Cooking & Recipe FAQs

Every recipe card on Lone Recipes lists the number of servings it makes, so you can multiply or divide each ingredient to match the number of people at your table. Cooking times do not scale in a straight line, though: a double batch of soup takes longer to come to a simmer and a bigger tray of cookies may need an extra minute or two, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Usually, yes. Start with the Notes at the end of the recipe: when Chris has tested a swap in his own kitchen, that is where he mentions it. Common stand-ins that work well are milk plus a squeeze of lemon juice for buttermilk, Greek yogurt for sour cream, and a mix of dried thyme, rosemary and oregano for Italian seasoning. Swaps change the flavour and texture a little, so taste as you go.

We do not publish nutrition facts at the moment. Every recipe lists its full ingredients and the number of servings, so if you need calories or macros you can paste the ingredient list into a free online nutrition calculator and divide by the servings. Treat the result as an estimate, since it depends on the brands and exact quantities you use.

Yes. Each recipe card has an Allergens section that lists the common allergens in the dish, such as gluten, dairy, eggs, nuts, soy or shellfish. It is written from Chris's home kitchen, not a laboratory, so please always double-check the labels on the products you buy, especially for cross-contamination warnings.

We are not accepting recipe submissions at the moment, but Chris loves hearing about beloved family dishes. Send your story to contact@lonerecipes.com - it may well inspire a future recipe on Lone Recipes.

Open the search page and type a dish name or an ingredient you have on hand, such as chicken or zucchini. The search looks through recipe titles, descriptions and ingredient lists and shows the closest matches first. You can also reach it from the magnifying-glass icon in the site header.

Every recipe belongs to one of our 22 categories, from Breakfast & Brunch and Main Dishes to Desserts, Soups & Stews and Slow Cooker Meals. Browse them all on the categories page, or open the all recipes page to see every recipe on the site, newest first.

There are no dietary filters yet, but two categories do most of the work: Gluten-Free and Meatless Dishes. For anything else, search for an ingredient you want to include or avoid, and read the Allergens section on the recipe card before you start cooking.

Head to the Quick Recipes category, or look through Dinners and Family Meals. Every recipe card shows the prep time and cook time, so you can tell at a glance whether a dish fits into your evening.

The home page always shows the newest recipes first. To be notified, subscribe to our RSS feed in your favourite feed reader, follow Lone Recipes on Facebook or Pinterest, or join the newsletter using the sign-up box on any recipe page.

Think of baking as delicious science. Three habits make the biggest difference: use room-temperature butter, eggs and dairy unless the recipe says otherwise; measure precisely (level your cups and spoons, or better still use a kitchen scale); and keep an oven thermometer inside your oven, because many ovens run 10 to 20 degrees off, which is enough to sink a cake.

Let food cool before storing it, but do not leave it at room temperature for more than two hours. Use clean containers that seal tightly, label them with the date, and portion soups and sauces into single-meal containers so you only reheat what you need. Most cooked dishes keep for three to four days in the fridge and up to three months in the freezer.

Most soups, stews, casseroles, meatballs, breads and baked goods freeze beautifully; creamy sauces, dressed salads and anything with raw vegetables do not. When a recipe freezes well, Chris usually says so in the Notes, along with how to thaw and reheat it. Cool food completely, freeze it flat in labelled bags or containers, and thaw overnight in the fridge for the best texture.

Welcome to the fun part. Begin with the Quick Recipes and Family Meals categories, which lean on simple techniques. Every recipe card tells you the equipment you will need, the prep and cook time and the number of servings before you start, and the instructions walk you through the dish step by step. Read the whole recipe once before you switch on the stove - every confident cook started as a beginner.

Use plenty of water, at least four quarts (about four litres) per pound of pasta, and salt it generously once it boils. Stir during the first minute so nothing sticks, then cook until just al dente. Before draining, scoop out a cup of the starchy cooking water: a splash of it turns any sauce silky and helps it cling to the pasta.

No. There is nothing to sign up for and nothing to pay: every recipe on Lone Recipes is free to read, cook and share. The only optional sign-up is the newsletter box on recipe pages.

We do not have a favourites or recipe-box feature, so the simplest options are to save the page with your browser's bookmark tool or to pin it to one of your Pinterest boards. You can also follow our own boards on Pinterest. To print a recipe, use your browser's Print command.

Every recipe page has a newsletter box where you can enter your name and email address. We store those two details, together with the IP address the sign-up came from (to prevent spam sign-ups), and use them only to email you about new recipes. To unsubscribe at any time, email contact@lonerecipes.com and we will remove you. The Privacy Policy has the details.

Email contact@lonerecipes.com for anything about a recipe, the site, or just to say hello - Chris reads every message. Advertising and sponsorship enquiries go to ads@lonerecipes.com, and copyright or other legal matters to legal@lonerecipes.com. You will find the same addresses on our contact page.

Please do. Share the link to the recipe on social media or by email, pin it to Pinterest, or tag our Facebook page. If you write about a recipe on your own site, please link to it rather than copying the text and photos.