Halve whole, fractional, or mixed ingredient amounts and scale recipes by servings with simplified fractions and kitchen-unit equivalents.

US customary cups, tablespoons and teaspoons; ounces mean mass, not fluid ounces. Ingredient amounts scale arithmetically. Cooking time, pan size and oven temperature need separate judgment.

Decimal, fraction or mixed number: 1.5, 3/2 or 1 1/2.

Related Calculators

Half Recipe Formula

The following formula is used to calculate the half recipe amount.

HR = R / 2

Variables:

  • HR is the half recipe amount
  • R is the original recipe amount

To calculate the half recipe amount, divide the original recipe amount by 2.

What is a Half Recipe?

A half recipe uses half of each original ingredient amount. Enter a decimal, fraction or mixed number such as 1.5, 3/2 or 1 1/2. For serving-based scaling, multiply each ingredient by target servings divided by original servings. The tool reports exact reduced fractions plus rounded decimal and kitchen-unit equivalents. It uses US customary volume units; ounces mean mass. Volume-to-mass conversion needs ingredient-specific density. Pan size and cooking time require separate judgment; do not halve oven temperature. See Nebraska Extension’s recipe-reduction guidance.

How to Calculate Half Recipe?

The following steps outline how to calculate the Half Recipe amount.

  1. First, determine the original recipe amount (R).
  2. Next, divide the original recipe amount by 2 to calculate the half recipe amount (HR).
  3. Finally, calculate the Half Recipe amount.
  4. After inserting the variables and calculating the result, check your answer.

Example Problem:

Use the following variables as an example problem to test your knowledge.

Original recipe amount (R) = 100

Half recipe amount (HR) = 100 ÷ 2 = 50 in the original ingredient unit.