Portions & scaling
Work out how much to cook and how much to buy, for the number of people actually sitting down.
13 calculators in this section
- Recipe Serving ScalerRescale a whole ingredient list up or down for the number of servings you need.
- Portion CalculatorHow much of each food to cook for the number of people eating.
- Pasta Per Person CalculatorHow much dried pasta to cook per person.
- Rice Per Person CalculatorHow much uncooked rice to allow per person.
- Meat Per Person CalculatorHow much meat to buy per person, on or off the bone.
- Turkey Size CalculatorWhat size turkey to buy for your number of guests.
- Potatoes Per Person CalculatorHow many potatoes to buy for roasting, mashing or boiling.
- Vegetables Per Person CalculatorHow much veg to prepare per person, and less of each when there are several.
- Chicken Per Person CalculatorWhat size chicken to buy, or how much boneless chicken per person.
- Fish Per Person CalculatorPortion sizes for fillets and whole fish, per person.
- Gravy Quantity CalculatorHow much gravy to make, with granules or flour quantities.
- Stuffing Quantity CalculatorHow much stuffing to make per person, and how many packets that is.
- Yorkshire Pudding Quantity CalculatorHow many Yorkshires to make, and the batter quantities for them.
Cooking for a crowd
People eat a little less of each dish when there are more dishes on the table. If you are serving several sides, take a light appetite for each one rather than a standard portion.
Light, standard and generous
Standard is what most adults eat as a main course. Light suits a buffet, a child, or a meal with several sides competing for space on the plate. Generous suits big appetites, teenagers, a late meal or when you actively want leftovers for tomorrow.
Raw or cooked, bone in or out
Rice and pasta are quoted dry, because that is how you weigh them, and they roughly triple and double in the pan. Meat is quoted raw, because that is how you buy it. Bone-in cuts need more weight per person than boneless for the same amount of meat on the plate, and a whole bird needs more again, the calculators here already allow for that.
Questions and answers
Common questions about portions and quantities
Do I need smaller portions of each food when I'm serving several side dishes?
Yes. Standard per-person figures assume a plate with a normal number of accompaniments; adding extra sides means each individual item can be a smaller share of the plate without anyone going hungry.
How much less food do children eat compared with adults?
Noticeably less, though it varies by age and appetite rather than a single fixed fraction. Most of the portion calculators on this site give a separate child figure rather than a straight halving of the adult amount.
Should I measure ingredients by raw weight or cooked weight?
Raw weight, for shopping and portioning purposes. Pasta and rice in particular change weight substantially during cooking, so a cooked-weight figure isn't useful for working out what to buy.
Why do meat portions differ so much between bone-in and boneless cuts?
Bone, fat trim and cooking shrinkage all reduce the amount of edible meat from a joint on the bone, so a larger raw weight is needed to serve the same number of people as a boneless cut.
How do I plan for deliberate leftovers rather than just cooking too much by accident?
Use the generous setting on the relevant calculator rather than rounding your own numbers up, so you know how much extra you're buying and why.
Then check the leftovers guide for how long the cooked food will keep, so the extra you've planned for doesn't go to waste.
How do I keep a multi-dish meal like a roast dinner all ready at the same time?
Work out quantities for each dish separately, then use a timing tool to work backwards from when you want to serve, since a turkey, potatoes, vegetables and gravy all have different cooking and resting windows.
Can I just double a recipe if I need twice as many portions?
Mostly, yes, for ingredient quantities, but not for whole eggs, tin size, seasoning or cooking time, which don't all scale in a straight line. Use the recipe scaler for the ingredient list and check tin size and timing separately.
Is it cheaper to buy for a big group using buffet-style quantities instead of plated portions?
Often yes, because buffet-style serving loses less to individual over-serving than a plated sit-down meal. For a party rather than a seated meal, use the buffet quantities calculator instead of the standard portion figures.
Guidance
Guides for this section
- How to Roast a ChickenBuying the right size bird, the oven temperature to use, how long it needs, how to tell it is done, and what to do with what is left.
- How to Roast BeefChoosing a joint, searing, rare through to well done, why beef is timed differently from chicken, and how long to rest it.
- How to Cook a Turkey for ChristmasA full Christmas turkey plan: what size to buy, how many days it needs to defrost, when to put it in, and how to keep the rest of the dinner moving around it.
- How to Scale a RecipeWhat scales cleanly, what does not, and how to handle eggs, seasoning, tin size and cooking time when you double or halve a recipe.