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 ingredients ratios 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.

General

This section is the starting point for creating your recipe and the first thing you’ll see when using the tool. It includes general features like naming the whole recipe, selecting the unit measurement system, and resetting the recipe to begin fresh.

Recipe Title

The Recipe Title field allows you to name your recipe for easy identification. While optional and not affecting any calculations, the title provides a convenient way to reference and organize your work. It is displayed prominently at the top of the tool to remind you of what the recipe is about.

System: Units Measurement Selector

The System selector lets you choose between Metric and Imperial systems.

Currently, the Imperial system in Portion Master refers to the US customary units, not the UK version.

System Rules:

• When a system is selected, ingredient units are restricted to those of the chosen system (e.g., grams for metric or ounces for imperial and so on). Mixing units from different systems is not allowed.
• Switching the system after ingredients are entered will trigger an automatic conversion of all ingredient values and units to the selected system.

Smart Conversion:

Portion Master ensures a seamless transition by performing intelligent conversions:

• Closest Matching Units: For example, if the Metric system had whole kilograms, the tool will convert to pounds in Imperial. If the value in kilograms was less than 1, it would convert to ounces instead.
• Shared-Name Units: Units that exist in both systems, like drops, teaspoons, and tablespoons, remain consistent during conversion. For example, tablespoons in Metric remain tablespoons in Imperial, and vice versa.

Not Just for Scaling:

Although Portion Master is primarily a recipe scaling tool, the measurement system conversion feature makes it a fully functional online recipe unit converter. You can use it to convert single-portion recipes or any recipe without scaling if that’s all you need.

Whether you're converting grams to ounces or milliliters to fluid ounces, Portion Master handles it all automatically, saving you the hassle of manual math.

Reset Recipe

The Reset Recipe button clears all fields and resets the tool to a blank state:

• Removes all data from the Key Ingredient and Proportional Ingredients sections.
• Unlocks the Batch Size Lock if it was engaged.
• Keeps the Batch Size multiplier value unchanged.
• Leave the current System setting unchanged.

To avoid accidental data loss from an unintended click, Portion Master displays a clear confirmation dialog when you attempt to reset. This ensures you won’t miss the action.

This feature is ideal for starting fresh with a new recipe. However, be sure to save any cleaned-up recipe details beforehand, as all entered data will be permanently erased.

Key Ingredient

The Key Ingredient section is the foundation of your recipe scaling. This is where you define the primary ingredient's details, including its quantity and unit of measurement. All proportional calculations for other ingredients are based on the values you set here.

To avoid repeating the concept of a Key Ingredient, please refer to the The Idea section in general and the Butter Sandwich example in particular. Either / or check out the How to Use section and the Basic Recipe Scaling example.

Batch Size: Recipe Scale Multiplier

The Batch Size multiplier is technically a Key Value multiplier that allows you to scale the entire recipe with all Proportional Ingredients accordingly by multiplying the Key Value. Instead of entering a quantity directly into the Key Ingredient, you can multiply it by the Batch Size multiplier to scale the recipe as a whole.

When you modify the Batch Size multiplier, the Key Value updates automatically, and all Proportional Ingredients are recalculated to maintain their proportions relative to the multiplied Key Ingredient value.

Why use the Batch Size multiplier when you can simply adjust the Key Ingredient directly? Let's see. For instance, if your Key Ingredient value is set to 100 grams and you want to prepare 5 portions, you can easily calculate the required amount in your mind and change the Key Ingredient to 500 grams to achieve exactly that result. But what if the value is 0.334556 or if the required multiplier is 3.53456? Would you calculate that in your mind?

The Batch Size multiplier simplifies this process, allowing you to scale your recipe without the hassle of manual calculations. This feature is also very useful when you need to scale the same recipe for different batch sizes.

Batch Size Lock

The Batch Size Lock button (look as small padlock icon near the Batch Size multiplier) determines whether the Batch Size multiplier affects the Key Value. When locked, the Key Value is multiplied by the Batch Size multiplier, and the new Key Value becomes fixed and uneditable. The same applies to the Key Unit, which also becomes locked.

You can unlock the multiplier to adjust the Key Value directly, or keep it locked and adjust the Batch Size multiplier without changing the Key Value or Key Unit directly.

For example:

• If the Key Value is 100 and the Batch Size multiplier is set to 3, locking the Batch Size Lock will recalculate the Key Value as 300.
• Portion Master remembers your original, un-multiplied value, so if you unlock the Batch Size Lock, the Key Value will revert to its original value of 100. All Proportional Ingredients will follow these changes as they are strictly bound to the Key Value.

Key Value

The Key Value field represents the amount or quantity of the primary ingredient in your recipe. This value serves as the baseline for scaling and proportional adjustments. When you change the Key Value, all Proportional Ingredients update automatically to maintain their relative amounts.

For example, if your Key Ingredient is 100 grams and you change it to 200 grams, all other ingredients in the recipe will double accordingly.

Key Unit

The Key Unit field lets you specify the unit of measurement for the Key Ingredient, such as grams, ounces, liters, or cups, depending on the selected System. Changing the Key Unit will automatically update the Proportional Ingredients to reflect the new base unit, ensuring consistency across the recipe.

For instance, if the unit is changed from grams to kilograms, the Key Value remains visually the same but recalculates internally to reflect the new unit, since it now represents a quantity 1000 times larger. All Proportional Ingredients adjust accordingly to maintain their correct proportions.

If you change the Key Unit type, the Proportional Ingredients will retain their current values, but their bindings to the Key Value will be recalculated.

For example, if you change the Key Unit from grams (mass) to liters (volume), the Key Value transitions from a mass type to a volume type, and all associated bindings adjust accordingly.

Proportional Ingredients

The Proportional Ingredients section lists all additional (to the Key Ingredient) ingredients in your recipe, each scaled proportionally to the Key Ingredient. Every row includes fields for the ingredient's Name, Value, Unit, and % of Key Value.

Options Toggle: Hidden Controls

The Options toggle reveals additional controls for managing the ingredients list. When enabled, you can reorder and delete ingredients. The main idea of Options is to keep the UI simple by default and only show these extra controls when needed.

Binding Lock: Link between Proportional Ingredients and Key Ingredient

The Binding Lock button, represented by a pink padlock icon, determines whether all Proportional Ingredients remain bounded to the Key Ingredient.

• When locked, all proportional ingredients scale automatically with changes to the Key Ingredient.
• When unlocked, all Proportional Ingredients become unbound from the Key Ingredient and the Batch Size multiplier, allowing for independent adjustments. All internal ingredient bindings are removed.

Re-locking the Binding Lock internally recalculates the relationships between the Key Ingredient and Proportional Ingredients based on current values. When you change the Key Ingredient while keeping the Binding Lock locked, the Proportional Ingredients will follow according to the new ratios (a.k.a. bindings).

+ Add Ingredient

The + Add Ingredient button allows you to add new proportional ingredients to your recipe. Each new ingredient starts with empty data for the Name, Value, and % of Key Value fields, but shares the same Unit as the Key Ingredient. Once added, you can fill in ingredient details as needed.

The binding between the new ingredient and the Key Ingredient is automatically re-established each time you set new or change the existed ingredient Value.

Value

The Value field specifies the quantity of a proportional ingredient. Changing this value directly recalculates its binding to the Key Ingredient, updating its proportional relationship. You can set the Value directly or indirectly through the % of Key Value field.

Unit

The Unit field defines the measurement unit for a proportional ingredient, such as grams, ounces, liters, or cups, depending on current System. Changing the Unit recalculates its binding to the Key Ingredient, ensuring consistent proportional relationships.

In Portion Master, there are two types of units: mass and volume. When switching between unit types (e.g., mass to volume), bindings are recalculated, but ingredient values remain consistent.

% of Key Value: Percentage of Key Ingredient Value

The % of Key Value field shows the proportional ingredient's value as a percentage of the Key Ingredient value. This field is editable when the unit type matches that of the Key Ingredient. Adjusting the percentage recalculates the ingredient's Value and its binding to the Key Ingredient.

If the unit type differs from the Key Ingredient, this field is greyed out and displays a note such as "Not volume" (if the Key Ingredient is volume and the current ingredient is mass) or "Not mass" (if the Key Ingredient is mass and the current ingredient is volume).

The title % of Key Value may seem a bit confusing but serves as a concise shortener for its full form: "Percentage of Key Ingredient Value."

The Key Ingredient value is always considered 100%, regardless of whether it is larger or smaller than the Proportional Ingredients values. The Key Ingredient acts as the 100% starting point (internally used to define a value of 1%) for all percentage calculations in the % of Key Value fields.

Technical

Precision

The Portion Master internally processes initial values in their raw form, but presents results in the user interface (UI) with enhanced readability by rounding to 3 decimal places.

Rounding Behavior

A value like 1.23456 will be displayed as 1.235. The sufficient for majority cases precision is maintained while preventing cluttered UI fields.

For extremely small quantities with three or more leading decimal zeros (e.g., 0.000003434343), the rounding mechanism is suspended. This approach prevents the unintended reduction of near-zero values to simple zeros.

The Challenge of Floating-Point Arithmetic

Digital computing presents inherent challenges in decimal mathematics. While in the user interface computers appear to use decimal numbers, technically they operate in binary systems for all calculations, which can lead to technically correct, but unexpected results for the user.

A classic illustration is the multiplication of 0.8 and 0.1:

• Expected result: 0.08
• Actual computed result: 0.08000000000000002

Such minute variations highlight the critical role of rounding. By implementing intelligent rounding, Portion Master ensures that displayed results are both accurate and understandable, bridging the gap between computational complexity and user-friendly presentation.

Numeric Fields

Numeric fields, such as Key Value, Value, and % of Key Value, are restricted to positive numbers, including both integers and decimals. Both "." and "," are accepted as decimal separators.

All recipe-related calculations are triggered only when you leave the field or press Enter, rather than during typing. This design choice enhances overall application performance and UI responsiveness.

Input Calculator

Each numeric field features an Input Calculator. By default, the input field displays only a number. But, when focused, a blue Input Calculator icon appears on the right side of the field. Clicking this icon opens a Input Calculator interface.

The Input Calculator is linked to the field from which it is opened. If the field already contains a number, the calculator pre-fills it as the left operand. After performing a calculation, you can apply the result to the linked field by clicking the Apply Result as Value button at the bottom right of the calculator. This button is enabled only when the result is a valid, non-zero positive number.

This feature was developed in response to user feedback requesting quick calculations directly in the field without the need to switch to a separate calculator application.

While operating systems include built-in calculators as a standalone app, the Input Calculator offers enhanced convenience. Using a system calculator involves switching apps, manually entering numbers, performing calculations, copying results, returning to this page, and pasting them as a new values. The embedded calculator streamlines this process, especially on mobile devices where multitasking can be challenging.

The Input Calculator supports basic operations: addition "+", subtraction "-", multiplication "×", division "÷", and percentages "%". While it does not replace a full-featured calculator, it includes copy/paste functionality with keyboard shortcuts, so it pretty capable of covering most recipe related needs. Using copy/paste flexibility allows you not only to set a new value to a linked field but also to copy and paste results into other fields as needed.

Feedback and Suggestions are Welcome!

As a new tool, Portion Master has yet to be "battle tested" through years of practical use. While I’ve done my best as a developer to test it with numerous recipes and settings, it's conceivable that there are still problems or inconsistencies. This is particularly true in areas that require complex calculations, such as unit conversions and scaling. Even if the software functions as I initially designed, the underlying conversion formulas or logic itself may need further refinement.

If you're working with expensive ingredients and a mistake could cost you, please double-check the results produced by Portion Master. First, have a look at the output to make sure everything seems right to you in general. Second, check a few ingredients manually to make sure the tool is doing what you expect. Once you're happy that everything is working well, you can use Portion Master without having to repeat this step each time.

In short, use it with a bit of caution when you're first trying it out until you're sure it's doing what you want.

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 will not only help to improve Portion Master, but will also ensure that it becomes a more reliable and valuable resource not only for everyone, but for you in a first place.

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

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 all imaginable extreme scenarios such as very large or tiny values, repeatedly converting units back and forth, or rapidly toggling butch multiplier and binding locks tens of times. While the tool is designed to manage certain scenarios, its behavior outside the planned workflow is not yet defined.

Personal Use and Dependence on Feedback

Portion Master is a specialized tool that aims to be versatile. If it lacks a feature you personally need or you think that it behaves unpredictably, especially 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.

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 for different substances mixes. 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.

Another challenge she faced is that many great recipes are provided in the US Imperial measurement system, such as those on the CandleScience website, while she primarily uses Metric. Accurately converting entire recipes became another crucial task.

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.

Her work spans various handcrafted items, including wax candle mixes, gypsum compositions, fragrance oil blends, creams, bath bombs, and more. You can explore her creations on Lucky Ducky’s Etsy shop or visit her workshop's official website (in Ukrainian).

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 you. 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

v1.1.0 (Dec 10, 2024): Input Field Calculator

• Input Calculator: Introduced the Input Calculator feature, allowing you to perform mathematical calculations directly within numeric input fields for Key Ingredient and Proportional Ingredients sections.

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.