Frequently Asked Questions
Answers to common questions about scaling recipes, converting units, extracting ingredients, and searching by what's in your fridge.
Recipe Scaler
Open tool →How does the recipe scaler work?
Paste your recipe text (or a URL) into the input box, choose a scale factor or target serving count, and the tool instantly adjusts every ingredient quantity. Fractions, decimals, and mixed numbers are all handled automatically.
How do I halve or double a recipe?
Click ½× to halve every ingredient, or 2× to double them. You can also enter a custom multiplier — for example 1.5 to make one-and-a-half times the recipe, or 0.75 for three-quarters.
Can I scale a recipe to a specific number of servings?
Yes. Switch to Servings mode, enter the original serving count and your target count, and every ingredient is scaled proportionally. The tool also auto-detects serving counts from pasted recipe text.
Can I scale a recipe directly from a URL?
Yes! Paste a recipe URL from BBC Good Food, AllRecipes, Serious Eats, Marmiton, and hundreds of other sites. The tool fetches and parses the ingredient list server-side, then lets you scale to any quantity.
What cooking units does the recipe scaler support?
The scaler handles all common cooking units: cups, tablespoons, teaspoons, fluid ounces, pints, quarts, gallons, millilitres, litres, ounces, pounds, grams, and kilograms — plus count-based items like pinch, dash, clove, and slice.
Does scaling a recipe change cooking time or temperature?
The scaler adjusts ingredient quantities only. Cooking temperature generally stays the same when scaling. Cooking time may need slight adjustment for much larger batches — use visual cues or a thermometer to judge doneness.
Is the recipe scaler free to use?
Completely free, with no account or sign-up required. All calculations happen instantly in your browser — your recipe text is never stored on our servers.
How do I convert cups to grams or millilitres?
Use our free Recipe Unit Converter (linked in the navigation bar). It converts between volume, weight, and temperature units instantly. Note that cup-to-gram conversions depend on the ingredient's density, so values are ingredient-specific.
Only The Recipe
Open tool →How does 'Only The Recipe' work?
Paste a recipe URL and click Generate. The tool fetches the page server-side and extracts the structured ingredient list using schema.org Recipe markup. You get a clean, ad-free ingredient list in seconds.
Which recipe websites are supported?
Any site using standard schema.org Recipe markup works: BBC Good Food, AllRecipes, Serious Eats, Marmiton, Jamie Oliver, Bon Appétit, and hundreds more. If a site blocks bots or lacks structured markup, copy the ingredients manually and paste them into the Recipe Scaler on the home page.
Why would a recipe URL fail to extract?
Some websites use aggressive bot-blocking, require a login, or don't use structured recipe markup. In those cases, copy the ingredient list manually and paste it into the Recipe Scaler on our home page to scale it there.
Is my URL stored or tracked?
No. The URL is sent to our server only to bypass browser CORS restrictions. We don't log URLs, recipe data, or any personal information. Your data stays private.
Can I scale the extracted ingredients?
Yes! After extracting, click '⚖️ Scale this recipe →' to send the ingredients directly to the Recipe Scaler. You can then halve, double, or scale to any serving count with one click.
Does it work for non-English recipe sites?
Yes. The extractor reads schema.org markup which is language-agnostic. It also supports multilingual section headers (ingrédients, Zutaten, ingredientes, ingredienti, etc.) for sites that don't use structured data.
How is this different from copying the recipe page?
Most recipe sites bury the ingredient list under long personal stories, multiple ad breaks, and step-by-step photos. 'Only The Recipe' jumps straight to the structured ingredient data, giving you a clean, copy-ready list in one click.
Recipe Search
Open tool →How does ingredient-based recipe search work?
Type the ingredients you have (e.g. chicken, garlic, lemon) and click Find Recipes. The tool queries TheMealDB — a free community recipe database — and returns recipes that match your listed ingredients.
How many ingredients can I search with?
You can add multiple ingredients. Results are filtered to recipes containing all of them, so the more specific you are, the fewer — but more relevant — results you see. Starting with 1–3 key ingredients usually gives the best results.
Where does the recipe data come from?
Recipe data comes from TheMealDB, a free open-source community recipe database with thousands of international recipes covering a wide range of cuisines and meal types.
Can I filter results by cuisine?
Yes. Use the 🌍 Cuisine dropdown to filter by cuisine type (Italian, Mexican, Indian, Japanese, and more). You can combine a cuisine filter with ingredient keywords for more targeted recipe discovery.
What if I get no results for my ingredients?
Try fewer or simpler ingredient names (e.g. 'chicken' instead of 'chicken breast'). You can also tap the 🎲 Surprise me button to discover a random recipe without any ingredient constraints.
Can I scale a recipe I find here?
Yes! Open a recipe card and click '⚖️ Scale this recipe' to send the ingredient list directly to the Recipe Scaler, where you can adjust serving counts to your needs.
Is the recipe search free?
Completely free. The search is powered by the TheMealDB API, which is available at no cost for personal and educational use.
Recipe Converter
Open tool →What cooking units does the converter support?
Volume: teaspoon, tablespoon, cup, fluid ounce, pint, quart, gallon, ml, litre. Weight: ounce, pound, gram, kilogram. Temperature: Fahrenheit, Celsius, and Gas Mark.
How many ml is 1 cup?
1 US cup equals 236.6 ml, typically rounded to 240 ml for cooking. Use the Volume converter to calculate any fraction of a cup instantly.
How do I convert ounces to grams?
1 ounce (weight) = 28.35 grams. Select the Weight tab, set From = oz and To = g, enter your value, and the result appears instantly.
How do I convert Fahrenheit to Celsius?
Select the Temperature tab, set From = °F and To = °C, and enter your temperature. The formula is °C = (°F − 32) × 5/9. For example, 350°F = 177°C, a common baking temperature.
How many tablespoons are in a cup?
There are 16 tablespoons in 1 US cup (or 48 teaspoons). Use the Volume converter to quickly convert any quantity between cups and tablespoons.
What is a Gas Mark and how does it convert?
Gas Mark is a temperature scale used in UK and Irish ovens. Gas Mark 4 = 180°C = 350°F (moderate oven, good for most cakes). Gas Mark 6 = 200°C = 400°F (hot oven, ideal for roasting).
Can I convert between US and metric measurements?
Yes. The converter supports both US customary (cups, tablespoons, fl oz, °F) and metric (ml, litres, grams, kilograms, °C) units, with instant two-way conversion using the swap button.
Is the unit converter accurate for baking?
Volume-to-volume and weight-to-weight conversions are mathematically exact. For baking precision, weigh your ingredients — cup volumes vary by ingredient density. A kitchen scale is the most reliable tool for accurate baking results.