Misplaced Pages

A recipe is a set of instructions that describes how to prepare or make something, especially a dish of prepared food. A sub-recipe or subrecipe is a recipe for an ingredient that will be called for in the instructions for the main recipe. Cookbooks, which are a collection of recipes, help reflect cultural identities and social changes as well as serve as educational tools.

History

Early examples

The earliest known written recipes date to 1730 BC and were recorded on cuneiform tablets found in Mesopotamia.

Other early written recipes date from approximately 1600 BC and come from an Akkadian tablet from southern Babylonia. There are also works in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs depicting the preparation of food.

Many ancient Greek recipes are known. Mithaecus's cookbook was an early one, but most of it has been lost; Athenaeus quotes one short recipe in his Deipnosophistae. Athenaeus mentions many other cookbooks, all of them lost.

Roman recipes are known starting in the 2nd century BCE with Cato the Elder's De Agri Cultura. Many authors of this period described eastern Mediterranean cooking in Greek and in Latin. Some Punic recipes are known in Greek and Latin translation.

The large collection of recipes De re coquinaria, conventionally titled Apicius, appeared in the 4th or 5th century and is the only complete surviving cookbook from the classical world. It lists the courses served in a meal as Gustatio (appetizer), Primae Mensae (main course) and Secundae Mensae (dessert). Each recipe begins with the Latin command "Take...," "Recipe...."

Arabic recipes are documented starting in the 10th century; see al-Warraq and al-Baghdadi.

The earliest recipe in Persian dates from the 14th century. Several recipes have survived from the time of Safavids, including Karnameh (1521) by Mohammad Ali Bavarchi, which includes the cooking instruction of more than 130 different dishes and pastries, and Madat-ol-Hayat (1597) by Nurollah Ashpaz. Recipe books from the Qajar era are numerous, the most notable being Khorak-ha-ye Irani by prince Nader Mirza.

In older English works, a recipe was called a "receipt". Both words "receipt" and "recipe" were originally used to mean instructions on how to administer medicine.

King Richard II of England commissioned a recipe book called Forme of Cury in 1390, and around the same time, another book was published entitled Curye on Inglish, "cury" meaning cooking. Both books give an impression of how food for the noble classes was prepared and served in England at that time. The luxurious taste of the aristocracy in the Early Modern Period brought with it the start of what can be called the modern recipe book. By the 15th century, numerous manuscripts were appearing detailing the recipes of the day. Many of these manuscripts give very good information and record the re-discovery of many herbs and spices including coriander, parsley, basil and rosemary, many of which had been brought back from the Crusades.

• A page from the Nimatnama-i-Nasiruddin-Shahi, book of delicacies and recipes. It documents the fine art of making kheer.
• Medieval Indian Manuscript (circa 16th century) showing samosas being served.

Modern recipes and cooking advice

With the advent of the printing press in the 16th and 17th centuries, numerous books were written on managing households and preparing food. In Holland and England competition grew between the noble families as to who could prepare the most lavish banquet. By the 1660s, cookery had progressed to an art form, and good cooks were in demand. Many of them published their own books, detailing their recipes in competition with their rivals. Many of these books have been translated and are available online.

By the 19th century, the Victorian preoccupation for domestic respectability brought about the emergence of cookery writing in its modern form. Although eclipsed in fame and regard by Isabella Beeton, the first modern cookery writer and compiler of recipes for the home was Eliza Acton. Her pioneering cookbook, Modern Cookery for Private Families published in 1845, was aimed at the domestic reader rather than the professional cook or chef. This was immensely influential, establishing the format for modern writing about cookery. It introduced the now-universal practice of listing the ingredients and suggested cooking times with each recipe. It included the first recipe for Brussels sprouts. Contemporary chef Delia Smith called Acton "the best writer of recipes in the English language." Modern Cookery long survived Acton, remaining in print until 1914 and available more recently in facsimile.

Acton's work was an important influence on Isabella Beeton, who published Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management in 24 monthly parts between 1857 and 1861. This was a guide to running a Victorian household, with advice on fashion, child care, animal husbandry, poisons, the management of servants, science, religion, and industrialism. Of the 1,112 pages, over 900 contained recipes. Most were illustrated with coloured engravings. It is said that many of the recipes were plagiarised from earlier writers such as Acton, but the Beetons never claimed that the book's contents were original. It was intended as a reliable guide for the aspirant middle classes.

The American cook Fannie Farmer (1857–1915) published in 1896 her famous work The Boston Cooking School Cookbook which contained some 1,849 recipes.

Components

Formatting a recipe can be done in many different ways but two formats are typical. One typical format displays information in two columns, one for instructions and one for ingredients. The other typical format displays information in a solid block paragraph alternating between the ingredients and instructions.

Modern culinary recipes normally consist of several components

• The name of the recipe (Origins/History of the dish).
• Yield: The number of servings that the dish provides.
• List all ingredients in the order of its use. Describe it in step by step instructions.
• List ingredients by quantity (Can abbreviate measurements: oz instead of ounces; tbsp instead of tablespoon) 
• How much time does it take to prepare the dish, plus cooking time for the dish.
• Necessary equipment used for the dish.
• Cooking procedures. Temperature and bake time if necessary.
• Serving procedures (Served while warm/cold).
• Review of the dish (Would you recommend this dish to a friend?).
• Photograph of the dish (Optional).
• Nutritional Value: Helps for dietary restrictions. Includes number of calories or grams per serving.

Recipe writers sometimes also list variations of a traditional dish, to give different tastes of the same recipes.

Recipe writers may include a narrative before or after the recipe to add to the significance of the recipe. These consist of cultural values or personal stories relating to the dish.

Sub-recipes

A sub-recipe or subrecipe is a recipe for an ingredient that will be called for in the instructions for the main recipe.

Sub-recipes are often for spice blends, sauces, confits, pickles, preserves, jams, chutneys, or condiments. Sometimes the sub-recipe calls for the ingredient to be held for several hours, overnight, or longer, which home cooks sometimes find frustrating as it means the main recipe cannot be made in a single session or day. Sub-recipes discovered late and calling for an ingredient the cook does not have on hand means a special shopping trip or trying to find a substitute.

Sub-recipes, and the cookbooks that contain them, are often described as not being targeted at casual cooks. Reviewers have mentioned finding alternate uses for leftover sub-recipes.

Cookbooks including subrecipes include Christina Tosi's Momofuku Milk Bar (2011) and Terry Bryant's Vegetable Kingdom (2020).

Internet and television recipes

By the mid-20th century, there were thousands of cookery and recipe books available. The next revolution came with the introduction of the TV cooks. The first TV cook in the world was Philip Harben with a show on the BBC called Cookery which premiered in June 1946. A few months later I Love to Eat presented by James Beard became the first such program in the US. TV cookery programs brought recipes to a new audience. In the early days, recipes were available by post from the BBC; later with the introduction of CEEFAX text on screen, they became available on television.

The first Internet Usenet newsgroup dedicated to cooking was net.cooks created in 1982, later becoming rec.food.cooking. It served as a forum to share recipes text files and cooking techniques.

In the U.S. in 2008, there was a renewed focus on cooking at home due to the late-2000s recession. Home cooking in the U.S. was similarly inspired in the early 2020s during the coronavirus pandemic.

The abundance of multimedia in modern food recipes allows for recipes to be more accessible to home amateur chefs. The accessibility of cookbooks online further helps home cooks improve their skills and understand the cultural identities cookbooks have.

Television networks such as the Food Network and magazines are still a major source of recipe information, with international cooks and chefs such as Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsay, Nigella Lawson and Rachael Ray having prime-time shows and backing them up with Internet websites giving the details of all their recipes. These were joined by reality TV shows such as Top Chef or Iron Chef, and many Internet sites offering free recipes, but cookery books remain as popular as ever.

See also

• Cookbook
• Course (food)
• Culinary art
• hRecipe - a microformat for marking-up recipes in web pages
• List of desserts
• List of foods
• Rhyming recipe
• Dal makhani recipe

References

1. "Food Preparation: Cooking and Cooks". Food in Colonial and Federal America: 89–124. 2005. doi:10.5040/9798400652615.ch-003. ISBN 979-8-4006-5261-5.
2. Winchester, Ashley. "The world's oldest-known recipes decoded". www.bbc.com. Archived from the original on 2020-06-04. Retrieved 2020-06-17.
3. Jean Bottéro, Textes culinaires Mésopotamiens, 1995. ISBN 0-931464-92-7; commentary at "Society of Biblical Literature". Archived from the original on 2021-09-30.
4. Ancient Egyptian cuisine
5. ^ Andrew Dalby, Food in the Ancient World from A to Z, 2003. ISBN 0-415-23259-7 p. 97-98.
6. "Roman food in Britain". Archived from the original on 2010-07-20. Retrieved 2007-05-10.
7. Colquhoun, Kate (2008) . Taste: The Story of Britain through its Cooking. Bloomsbury. p. 25. ISBN 978-0-747-59306-5.
8. "Jaam-e Jam" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2020-06-16. Retrieved 2017-09-10.
9. "کتاب خوراک‌های ایرانی". مجله تصویری فرهنگ غذا (in Persian). December 3, 2016. Retrieved November 20, 2017.
10. "When a Recipe Was a 'Receipt'". Merriam Webster. Retrieved 2024-10-05.
11. 2007 Recipe Calendar. COMDA, Canada.
12. Hicatt, Constance B; Sharon Butler (1985). English Culinary Manuscripts of the 14C.
13. Austin, Thomas (1888). Ashmole and other Manuscripts.
14. Sieben, Ria Jansen (1588). Een notable boecxtken van cokeryen.
15. The good Huswifes handmaid for Cookerie. 1588.
16. May, Robert (1685). The accomplisht Cook.
17. Judy Gerjuoy. "Medieval Cookbooks". Archived from the original on 2007-06-09. Retrieved 2007-06-15.
18. Pearce, Food For Thought: Extraordinary Little Chronicles of the World, (2004) pg 144
19. Interview Archived 2014-06-06 at the Wayback Machine.
20. Acton, Eliza (1799–1859). Gale Research Inc. January 2002. Archived from the original on 2013-05-18. Retrieved 8 January 2013. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)(subscription required)
21. General Observations on the Common Hog
22. "in season in April 1861". Archived from the original on 2013-11-19. Retrieved 2014-06-02.
23. Cunningham, Marion (1979). The Fannie Farmer Cookbook (revised). Bantam Books, New York. ISBN 978-0-553-56881-3.
24. ^ Tomlinson, Graham (September 1986). "Thought for Food: A Study of Written Instructions". Symbolic Interaction. 9 (2): 201–216. doi:10.1525/si.1986.9.2.201. ISSN 0195-6086.
25. Floyd, Janet; Forster, Laurel (2017-03-02). The Recipe Reader (0 ed.). Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781315237480. ISBN 978-1-351-88319-1.
26. ^ Cohen, Chris (2019-03-18). "What to Cook This Weekend: Coming to Terms With the Sub-Recipe". Saveur. Archived from the original on 2022-11-10. Retrieved 2022-11-10.
27. ^ "8 Highly Giftable Cookbooks by New York Chefs". Eater. 2020-11-25. Archived from the original on 2022-11-10. Retrieved 2022-11-10.
28. Gould, Emily (2016-08-30). "Why Restaurant Cookbooks Can't Have It All". Eater. Archived from the original on 2022-11-10. Retrieved 2022-11-10.
29. ^ "A Cookbook Full of Recipes Within Recipes Can Be the Greatest of Them All". Food52. 2016-06-21. Archived from the original on 2022-11-10. Retrieved 2022-11-10.
30. Benwick, Bonnie S. (2017-12-11). "Review | The best cookbooks of 2017: The inspiration you need to get dinner on the table". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on 2022-12-07. Retrieved 2022-11-10.
31. Chang, T. Susan (19 April 2015). "'Milk Bar Life', reviewed: guilty pleasures, sweet and savory alike". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 27 July 2021. Retrieved 10 November 2022.
32. Haupt, Melanie (2 November 2012). "Cookbook Review: Momofuku Milk Bar: Ain't nothing simple in Christina Tosi's cookbook". Austin Chronicle. Archived from the original on 2022-11-10. Retrieved 2022-11-10.
33. Rao, Tejal (31 March 2020). "This Broccoli-Dill Pasta Has a Hippie Twist. Your Kids Will Love It". New York Times. Archived from the original on 10 November 2022. Retrieved 10 November 2022.
34. ^ "Timeline of Television Cooking Show Personalities". Archived from the original on 2021-05-24. Retrieved 2021-05-24.
35. Sack, Victor (20 October 2016), rec.food.cooking FAQ and conversion file, sec. 6.1, archived from the original on 30 August 2018, retrieved 17 February 2018
36. Holmes, Elizabeth (2009-05-05). "Web Recipes Are Cooking With Gas". Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 2017-09-27. Retrieved 2017-08-08.
37. "One Year Later: How the Pandemic Changed Home Cooking". Allrecipes. Archived from the original on 2022-11-10. Retrieved 2022-11-10.
38. Buykx, Lucy; Petrie, Helen (December 2011). "What Cooks Needs from Multimedia and Textually Enhanced Recipes". 2011 IEEE International Symposium on Multimedia. IEEE. pp. 387–392. doi:10.1109/ism.2011.70. ISBN 978-1-4577-2015-4.
39. Coyle, L. Patrick (1985). Cooks' books: an affectionate guide to the literature of food and cooking. New York, N.Y: Facts on File. ISBN 978-0-87196-683-4.
40. Andriani, Lynn. "Cookbooks surge to top category at libraries". Archived from the original on 2015-04-02. Retrieved 2013-10-14.

• Media related to Recipes at Wikimedia Commons
• The dictionary definition of recipe at Wiktionary

• Cooking
• Cuisine
• Food and drink