How much sauce per serving

One serving of sauce is smaller than most people pour. The FDA sets the serving sizes printed on Nutrition Facts labels: 2 tablespoons for salad dressings, dips, salsa, barbecue sauce, hollandaise and other sauces for dipping, 1 tablespoon for mayonnaise, marinades and major condiments like soy sauce, 1 teaspoon for hot sauce and mustard, and a quarter cup for pesto, Alfredo and gravy. Divide a recipe’s yield by the matching amount and you have the number of servings in a batch.

The catalog declares a yield for 2,561 of its 2,599 recipes. Across those, the median comes out to 270 milliliters, about 1¼ cups. The full range runs wide: the smallest recipe yields just 15 milliliters, about a tablespoon, and the largest yields 12 liters, clearly a restaurant scale batch rather than a home one. Most home cooking falls somewhere in the middle of that range, closer to the median than either extreme.

A yield printed on a recipe is a starting point, not a promise. How far it actually goes depends on how the sauce is used: poured generously over a plate, dabbed on as a garnish, or tossed through a bowl of greens where a small amount coats a large surface.

Vinaigrette and dressing recipes have a median yield of 200 milliliters, about ¾ cup. At the 2 tablespoon serving that dresses about 7 individual salads. A dressing is meant to coat rather than pool, so a little goes further once it is tossed through instead of poured on top.

Dip recipes carry a median yield of 350 milliliters, about 1½ cups, and mayonnaise recipes sit at a median of 280 milliliters, about 1¼ cups. Both are meant to be scooped or spread rather than poured thin. At 2 tablespoons a serving a median dip makes about 12 servings, and at 1 tablespoon a median mayonnaise makes about 19, which is why a single batch suits a group snacking over time better than four plated portions.

Barbecue sauce recipes have a median yield of 700 milliliters, about 3 cups, the largest of the types on this page. That reflects how often it is made in a batch for basting, storing, and reusing across several meals rather than portioned per plate. Gastrique, a concentrated sweet and sour reduction, has a median yield of 280 milliliters, and only a spoonful goes on each plate.

A fresh dressing or vinaigrette made without egg or dairy generally keeps about a week in the refrigerator. That is our own conservative guidance rather than a government figure, and it assumes the jar goes straight back into the fridge after shaking.

Sauces served with raw egg, like a homemade mayonnaise, an aioli or a Caesar dressing, need more care. The FDA advises using pasteurized eggs or pasteurized egg products in any dish served with raw or undercooked egg. Keep these sauces cold and use them within a few days.

Garlic held in oil needs the most care of all. The National Center for Home Food Preservation advises making garlic in oil fresh, keeping it in the refrigerator at 40°F or lower, and using it within 4 days, because garlic in oil left at room temperature carries a risk of botulism. Freeze it if you want to keep it longer.

When in doubt, trust your nose and eyes over a fixed number of days, and when a recipe includes egg or dairy, lean toward using it sooner rather than later.