Portion Master

Welcome to the Portion Master documentation!

Here you will find all the information you need to know about using this tool.

The Challenge

Manual Puzzle

Most recipes provide ingredient amounts for a single portion or batch, leaving anyone who needs a different quantity to manually calculate proportional adjustments. This challenge arises in various contexts, from cooking and crafting to professional scenarios where precision and speed are essential.

Scaling recipes often involves complex mathematical calculations. For many, adjusting ingredient quantities is a common hurdle that demands precision and careful consideration. Whenever a non-standard portion is required, creators typically resort to pen, paper, and a calculator to manually determine the adjusted quantities. This process is not only time-consuming and tedious but also prone to errors, which can lead to costly mistakes.

The situation becomes even more complicated if too much of one ingredient is accidentally added, necessitating on-the-fly adjustments to the others. Doing this manually while racing against the clock can be stressful, especially since many mixtures are reactive and can change consistency over time — often hardening if not managed properly.

A Smarter Way

The Portion Master was designed to address these challenges associated with recipe scaling. It offers an automated solution for defining proportions, adjusting ingredient amounts, and recalculating recipes quickly and accurately. By handling complex mathematical tasks, the tool allows users to focus on creativity and execution rather than manual calculations, making recipe scaling efficient and error-free for anyone working with recipes.

The Idea

If you’re here, you’re likely looking to scale a recipe. Adjusting quantities for larger or smaller batches can be tricky. Let’s break it down.

Understanding Recipe Proportions

At its core, a recipe is a specification of proportions between ingredients. While standard recipes list quantities for one portion or butch, the real concept revolves around the relationships between the ingredients. In any recipe, one ingredient can serve as the basis for calculating the required amounts of the others — the Key Ingredient.

You can choose any ingredient in a recipe to be the Key Ingredient, while the other ingredients become Proportional Ingredients. Since all ingredients are proportionally related, you can establish ratios between the Proportional Ingredients and the Key Ingredient.

From this point onward, you can choose any new amount of the Key Ingredient, and all Proportional Ingredients can be easily recalculated by multiplying the Key Ingredient value by the corresponding proportional ingredient ratio. In this way, the Key Ingredient leads the scaling process and the Proportional Ingredients follow.

Portion Master Essence

This is essentially how the Portion Master tool operates. First, you enter a single-portion recipe. The Portion Master internally calculates the ratios between the Proportional Ingredients and the Key Ingredient. From there, scaling becomes straightforward — either adjust the Key Ingredient directly or use a Batch Size multiplier. The other ingredients will automatically adjust based on the defined proportions of your single-portion recipe. To summarize:

1. Input a Single-Portion Recipe: Enter your Key Ingredient along with the corresponding Proportional Ingredients.
2. Modify the Key Ingredient Value to Scale: Adjust this value to scale your entire recipe.

Butter Sandwich

For example, in the recipe for a 🥪 Butter Sandwich, you might need 100g of 🍞 bread, 11g of 🧈 butter, and 2% of bread weight of 🧂 salt. Suppose you have 34g of butter. How much bread and salt would you need?

To solve this, you can define 🧈 butter as the Key Ingredient and calculate the initial recipe ratios:

• Bread-to-butter ratio → 100g / 11g = ~ 9.09

• Salt-to-butter ratio → (2% of 100g bread = 2g) → 2g / 11g = ~ 0.18

Now, for 34g of butter, calculate the amounts of bread and salt:

• Bread → 34g × 9.09 = ~ 310g

• Salt → 34g × 0.18 = ~ 6g

While you might expect bread to be the Key Ingredient in this recipe, it doesn’t matter which ingredient you choose. Any ingredient can be "promoted" to the Key Ingredient because all ingredients are proportionally related, no matter the selection.

This concept of defining a Key Ingredient, a set of Proportional Ingredients, establishing ratios between them, and then scaling a whole recipe based on the Key Ingredient amount is the foundation of how the Portion Master works. You define a Key Ingredient and fill in your recipe as it is. The Portion Master then calculates the ratios automatically and binds all Proportional Ingredients to the Key Ingredient using these ratios. Finally, you can adjust the Key Ingredient amount as needed, and the Portion Master will recalculate the Proportional Ingredients automatically in real-time.

The Portion Master is a free online recipe scaling tool designed for seamless portion adjustments. It’s a recipe proportion calculator, an ingredient ratio calculator, and a batch adjuster. It supports both Metric and Imperial mass and volume units.

Beyond Cooking

The Portion Master is not limited to cooking recipes. It’s a tool for anyone who needs to adjust ingredient amounts in any type of recipe — where the recipe is a proportionally defined mix of substances. Examples include:

• Recipes for homemade soap

• Proportions of ingredients in a cosmetic cream

• The right mix of molding silicone and hardener

• Blends of oils and waxes for making candles

• The amount of gypsum plaster retarder for a given amount of gypsum powder

• Mixing proportions for cement and aggregate in construction projects

• Proper ratios of chemicals in cleaning solutions

• The mix of paint and thinner for a specific finish

You name it, the Portion Master can help!

Why Choose Portion Master

You might be thinking, “I can do this in Google Sheets.” While it’s true that tools like Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, or Apple Numbers can create a spreadsheet solution, they require significant setup—crafting formulas, managing variables, and manually cleaning up or duplicating tables for new recipes. This process is time-consuming and prone to errors. If you don’t frequently scale recipes, it may not be worth the hassle, leading you back to pen and paper.

The Portion Master has got you covered from paperwork and manual math. It is a ready-to-use, free online automated recipe scaling tool that requires no effort on your part. It’s always accessible, it has an intuitive interface that adapts to any screen size and includes built-in unit systems (Metric <--> Imperial) conversion features. The Portion Master is designed to simplify recipe scaling, saving you time and effort so you can focus on what really matters—enjoying your cooking!

How to Use

To better demonstrate how to use Portion Master, let's walk through several practical examples. For each case, we'll first look at the traditional manual calculation approach - pen, paper, and math. Then, I'll show you how to solve the same problem with Portion Master in just a few simple steps. This way, you'll understand the math "under the hood" while seeing how easily these calculations can be automated.

While doubling or halving a recipe is simple math, real-world scaling often presents more complex challenges. Let's look at some practical examples where traditional calculations get tricky, and see how Portion Master handles these same tasks effortlessly.

Example 1: Basic Recipe Scaling

The Challenge: Pizza Dough

Take a simple pizza dough recipe. For 2.5 cups of bread flour, you need 1 cup of warm water. Now, if you want to use 3 cups of flour instead of 2.5, how much water would you need? Any guesses?

Manual Solution

Well, let's do the math:

• The ratio of flour to water is 2.5 / 1.

• To maintain the same ratio, divide 1 cup of water by 2.5 to find the amount of water per cup of flour (1 ÷ 2.5 = 0.4 cups per cup of flour).

• Then, multiply 0.4 by 3 to find the required amount of water (0.4 × 3 = 1.2 cups).

Alternatively, you can simplify the formula: 3 × (1 ÷ 2.5) = 1.2.

This formula is simpler, but it's still not entirely clear what to divide by what, and what to multiply by what especially in a hurry. And, well, not everyone is a mathematician, right?

So, for 3 cups of flour, you'd need 1.2 cups of water. Not as simple as it first seemed, right?

You might think you're done, but what about yeast, sugar, olive oil, salt...? You have to apply the same math to each of them, over and over again.

Portion Master Solution

1. Clean the current recipe by pressing the Reset Recipe button on the top right.

2. In the Key Ingredient section, enter Bread flour as the name, 2.5 as the value, and Cup as the unit.

3. Use the + Add Ingredient button in the Proportional Ingredients section.

4. In the newly created Proportional Ingredient, enter Warm water as the name, 1 as the value, and Cup as the unit. By doing this, you "tell" Portion Master how the warm water is proportionally related, e.k.a bonded to the bread flour.

5. Finally, return to the Key Ingredient section and change the value to 3 for the bread flour.

The Portion Master will instantly calculate the required amount of warm water as 1.2 cups.

You can easily add other Proportional Ingredients to your recipe, such as yeast, sugar, olive oil, salt, or anything else your recipe requires. Start by setting the Key Ingredient value to 2.5 for your original single-portion recipe, then add all your desired Proportional Ingredients. Once your recipe is complete, simply update the Key Ingredient value to 3, and Portion Master will automatically recalculate precise amounts for all Proportional Ingredients in your recipe required for this new amount of Key Ingredient. Scaling is instant and effortless, no matter how many ingredients involved.

Example 2: Working with Percentage-Based Ingredients

The Challenge: Cosmetic Butter

Now, let's look at an example where ingredient amounts are given as percentages.

For a cosmetic "Butter," if you're using 200 grams of shea oil, you need to add 30% almond oil and 10% apricot oil. How much is that?

Manual Solution

• To calculate 30% of shea oil for almond oil: 200 grams × 30% or 200 × 0.3 = 60 grams.

• To calculate 10% of shea oil for apricot oil: 200 grams × 10% or 200 × 0.1 = 20 grams.

While the math isn't overly complex, it becomes tedious when working with multiple ingredients. This challenge escalates quickly if you've already calculated for a desired portion and then discover you don't have the required amount of ingredients — or if you receive more orders and need to prepare a larger batch. In such cases, you'd have to recalculate everything for the new amount of shea oil again.

Portion Master Solution

1. Clean the current recipe by pressing the Reset Recipe button on the top right.

2. Make sure you choose a Metric measurement System, since the default System is Imperial.

3. In the Key Ingredient section, enter Shea oil as the name, 200 as the value, and Gram as the unit.

4. Press the + Add Ingredient button in the Proportional Ingredients section to add a new Proportional Ingredient.

5. In the newly created Proportional Ingredient, enter Almond oil as the name, skip the value field, set Gram as the unit, and enter 30 as the "% of Key value".

6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 for Apricot oil, entering 10 as the percentage.

When you enter the percentages for each Proportional Ingredient, Portion Master instantly and automatically calculates their correct amounts in real time. It treats the Key Ingredient value as 100% and calculates the Proportional Ingredients values based on this.

Example 3: Converting Recipe Units from Imperial to Metric

The Challenge: DIY Bubble Solution

You found a cool Bubble's recipe and are ready to start some fun: For 1 Gallon of distilled water, you need 4 ounces of liquid dish soap and 2 tablespoons of glycerin.

Well, that’s great, but hold on – it uses Imperial cups and spoons instead of metric units. What if you naturally think in metric? Converting ounces to liters isn’t too tricky, but what about cups or teaspoons? Are they the same?

Manual Solution

Well, let's solve it.

1. Convert 1 gallon of distilled water to liters:

   • 1 gallon is 3.78541 liters
   • 1 gallon × 3.78541 = 3.78541 liters

2. Convert 4 ounces of liquid dish soap to milliliters:

   Keep in mind, there are two types of ounces in the imperial system. The mass - just "ounces", and the volume - "fluid ounces". Since soap is liquid, we have to use Fluid Ounces or "fl oz" for short.

   • 1 fl oz is 29.5735 mL
   • 4 fl oz × 29.5735 = 118.294 mL

3. Convert 2 US tablespoons of glycerin to metric tablespoons:

   • 1 US tablespoon is 14.7868 mL
   • 1 metric tablespoon is 15 mL
   • 2 US tablespoons is 14.7868 * 2 = 29.5736 mL
   • 29.5736 mL ÷ 15 = 1.972 metric tablespoons

While the math is bearable, frequent conversions can be tedious and error-prone, especially if you're scaling recipes with lot of ingredients and for different batch sizes.

Portion Master Solution

1. Clean the current recipe by pressing the Reset Recipe button on the top right.

2. Make sure that the System is set to Imperial (the default).

3. In the Key Ingredient section, enter Distilled water as the name, 1 as the value, and Gallon as the unit.

4. Add the other ingredients as Proportional Ingredients:

   • Dish soap: Value = 4, Unit = Fluid Ounce
   • Glycerin: Value = 2, Unit = Tablespoon

5. Once all ingredients are entered, switch the System from Imperial to Metric.

The Portion Master will instantly convert all ingredient measurements to metric:

• Distilled water: 3.785 Liters
• Dish soap: 118.294 Milliliters
• Glycerin: 1.972 (metric) Tablespoons

Much simpler, right? With Portion Master, switching between Imperial and Metric units is as simple as selecting from a drop-down menu. All your current recipe values and units will be automatically converted to your chosen system in an instant. There's no need to worry about the math, so you can focus on crafting instead of calculating, while the tool does all the heavy lifting for you.

Feedback and Suggestions are Welcome!

As a relatively new tool, Portion Master hasn’t yet been "battle-tested" over years of real-world use. While I’ve done my best to test it on various recipes and scenarios, it’s possible that bugs or inconsistencies remain. This is especially true for areas involving complex calculations, like unit conversions and scaling. Even if the application works as intended, the underlying conversion formulas or logic itself might still need refinement.

Testing Approach: Happy Path

I’ve primarily tested Portion Master following the happy path. This means I’ve focused on typical use cases using the tool as it was intended — without exploring extreme scenarios such as very large or tiny values, repeatedly converting units back and forth, or rapidly toggling multiplier and binding locks tens of times. While the tool should handle these cases, its behavior outside the expected workflow is undefined.

Personal Use and Dependence on Feedback

Portion Master aims to be a versatile tool. If it lacks a feature you need or behaves unpredictably even in happy path scenarios — I’d love to hear from you. Your feedback is essential to refining the tool and making it as reliable and useful as possible.

Unlike some of my other tools, such as Image Convert Ninja, which I use regularly and refine based on my personal experience in the first place, I do not often cook or craft anything that requires recipe scaling, so I am not a typical Portion Master user.

For example, I’ve used Image Convert Ninja for hundreds of images, identifying bugs and adding missing features through real-world use. As I don't regularly use Portion Master myself, I rely on you - the real user - for your experiences, insights and suggestions for improvement.

Please Reach Out, Your Contribution Matters

If you encounter bugs, notice unexpected behavior, or have ideas for new features that would enhance your workflow, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. Use the contact section on the website to share your thoughts. I’m eager to help and committed to improving the tool to better meet your needs.

Your feedback not only helps refine Portion Master but ensures it becomes a more reliable and valuable resource for everyone — including you.

Thank you for helping to shape Portion Master into the best tool it can be!

About

The Portion Master began as a personal project inspired by a real-world challenge. A relative of mine, a hand-crafter, frequently works with recipes that require precise scaling of ingredients. She often faced the frustration of manually adjusting ingredient quantities, a process that was not only time-consuming but also prone to errors — especially in high-pressure situations where timing and accuracy were critical.

She shared her struggles and outlined a vision for a solution: an automated tool to simplify and speed up her workflow, while eliminating the risks of manual calculation errors. With her input and guidance, I developed Portion Master to address these challenges effectively.

In exchange for creating this tool tailored to her needs, I asked her to agree to make it publicly available. This created a win-win situation: she received a free portion calculator that perfectly fits her needs, and I gained a practical tool to share with a wider audience. Now, Portion Master is available to everyone, a real tool designed to solve real problems for anyone needing to scale recipes efficiently and accurately.

Updates

v1.0.0 (Nov 22, 2024): MVP

The initial release of Portion Master introduces the following core features:

• System Selector: Switch seamlessly between Metric and Imperial (US) mass and volume units with automatic unit and value conversion.

• Reset Recipe Button: Quickly clear the current recipe for a fresh start.

• Key Ingredient Section:

  • Adjust the recipe by changing the Key Ingredient value or unit directly.
  • Scale the recipe with an unlockable Batch Size multiplier for flexible portion adjustments.

• Proportional Ingredients Section:

  • Bind or unbind ingredients from the Key Ingredient for precise or independent adjustments.
  • Use the options toggle to reorder or delete ingredients as needed.

• + Add Ingredient Button: Add new Proportional Ingredients effortlessly.