Level 1 — Foundations
How to Read and Scale a Recipe
Most Indian home cooks don't measure — they cook by ratio and feel. This is not vagueness; it's efficiency. Once you understand that dal is always roughly 1:3 dal to water, that tadka spices scale proportionally with the main ingredient, and that seasoning adjusts by taste rather than measurement, you are cooking intelligently rather than following instructions.
Recipes are not prescriptions — they are ratio guidelines. The water ratio for basmati is always approximately 1:1.5. The fat ratio for a tadka is always small relative to the main ingredient. Learning these ratios means you can cook any quantity of any dish without recalculating — the ratios scale automatically.
1
Identify the ratio structure
Every Indian recipe has a core ratio: dal:water, rice:water, fat:spice, main ingredient:masala. Find this ratio first.
🔬 Ratios are scale-independent — 1 cup dal to 3 cups water works for 1 cup or 10 cups. The absolute quantities change; the ratio doesn't.
2
Scale the main ingredient first
Decide how much of the main ingredient you need (dal, meat, vegetables). Everything else scales from this.
🔬 The main ingredient is the anchor of the dish — everything else is proportional to it. 500g chicken needs proportionally more masala than 250g.
3
Adjust salt and acidity last
Salt and souring agents (tamarind, lime, amchur) are always adjusted to taste at the end — never scale these proportionally.
🔬 Salt perception is absolute, not relative — the same amount of salt tastes saltier in a concentrated dish than a dilute one. Always taste and adjust rather than scale.
Dietary Variants
Works for every diet
🥬Vegetarian
Identical principle
🥩Non-Veg
Identical principle — meat quantities scale the same way
🔴Sattvic
Identical principle
Recipes Using This Technique
What this technique unlocks
