Nigellas quantities?

[Anonymousbird]

She always makes out on her programme and in the books that she is a right greedy mare. So I assume she is generous with her quantities - feed the hungry buxom hoardes and all that.

But, in reality how do her quantities bear up? I am making her Carbonnade, for example, which is quantities for 8. Should I do one and a half for 12, or just sod it and double up? obviously I can freeze leftovers so not a major issue, but another recipe which she describes as for 6 (strawberry crumble) I am nervous to simply double to get to 12....

I know Delia is notoriously stingy so I always add 50% to her quantities and it is just right, but wasn't sure how it worked with Nigella?

i'd double up, it'll be her home economist who does all the measurements...

I have to say that Nigella's quantities seem to be quite random, especially in her newer books.

I'd try and work it by how much meat per person and go from there. Is it a reasonable quantity to start with or something quite odd. Guess I'd expect 125-150g per person?

Do you have a crumble recipe you know feeds 4 or 6? - compare the amount of ingredients with that.

I do a lot of Nigella recipes and they are very variable in their generosity...almost as if she had a team of people working for her and helping her out with different ones

I'd double up too...ime she is very stingy with her servings...not at all real life portions

except for when she serves herself!

I find her quite stingy... Some of her recipes for 4, serve me and DH with a small portion of leftovers for DH.

IME her cake portions are MASSIVE but actual meals can be on the small side.

I would double up on the main but proceed with caution on the pudding! How much weight of fruit, flour etc is she using or does she say what size of bowl to use to make it in?