Is there a Rule of Thumb for increasing servings in a recipe?


 

Charles Howse

TVWBB Wizard
Hello, and Happy Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years to everyone!!

I found a recipe that serves 4, but I need to serve 6 - 8.
In a perfect world, I would just double every ingredient and it would work great.
But all recipes are not created equal.

This is White Bean & Ham Soup by Rachael Ray
I've made it before for 4, and it's VERY GOOD.
Do we think just doubling each ingredient is correct?
Are there any hard and fast rules for this sort of thing that I might not be aware of?
There are recipe web sites where you can adjust the number of servings and it changes the ingredient amounts automatically, but most of them that I've seen just multiply the original amount by the new number of servings.

Ingredients
2 meaty smoked ham hocks (about 1 1/2 lbs.)
1 pound dried white beans, such as great northern or cannellini
2 quarts low-sodium chicken broth
4 ribs celery, chopped
8 ounces carrots, cut crosswise into rounds
1 large onion, chopped
1 head garlic, halved crosswise
12 sprigs thyme, plus picked leaves for garnishing
Salt and pepper
1 loaf crusty bread, sliced

Preparation
1. In a large slow cooker, combine the ham hocks, beans, broth, celery, carrots, onion, garlic and thyme sprigs. Cover and cook on low until the beans are tender, about 5 hours.

2. Discard the thyme stems. Using tongs, remove the ham hocks and shred the meaty parts; discard the skin, fat and bones. Using the back of a spoon, mash the garlic halves against the side of the slow cooker to squeeze the soft cloves out and stir into the soup; discard the skins. Return the shredded ham back to the slow cooker and season with salt and pepper. Ladle the soup into bowls, garnish with the thyme leaves and serve with the bread.
 
For soups, stews doubling works just fine. I always make more than needed and a recipe is just a guide ( You can tweak it )> I like diced potatoes in my Ham & Bean soup and a can of Rotell.:)

Tim
 
I think you'll be fine doubling the recipe.
The hard part is cutting a recipe that makes gallons to just a quart or so!
We went to a winery and had some amazing cream of mushroom soup at their restaurant. Pammi asked for the recipe and got it!
Unfortunately, it makes about a gallon and a half!
I had to dig into my old Army cook skills and reduce the recipe by 6ths! Talk about some rough math for my tired old brain! :p
 
I find as stated above that doubling soups or stews is fine, but be careful of doubling things like red peppers or hot sauces as it may get to spicy.
 
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I think you'll be fine doubling the recipe.
The hard part is cutting a recipe that makes gallons to just a quart or so!
We went to a winery and had some amazing cream of mushroom soup at their restaurant. Pammi asked for the recipe and got it!
Unfortunately, it makes about a gallon and a half!
I had to dig into my old Army cook skills and reduce the recipe by 6ths! Talk about some rough math for my tired old brain! :p

Hi Phil, thank you for your service, I'm former Navy Radarman 2nd. PhibLant '69
So you're saying that this whole business is just a matter of math, with the exception of spicy stuff?
 
If that's the base recipe above I'd think cooker capacity could be an issue. I'm just imagining it in my head but I seriously doubt I could fit double that amount of ingredients in my slow cooker. Admittedly, I have a smaller one, but even so I'd think it could be a problem. Keep in mind the beans will about double in volume when cooked.

The total cook time will probably be extended somewhat as well since you'll be initially bringing up to temp twice the mass of ingredients. I don't think this will double the cook time or anything like that, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if you need to add an hour to the time.
 
If that's the base recipe above I'd think cooker capacity could be an issue. I'm just imagining it in my head but I seriously doubt I could fit double that amount of ingredients in my slow cooker. Admittedly, I have a smaller one, but even so I'd think it could be a problem. Keep in mind the beans will about double in volume when cooked.

The total cook time will probably be extended somewhat as well since you'll be initially bringing up to temp twice the mass of ingredients. I don't think this will double the cook time or anything like that, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if you need to add an hour to the time.

Hi JayHeyl
I think I agree. Good points to remember when taking on a large cook!
Thanks!!
 
Hi Phil, thank you for your service, I'm former Navy Radarman 2nd. PhibLant '69
So you're saying that this whole business is just a matter of math, with the exception of spicy stuff?

And thank you for yours!
Yeah, spicy stuff is a whole different equation!
 
One other thought on this recipe. If this said it served four, those have to be some very large portions. There's a LOT of stuff going in that pot, and with the typical slow cooker you get very little evaporation. So you've got 16 oz. of chicken stock per serving. Half a ham hock per serving. 4 oz. of white beans, which will turn into at least 8 oz. when cooked, per serving. From just looking at it I'd imagine this recipe would provide four meal-size servings to rather large and hungry lumberjacks. Point being, if you're making this for the soup course of a multi-course meal and serving regular folks who've eaten in the last three days, you'll probably get 6-8 servings without doubling the recipe.
 
<snip>
Pammi asked for the recipe and got it!
Unfortunately, it makes about a gallon and a half!

That's my go-to size (6+ quarts). Soups freeze & store surprisingly well. I probably make ~2-3 batches per month and on day 2 I'll take a sharpie on the outside of a 1 quart freezer bag, write the month/year & soup type. Then I'll pour ~16-20 oz into each ziplock bag, lay it flat while holding the zipper up, and press as much liquid as I can out of it then seal/freeze. I stack & freeze them just like that.
 
Just double (that's where the metric system shines ;) ).
As said before, the cook time will change somewhat. It takes longer to get it to the boil, but once the soup boils, the time is the same.
As far as chili's and salt go: use a bit less than double and adjust to taste. No two chili's were created equal
 

 

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