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.

What else might be included

• Special handling requirements (how are eggs or butter stored? At what temperature should they be when cooking starts?)
• Garnishing or serving advice (add a sprig of parsley for color).

Additional facts often included in recipes

Recipe writers often add additional facts about the recipe, and, depending upon who you are, they are considered redundant or essential.

Such facts may include the history of the dish, nutritional information, dietary information, philosophical ramblings about the soul-enriching or health-benefiting properties of the dish, or what wonderful hostess in what particular town first served the dish to the author.

Nutritional information normally includes food energy, 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 items listed out of the storage where they had been stored earlier.

External links

• Recipe Network A user submited recipe database, UK based.
• Recipe Exchange A community built Recipe site. New recipes sumbitted every day with a searchable database.
• CookbookWiki.com A community built Recipe Wiki. Over 20,000 recipes.
• LeftoverChef.com Leftover Recipes for Leftover Turkey, Leftover Chicken
• Potato Recipe Collection Lots of recipes, Learn cooking using potatoes
• Pizza Recipes including doughs, sauces and toppings
• Kosher recipes chabad.org
• Homebasics Recipes A Canadian source of fresh and delicious food ideas, recipes and menus. 1000's of free printable recipes.
• Foodgeeks.com A recipe website with over 7,000 recipes.
• The Art of Writing Workable Recipes is a history of recipe writing, an analysis of contemporary recipe styles, and a treatise on what constitutes a well-written recipe.
• eLook Recipes Over 48,000 recipes.
• Free Recipe Archive1000's of free access Recipes
• Food Network Recipes
• BBC Food Recipes
• Recipes by Cathy specializes in healthy but delicious cooking.
• Spanish Recipes
• RealCajunRecipes.com features more than 800 recipes from Cajun Country. Photos included.
• Free Recipes and Cookbooks Directory of free recipes and cookbooks
• Middle Eastern Recipes A collection of over 600 at Sudairy.com
• Binnur's Turkish Cookbook Delicious, healthy and easy-to-make Turkish recipes.
• Crock Pot Recipes
• Easy and Healthy Recipes
• Recipe Database
• Recipezaar - The World's Largest Cookbook
• Recipe Source lots of recipes, anyone can submit their own
• Gourmet Recipes Free Gourmet Recipes
• Find me a Recipe Searchable database of over 100,000 recipesda:Madopskrift