Recipe Half Calculator
| Original | Halved | In the drawer |
|---|---|---|
| 1 cup | 1/2 cup | 8 tbsp |
| 3/4 cup | 6 tbsp | 6 tbsp, done |
| 2/3 cup | 5 tbsp + 1 tsp | skip the 1/3-cup guess |
| 1/2 cup | 1/4 cup | 4 tbsp |
| 1/3 cup | 2 tbsp + 2 tsp | spoons beat the 1/6-cup |
| 1/4 cup | 4 tsp | 2 tbsp = 1/8 cup |
| 1 tbsp | 1-1/2 tsp | 1 tsp + 1/2 tsp |
| 1 egg (50 g) | 25 g | beat, weigh, split |
Halving a recipe is dividing by two - the math is the easy part. The kitchen part is the phrasing: a recipe that says 3/4 cup halved wants 6 tablespoons, because nobody owns a 3/8-cup measure, and 1/8 cup reads better as 2 tablespoons.
Bottom line: enter the amount and unit, read the answer in the measure you actually own - cups stay in fractions (1/2, 1/4, 3/8), and anything weird converts to tablespoons or teaspoons on the spot, because 16 tablespoons make a cup and 3 teaspoons make a tablespoon, no memorizing required.
The honest part: two things do not halve the obvious way. An egg halves to a beaten half - beat it, weigh it, use half by weight - and cooking time never halves with the recipe: a shallower pan cooks faster, and doneness is read, not scheduled.
How to use
- Type the amount from the recipe and pick its unit - cups, spoons, milliliters, grams, ounces or pounds all work the same way.
- Read the halved amount: whole-ish fractions stay in the original unit, and awkward ones (3/8 cup, 1/16) are re-phrased into tablespoons or teaspoons you can actually measure.
- Handle the two special cases by hand: beat the egg and use half by weight, and start checking doneness about ten minutes early - the halved batch runs in a smaller, shallower dish.
Frequently asked questions
How do you halve 3/4 cup?
Three-quarters of a cup halves to 6 tablespoons - 3/8 cup is the same amount, but the tablespoon measure is the one in the drawer. The 16-tablespoons-per-cup fact does all the work: halve the tablespoons first, and the cup measure becomes optional.
How do you halve 1 egg?
Beat the egg to a uniform liquid, weigh it, and use half by weight - a large egg runs about 50 grams beaten, so the half is about 25 grams. Eyeballing half a yolk-and-white lands close, but the scale is what keeps a halved custard or cake from going rubbery.
Does halving a recipe halve the cooking time?
No - and this is the halving mistake that ruins dinners. A halved batch usually sits in a smaller or shallower dish, which cooks faster, not slower: start checking ten minutes early and let doneness decide. Temperature stays the same in almost every baking halving.
Should salt and spices halve exactly?
Start lower - season to two-thirds of the halved amount, taste, then add. Salt, chili and strong herbs do not scale linearly at small volumes, and the batch you can fix is the under-seasoned one. Salt at the table is cheaper than a double-salted half-batch.