Article: Recipe

This article discusses culinary recipes. For a discussion of semiconductor IC recipes, see Semiconductor fabrication.

An example recipe, printed from the Wikibooks Cookbook.

A recipe is a set of instructions that show how to prepare or make something, especially a culinary dish.

Modern culinary recipes normally consist of several components:

• The name (and often the locale or provenance) of the dish,
• How much time it will take to prepare the dish
• The required ingredients along with their quantity
• Equipment and environment needed to prepare the dish
• An ordered list of detailed preparation procedures (called Method).
• The number of servings that the dish will give.
• A rough estimate of the number of calories or joules contained per serving.
• A note on how long the dish will keep and its suitability for freezing.

In the early history of recipes, many of these components were omitted or reduced to a note that required oral instruction, some of which may only have the name and the ingredients of a dish.

Recipe writers sometimes also list variations of the traditional dish.

Additional facts often included in recipes

Recipes may include various facts, including the history of the dish, nutritional information, dietary information, food philosophy, or anecdotes related to the recipe.

Nutritional information normally includes food energy (calories), vitamin content, fat content, etc

Where are recipes to be found?

People have written recipes as recipe cards, recipe books, recipes worked into needlepoint, and computer recipe databases, among others. Take notes when making your favorite dish and share your recipe in the list of recipes or Wikibooks cookbook.

The composer Leonard Bernstein set four recipes to music in his set of songs, La Bonne Cuisine (1947).

Etymology

It originated as the Latin word recipe = "take back" (imperative), i.e. an instruction to take the listed items out of storage.

Wikibooks Cookbook has more about this subject:

Recipes