Some recipes scale well, others do not and the reasons for this goes beyond the obvious incapcity of one’s cookware. In fact, most recipes do not scale perfectly; stone soup may be the exception.

Reasons recipes do not always scale:

• Mixing bowls will not accommodate more ingredients.
   

  Pans will not accommodate greater portions.

   

  Pans cannot do a good job of cooking more portions. In particular, if you’re browning meat, putting more of it in the skillet and lessening the room around each piece, the pieces near the skillet sides, etc. will result in braising the meat instead of browning it. It will take longer and, at the same time, cook the inside of the meat—probably in an undesired way.

   

  If you’re making biscuits or another quickbread in which the dough must not be overmixed, doubling the recipe or even multiplying it by 1½ could result in your inability to associate the liquid with the dry ingredients swiftly and will little enough effort to avoid awakening the gluten, tiring the chemical leavening, etc.

   

  more to come...