually horrible for a recipe, it is not recommended to double the yeast for bread. King Arthur Flour have a helpful explanation near the bottom of this page.
Update: Briefly, the explanation is that doubling the amount of yeast is less manageable. While you are forming a loaf out of part of the dough, the remainder will continue to rise, possibly overflowing the bowl, filling the kitchen and what-not. Reducing the amount of yeast will allow you to work loaves one at a time without simultaneously being consumed by a dough monster.
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