Why do my ingredient amounts change after I tap Save? – CookBook FAQ

Quick answer: Your ingredients and measures will only change if you have conversion, scaling or rounding applied. CookBook adjusts numbers whenever you change the serving size, swap measurement systems (US, Metric, Imperial, Australian) or have Ingredient rounding set to “Rounded.” All of these options live in Side menu → Settings and can be toggled off if you want every recipe to stay exactly as entered.

1. Setting up and changing your global measurement conversion settings

Setting up your recipe

CookBook scales your ingredients in all recipes based on the unit of measurement you choose (US Standard, Metric, Imperial or Australian).

Whenever you add a recipe, select the unit system that matches the original ingredients. If the wrong one is chosen, conversions can be off by up to 20 %.

Different countries use different sizes for cups, tablespoons, etc. CookBook will convert them when asked. For example: 1.5 metric cups → 1.59 US cups → 1.32 Imperial cups.

If you save a recipe in US and never convert it, it will always display exactly as entered.

Applying and changing conversions

To change or turn conversions on or off, open the side menu, tap Settings, and check these items:

Recipe conversions - Convert recipes or Do not convert
Measurement system – US, Metric, Imperial or Australian
Liquid units – Cups, mL, fl oz, etc.
Display format – Fractions or Decimals

You can change the first three from inside a recipe as well. On the ingredients section look for the scales icon labelled Default. Tap it to choose another measurement system. If the button shows anything other than Default and is yellow, the recipe is actively being converted.

Fractions & Decimals

CookBook stores all numbers as raw decimals in edit mode, then converts them to fractions or decimals based on your display preference.

2. Per-recipe scaling

Inside any recipe you can scale servings up or down.

On the ingredients page, tap the plate-and-cutlery icon (it shows the current servings). Scroll to the new serving size or tap the keyboard icon to type a number, then Confirm. If the number differs from the original, the button turns yellow to show the recipe is scaled. Scaling always recalculates ingredient amounts.

3. Ingredient rounding

CookBook can tidy awkward numbers into kitchen-friendly measurable amounts.

When you scale or convert, raw math can produce values like 1.59 cups. CookBook rounds them to sensible amounts:

Rounded – closest usable fraction/decimal for that unit
Accurate – exact decimal (up to three places)

Toggle this in Side menu ☰ → Settings → Conversions → Rounding. (Full rules are in the Ingredient rounding article.)

4. Common reasons amounts look “wrong”

You edited the recipe while the global measurement system was Metric, then viewed it later with the system set to US.
You scaled servings to a larger yield and forgot to reset them.
Ingredient rounding changed 1.59 cups into 1 ⅔ cups.
An ingredient was saved with the wrong unit (e.g., tablespoons vs teaspoons).

5. How to leave everything exactly as entered

Side menu → Settings
Recipe conversions: set to Do not convert.
Ingredient rounding: set to Accurate (you'll see up to 3 decimal places for precision)
Display format: pick Fractions or Decimals
In each recipe, make sure the conversion icon says Default and is not yellow.

Your ingredient lines will now stay fixed unless you deliberately scale or convert them.

Still need help?

Still seeing unexpected changes? Tap Submit a request and include screenshots of the recipe in edit mode and after saving.