Conversion Factors

Nearly everyone instinctively can double a recipe or cut it in half. It seems more complicated, though, to change a recipe from 10 to 18 portions, say, or from 50 to 35. Actually, the principle is exactly the same: You find a number called a conversion factor, and then multiply every quantity by this number.

The conversion factor can be defined as the number used to increase or decrease each ingredient when converting a recipe to a different yield. The first step in converting a recipe is to calculate the conversion factor (see Procedures for Calculating Conversion Factors and Converting Total Yields).