Spice – Halving Spice Mixtures

spices

Since I live by myself, I tend to not cook a whole pound or two of say, ground beef or chicken thighs at once, since I can't eat that all in one meal. If using a spice mixture recommended for 1 or 2 pounds of meat, will the spices retain their punch if the spice mix contents are reduced by half or even a quarter? Do spice mixes scale with the rest of the recipe? This is probably a very basic question, but I was wondering if anyone else had experience with reducing recipes for eating in one sitting.

Best Answer

I usually scale spices evenly with the rest of the recipe.

One caveat - if there is water involved in the recipe (say a liquid sauce made with the spice mixture) and salt in the spice mixture, then you may end up boiling off a bigger percentage of water and concentrating the salt too much. Taste it and thin it out a little if it's too salty.