How to Halve a Recipe

Halving a recipe means dividing every ingredient by 2. If a recipe makes 4 servings, half the recipe makes 2 servings. Use the recipe converter below to cut your full ingredient list in half automatically.

Halve My Recipe

Quick rule

To halve a recipe, divide each ingredient amount by 2.

1 cup → 1/2 cup
3/4 cup → 6 tablespoons
1/2 cup → 1/4 cup
1 tablespoon → 1 1/2 teaspoons
2 teaspoons → 1 teaspoon
1 egg → 1/2 egg

How to halve one egg

If a recipe calls for 1 egg and you need half, crack the egg into a small bowl, beat it with a fork, then use about half of the beaten egg. One large egg is usually about 3 tablespoons when beaten, so half an egg is about 1 1/2 tablespoons.

Ingredients to halve carefully

Salt, spices, extracts, and spicy ingredients can be rounded down slightly, then adjusted to taste. For baking, measure flour, baking powder, baking soda, and liquids as accurately as possible.

Scale a full recipe

Skip the manual math — paste your ingredient list into the recipe converter and we'll resize every line at once.