Recipe
a set of instructions for preparing a processed food item
A recipe is a set of instructions that lists the ingredients and steps needed to prepare a specific dish or meal. A sub-recipe or subrecipe is a recipe for an ingredient that will be called for in the instructions for the main recipe. Recipe books (also called cookbooks or cookery books) are collections of recipes that reflect cultural identities and social changes, while also serving as educational tools. Historically, the definition of a recipe also encompassed medical remedies, as the production of food and medicine was linked in most households.
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.
The public source identifies “Recipe” as a set of instructions for preparing a processed food item. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Recipe, instructions and preparing.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Recipe”, the useful work is to connect “a set of instructions for preparing a processed food item” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q219239. The Library of Congress control number is sh85111822. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1730 and 1600.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Recipe” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.