Default serving size

[dnlzro]

Hey, I just found out about this project and I wanted to share some thoughts I had regarding the proposed serving size feature. The current proposal in the spec is good, but I think it could use some improvement.

Let's say I have an existing recipe that I want to rewrite in cooklang. Suppose that the recipe produces two servings, and requires 3/4 cups of flour. If I want to allow for proper ingredient scaling in cooklang, I would have to do a bit of math to make things work. For example:

INCORRECT

>> servings: 2|4|8
Add @flour{3/4*%cup} to the bowl...

This would result in the recipe being doubled for a serving size of 2 compared to the original recipe.

CORRECT

>> servings: 2|4|8
Add @flour{3/8*%cup} to the bowl...

I need to halve the quantity of flower (3/4 to 3/8) for the recipe to be properly scaled.

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The current proposed spec introduces extra friction when writing recipes, because I would have to adjust every single ingredient quantity by dividing by the original serving size of my recipe.

Instead, I propose that all recipes have a default serving size. Perhaps it could be the first serving size specified (2 in the previous example). The cooklang parser should understand that all quantities in the recipe are for that default serving size, and for other serving sizes, it will do the math required. For example, if we chose a serving size of 4 instead of 2 (default), then the parser would know to scale by a factor of 4/(default) = 4/2 = 2.

[FranGarc]

I was thinking something along the lines.
Writing the recipe for whatever number of servings, but allowing in the app to choose a different amount of servings and have it recalculate the amounts automatically. Would that be possible?

[dubadub]

Actually, right now working on that #108. Feel free to give early feedback