Why You Should Always Double The Recipe

Leftovers are the unsung hero of the entire cooking process.

An anecdote that'll seem slightly irrelevant now but will make sense eventually, if you'll allow me: When I was in elementary school, I sometimes had a Hungarian babysitter who used to make my brother and I heaps of the most flavorful goulash in the world for dinner. On the days I knew she'd be taking care of us after school, I'd get so excited. On the days after she took care of us, I'd literally come home from school skipping, excited for nothing more in the world than an after-a-stressful-day-of-spelling stew snack.

This is all a way of telling you that one day I came home from school to no leftover goulash and threw a tremendous nine-year-old fit about it.

I'd like to say that was the moment—the tragic, tragic moment—I realized the beauty of leftovers, but realistically, that epiphany happened as a 23-year-old living alone in New York City in an apartment she could barely afford. Food shopping for one is notoriously difficult, and rather than learning from and adjusting my shopping habits to make less food rather than more, all it took was one moldy orange (...do you know how long an orange has to be around to get moldy?) for me to lean in to buying all the groceries I possibly could...and learning to use A-L-L of them rather than making another trip to the store.


So! It took a meat fit and a spoiled fruit to get here, but we've reached the point of running through leftover merits. Let's get to the point of why you should always double the recipe to ensure you have some.

We'll start with the benefits of over-cooking for moody eaters: If, like me, you crave something overwhelmingly and intensely for days or weeks at a time before moving on to your next obsession (see: goulash, or this past month's cold sesame noodle binge), doubling the recipe saves lives. It prevents the aforementioned meat fits and keeps you happy throughout the day. Have you ever tried working through a sad desk lunch without the promise of exactly what you're craving waiting at home for you for dinner? It is, as they say, the fucking worst, and I wish it on no one other than my worst enemies.

Doubling the recipe helps with those who struggle to shop for themselves as well. When you commit to a recipe, it's almost always easier to double it rather than to halve it, ensuring you not only have enough food to last you a few days, but also surpassing any difficult math you might have to work through when it comes to some more complicated recipes. You can trust me—I have tried more than once to third Ina Garten's phenomenal turkey meatloaf recipe. Do you know what one-third of one-and-one-half teaspoons of tomato paste is? I certainly don't. Nor do I care to, now that I know two of those meatloaves lasts my husband and I a full week of lunch and dinner.

We can also talk about the financial benefits of meal-prepping, which is most easily done when you make a butt-load of one or two kinds of food at the beginning of the week, but it's well-known that doing that saves everyone everywhere time, money, and energy, as well as contributes to an overall less hectic lifestyle, so.

That leaves us with the fun part: Doubling the recipe and having the subsequent leftovers is fun. When you first set out to make Easter ham, who knew you'd be tackling a delicious antipasto grilled cheese days later? When turkey becomes a foot-long, cranberry coated sub on Sunday, are you not overjoyed? The possibilities are endless when you plan for them and when you don't.

And that, my friends, is a comprehensive guide to never becoming hysterical over beef not appreciating your leftovers ever again.

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