Scale any recipe to your crowd — and get the shopping list.

Why you can’t just multiply a recipe

The obvious way to scale a recipe — multiply every ingredient by the number of guests — is how you end up with 22 cups of flour. A cookie recipe that serves “10” doesn’t need 10× the dough for 10 people: it already makes 24 cookies, which covers 10 guests at 2–3 each. Real scaling starts from what the recipe yields and what one person actually eats at a party.

That’s the math this tool does. It reads the recipe’s own yield, applies party portions (a side dish stretches further on a buffet; desserts run about 1½ pieces a head), and scales from there.

The recipe is in cups. The store sells cartons.

Scaling the ingredients is half the job. The other half is the store: a recipe calls for 1½ cups of cream, and no shelf sells that. The scaler keeps cooking measures in the recipe steps and writes the shopping list in retail units — a 16 oz carton, a 24 oz jar, 3 lb of ziti — sized to cover what the scaled recipe needs. Every item gets store buttons, so the list you’re holding is also the list you can order.

How it works

1. Paste the recipe — the whole thing, ingredients and all. Or just name it (“Giada’s carbonara”, “NYT fish tacos”) and we’ll reconstruct it. Several recipes at once is fine — each is scaled and the shopping lists merge.
2. Tell us the headcount — 6 or 60.
3. Cook from the result — scaled ingredients, the steps, a checkable shopping list in store units, and where to buy each item. Print it, share it, or build a prep schedule from it.

What it won’t do

It won’t silently rewrite your recipe. What you paste is treated as yours — the scaler changes quantities, never the dish. If a dietary note conflicts with your recipe, it warns you and lets you decide; it never edits your food behind your back.

Scaling a whole party, not just one dish?

The scaler is one door into Dinner Caddy. If you’re planning the full spread, the party planner builds a complete menu around your headcount and occasion, folds in your own recipes, and handles the potluck signup board — same shopping list and prep schedule underneath.