diff --git a/esmvaltool/recipes/examples/recipe_preprocessor_test.yml b/esmvaltool/recipes/examples/recipe_preprocessor_test.yml
index df97678ac7..cce4e89df6 100644
--- a/esmvaltool/recipes/examples/recipe_preprocessor_test.yml
+++ b/esmvaltool/recipes/examples/recipe_preprocessor_test.yml
@@ -75,10 +75,16 @@ preprocessors:
     multi_model_statistics: false
 
 
-  # Simple ensemble mean and median for multiple models
+  # Simple ensemble mean, median, and percentiles for multiple models
   preprocessor_5:
     ensemble_statistics:
-      statistics: [mean, median]
+      statistics:
+        - mean
+        - median
+        - operator: percentile
+          percent: 5
+        - operator: percentile
+          percent: 95
       exclude: [GFDL-ESM2G]
 
   # Calculate ensemble means, then multi-model mean
diff --git a/esmvaltool/recipes/recipe_kcs.yml b/esmvaltool/recipes/recipe_kcs.yml
index cbb7e85592..6eebb2c0e6 100644
--- a/esmvaltool/recipes/recipe_kcs.yml
+++ b/esmvaltool/recipes/recipe_kcs.yml
@@ -64,7 +64,11 @@ preprocessors:
       standardize: false
     multi_model_statistics:
       span: full
-      statistics: [p10, p90]
+      statistics:
+        - operator: percentile
+          percent: 10
+        - operator: percentile
+          percent: 90
   preprocessor_local: &extract_NL
     extract_point:
       longitude: 6.25
@@ -91,7 +95,7 @@ diagnostics:
       global_matching:
         script: kcs/global_matching.py
         scenario_years: [2050, 2085]
-        scenario_percentiles: [P10, P90]
+        scenario_percentiles: [Percentile10, Percentile90]
 
   local_resampling:
     description: >