What is the best way to downsize a recipe?

Many home cooks find dividing ingredients by the number of servings doesn’t always work. “It’s often just common sense,” says Kitty Coles, author of Make More With Less, plus a little maths. Consider cookware: “It’s really worth investing in smaller pans and a smaller skillet,” says Alexina Anatole, who is behind the Small Wins Substack.

As Shelina Permalloo, author of What to Cook When Everyone’s Hungry, warns, “The absorption method for rice is a nightmare if you’re using a wrong-sized pan.” Anatole usually scales to the lowest common denominator — “It’s hard to split an egg or a whole chicken, after all” — though she often recommends frontloading the work: “When cooking for yourself, sometimes it’s about making one big thing and using it in different ways throughout the week.

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