Recipe Converter: How to Halve and Third a Recipe

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Recipe Converter: How to Halve and Third a Recipe

Our handy chart will show you how to halve a recipe (or cut it in thirds!).

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Recipe Converter

When it comes time to downsize a recipe, calculating cooking conversions can be a hassle and can even lead to error. This recipe converter for how to halve and third a recipe is the perfect resource to keep in your kitchen.

Hang this cooking conversion chart on your fridge or in a cupboard so you can easily cut a recipe in half or thirds without having to do any math at all.

Whether a recipe makes two cakes and you only need one, or if you're cooking for two instead of four, this guide for how to cut down a recipe is a life-saver.

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How To Cut Down a Recipe: Halve & Third Ingredients

Often when downsizing a recipe, it's super easy to make a mistake and accidentally include an extra teaspoon of this or tablespoon of that. Keep this recipe converter handy for whenever you need to cut down a recipe. It's as simple as looking up the original amount then checking the correlated half or one-third amount.

Measurement conversion chart for cutting a recipe in half or in third

Recipe Conversion FAQs

To make things even easier, we've compiled a few of our most-asked-for recipe conversions. These seem to be the measurements that everyone needs when they are trying to cut a recipe in half or in thirds. It just goes to show that you're never the only one with a cooking question! Your fellow home chefs have wondered these things too, and we're happy to help everyone out (and help everyone make their best recipes ever).

What is 2 cups divided by 3? It's 2/3 of a cup.

What is half of one third cup? It's 2 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons.

What is 5 cups divided by 3? It's 1 and 2/3 cups.

What is 2 tablespoons divided by 2? It's 2 teaspoons.

Other Handy Measurement Amounts

To also aid in adjusting the amount of ingredients in recipes, these are the measurement amounts of how many teaspoons and tablespoons are in larger measuring cup amounts. This is also helpful for multiplying a recipe. For example, if you're doubling 2 tablespoons of an ingredient, it's easier to measure out 1/4 cup instead of 4 tablespoons. Turn to these measurement amounts no matter what kind of conversions you're doing.

Handy Recipe Equivalents Chart

Solved: How to Halve an Egg

Converting a recipe is all well and good, until you come across an ingredient that's especially difficult to divide or multiply. Eggs are a classic example. Luckily, there is a solution for halving an egg that will keep you right on track in your recipe adjustments.

To halve an egg, simply crack the egg into a measuring cup and whisk it until the yolk and white are combined. Then divide the volume of the egg in 2 and use only half in your recipe. This will probably work out to about 2 Tablespoons, if you are using a large egg.

Egg with a smiley face drawn on it

How to Measure Ingredients

Now that you know what the measurements in your adapted recipe should be, we thought you might enjoy this simple video showing how to measure ingredients. You can actually ruin a recipe by measuring your ingredients in a way that's very different from the way the recipe author intended. Here we'll show you the standard way to measure your baking ingredients, so you can ensure your measurements are as accurate as possible!

After all, there's no point in learning how to halve a recipe if you don't measure your ingredients properly.

Note from the Editor

Recipe conversions are sometimes very difficult to figure out, but this chart makes it very easy! I really enjoy cooking for my family of six, and my parents and siblings always love it when I offer to cook dinner (I make them clean up, though!).

 However, when I got my first apartment I learned that many of my favorite recipes to make were family-sized. All of my mom's original and adapted recipes were large enough to feed the family--and have leftovers. I get bored of eating the same thing for several days, so I was stuck. Do I never eat my childhood favorites again, or just eat it for a week at a time?

There to save the day were recipe conversions! Now, I'm terrible at math, so they were so much easier with a chart like this one. I could simply rewrite each of those recipes and still enjoy my favorite dishes, without having enough to feed a small army. Win-win!

If you're looking for some delicious family-sized meals that are easy to cut in half, check out a few of my favorites below!

3 Recipes to Test Your Skills

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This is such a great tool to have in the kitchen and I'm sure it'll save me tons of time from trying to figure out how to get measurements right in any situation. I'm usually a no measure type of lady when I'm cooking a meal...but baking has never really been my thing, so this will no doubt keep me from ruining many recipes in the future. I wonder why it is that when cooking, in general, you can pretty much eyeball your ingredients...but in baking it's so much more complicated.

I am DEFINITELY printing a copy of this chart to keep in my kitchen. I frequently try to make smaller batches of cookies so I don't end up with too many, but I have ruined some poor, innocent cookie dough more than once by neglecting to halve the baking soda. Yuck! Thanks for the helpful tips!

What a great converter chart. I am going to stick this on my fridge. I often want to cut down a recipe. I hate wasting and sometimes the full recipe is too much or you may not have enough of what you need but you do have some and then you can still make what you want if you knew how to adapt the recipe. This is great. Thanks!

What a great resource to keep in your kitchen! When I am cooking, it is usually only for one or two people at a time. It doesn't make any sense to make a HUGE batch of something that will be hanging around my fridge or freezer forever. I have struggled in the past with halving recipes and this will make life so much easier. Something that I have found handy is to print off resources like this and keep them in a duo tang with plastic sleeves for quick and easy reference. That would also make a wonderful gift to new cooks, like students going off to college!

These charts are the handiest things I have discovered this week. I am going to copy paste them onto a document, pint it r

sorry, accidentally hit "submit" when trying to back space. I was going to finish my comment by saying the charts would go onto my fridge for fast reference.

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