Is it correct?

This is a convention for writtten recipes, but you're right that it's otherwise ungrammatical. It's similar to how some unimportant words are omitted in news headlines.

"Serves 2-4 slices" is grammatically fine but sounds off. Recipes usually say *people*, not slices. Like: "Serves 2 (2 slices each)." It’s weird because "serves" = feeds people, not counts food.

(native speaker, US English but married to a Canadian / Brit for 16 years) I've never seen a recipe that use "serves" with the amount of food it produces, only the number of people it'll feed (context: at least 35 years of cooking from US and British English cookbooks). I'm pretty sure I've only ever seen the word "yield" used with the amount it produces. So, without more context, I wouldn't be sure if this recipe uses one egg and makes 2 - 4 pieces of French toast (and I think you'd call it a piece, not a slice!) or if you should plan on 2 - 4 pieces per person.

I would personally say “The recipe serves X” or “The recipe serves X people” or “The recipe is for 2-4 slices”. As written in the image, it would be perfectly understood, though .

I have never seen this convention in a recipe, and I cook a lot. It might say "Recipe serves 2-4." Meaning 2-4 people. It might say "Serving size 2-4 slices." The act of taking out the "the" at the beginning of the sentence is common for recipes, but "Recipe serves (size of serving here)" is not something that even makes sense. It looks like a typo or mistranslation to me.

Recipe makes 2-4 slices would be better.

Most recipes would say "yields 2-4 slices". You are correct that "serves" is normally used for people.

It feels weird to me because it says slices. Serves 2-4 people or makes 2-4 slices would be normal. Not serves 2-4 slices.

I would say makes, not serves. You can only serve a person

I feel like "The recipe is for X servings" is another acceptable way to put it

Sounds normal to me in this context.

It's a shortened/quick instruction, so therefore "the" is omitted. You can see similar occurrences in news headlines. For example, let's say there's a headline that says "famous actor run over by bus". Of course, the grammatically correct way to say this would be "A famous actor was run over by a bus", but these sort of sentences are meant to be short and as direct as possible, like with the instruction in this image.

That works but usually servings are in terms of people. The "the" is often omitted in cases like this and I can't explain why. It's like it's not intended to be a standalone sentence on purpose.

I honestly don’t see this as an issue tbh. My guess is that it’s allowing for a variance depending on slice thickness or something similar. It’s not unusual to see makes 20-24 cookies from a cookie recipe as the size of the cookies themselves may vary changing the total overall

“Serves” refers to how many *people* - “serves two” would mean a recipe that makes enough food for two people. If you want to be specific about quantity (4 slices, 12 cookies) then you could use “yield: 12 cookies” or “12 servings”.

No. The construction "recipe serves" means how many *people* it serves.

Singular subjects like “recipe” need a determiner or an article of some sort. Like “this recipe” or “my recipe” or “the recipe” This doesn’t have one so it’s technically grammatically INcorrect. HOWEVER, because that line is written inside a recipe book where the recipe in question is very obvious from context (it’s obviously the French toast recipe) the book gets away with it. There is an implied demonstrative determiner (this).

I've been looking at this and I think what it's trying to say (badly as seen by so many thinking it says "serves 2 to 4") The dash is confusingly being used to separate "Serves 2" and "4 slices" as in it serves 2 people and the given recipe makes a total of 4 slices of french toast in all. (2 for each person) It's fairly common for recipes to put the serving suggestion amount followed by total amount of food it makes at the end, though usually not worded this badly.

I think technically this is wrong. I didn't notice at first because almost every recipe ends with "serves x".

It should say: Recipe serves 2-4. Or, Recipe requires 2-4 slices of bread.

Serves four slices is fine. The slices are what is being served. Consider "serve the ball" in tennis. Now you can put both forms together. :) "He serves four slices to serve a party of two"

It's a little odd, like you say it should be "serves 1-2 people" or "makes 2-4 slices" combining the two sounds weird

Recipe is the name of the guy who wrote the cookbook.

The article is dropped for brevity the way it is in many headlines— they're trying to communicate in as few words as possible. Also, I believe the sentence means that the recipe serves two people and makes 4 slices. It's a poor use of punctuation to have the em dash there as it looks at first glance like 2-4 slices but it isn't an en dash (-) it's an em dash (—). The recipe would serve people not slices, and it's common for recipes to say "serves 2" without saying people.

If you eat 4 slices then it serves 1 person. If you eat 2 slices then it serves 2 people Just a way to clarify quantity obtained, not how many it will feed.

I never see recipes written this way. Could be regional or perhaps it's an older recipe? Normally I think you'd see "recipe *makes* 2-4 slices" or "recipe serves 2-4 people." It's technically not *wrong* per se... but it just sounds weird.

When it comes to recipes or instructions, most people don't consider proper grammar since it's quicker to read. And for your comparison between "serves (X) people" and "serves (X) slices," I'd say it's better to say slices just because that's a fixed amount, whereas some people might want two slices, some half a slice, etc.

Recipe serves 2 (people); 4 slices (total).

You can omit articles for ease of space. Most of the time this isn’t a thing but on news headlines, and recipes where space is needed it’s quite common.

Sounds wrong. Recipes can't "serve slices." Recipe serves 2-4 people, that might make sense. This might mean the recipe IS FOR 2-4 slices--that's how I would interpret this. If this was instructions for defusing a bomb, I would stop right there and try to find other instructions that were more clear.

I don't see this as grammatically correct, no.

Yes, it's fine. (It's up to you to decide how many slices to serve per person...) 😉

It’s not grammatical English and you would never say that in speech, but it is correct recipe writing.

Telegraphic style. Drops articles and most pronouns. This reply is an example.

Recipes have their own shortened register, like news headlines. The recipe serves two to four people. Serves 2-4.