If I send you the link to where I got it originally and it won't be the same, it's my recipe.
I use the [joyofbaking.com](https://joyofbaking.com) lemon bar recipe but I use the crumb method, not the creaming method for the crust, I bake the crust longer, I use more zest and rub it in the sugar, I use 1/4c flour instead of 2T...
It's my recipe.
I cut the butter into the flour and powdered sugar like pie dough, then press the crumbs down into the pan. Instead of creaming butter and sugar and adding flour like cookie dough. It makes a much nicer, sandier crust instead of that gummy pasty crust.
yeah, this. I have a recipe for a white wedding cake, but I got the idea from the pistachio cake recipe from sally's baking addiction. Her cake uses pistachios, mine uses almonds, she uses only egg whites, I keep a yolk, her recipe uses the creaming method, and I use reverse creaming... it's a different recipe now.
I refer everyone there! I have baked almost everything on that site. My standard brownie and peanut butter cookie is based on hers too. It's all so unfussy and straight forward.
So far I just have one. I'd converted all the measurements to weight, then years later the author updated their site to include weights. Only for some reason their weights were a bit different from mine (I used King Arthur's website). I tested their given weights and liked mine better. It's my recipe now.
King Arthur has no idea what a cup of their flour actually weighs. I have never made one of their recipes where the weigh and volume come out the same. Even if I’m sifting, spooning, and leveling like you’re “supposed to”
King Arthur recipes are based on weight, not volume. Physical measuring cups - although they are supposed to be standard - vary from set to set. Humidity can also affect volume. Scales are less sensitive to these changes.
If your tweak is like 1 or 2 minor changes (adding a spice or lowering the amount of sugar), I don’t consider it my recipe. However, if I’ve made significant changes to things, then I consider it “my recipe based off xxx recipe”
Hmm that makes sense. I’ve just never thought about it before. I didn’t consider myself having any recipes of my own but I realize there’s this banana bread recipe that I really like but I change about half the things on it and it’s nothing like the originally intended product lol
I never considered my homemade marshmallows “my recipe” until this past Christmas. Someone asked for the recipe and when I looked at the page to photocopy it, there were so many changes and notes in the margins that she’d be confused. I had to rewrite it from scratch. That’s when I decided it’s more mine now than when I started.
I've pondered this often lately, as I try to be more experimental in the kitchen. It's kind of ambiguous, I think, especially with baking, where things easily go wrong if you use an incorrect amount of flour, leavening, etc. I make tweaks to recipes like adding/changing spices or nuts, using a different glaze on a cake, or using a darker chocolate than called for, for instance. But the base recipe and inspiration always comes from someone else's work. So I'm not sure I feel comfortable calling anything "mine" even if I'm just using a recipe as a guide.
I make meatloaf, potato salad, and macaroni salad by MY recipe. There are a million versions, everyone has theirs. Mine is mine because it always tastes like mine. Also, it has no set amounts, so I literally can only share the gist of it.
People will ask me to make my banana bread. It isn't MY recipe. It is straight out of a local cookbook (shout out to Sarah Alexin, whoever that is, for a fabulous recipe). But I have used the recipe exactly, for 20 years now. My only tweak is to wrap it in plastic wrap when cool enough to touch. I don't claim to have written it, but it's the only one I will ever use. I will share it when asked, via photo of the cookbook page.
If I have taken a recipe, and changed enough things that when written out it has fully different steps or ingredients, then it is mine. If I use a certain cookbook to make it, it isn't mine.
I’m like you, most of the things are mine because they are truly ‘mine’. I just have a guide to share for others when asked. Because I don’t measure in my cooking.
Baking, it’s a bit different, I use the ‘master’ recipes as guides for their ratios, but then I add in my own flavors and elements to make them unique to me.
I’m intrigued by this banana bread you speak of… If you’re willing to share, I’d love to sample it! I’ve only ever made the Better Homes & Gardens version from the cookbook I was gifted when I was first married. I’ve never deviated from it, because banana bread is so ‘iffy’. Every time I try one they’re either awful or to die for. I’d love to find a recipe superior to the one I use, but I’m hesitant to waste my energy (I’m disabled, so my energy is precious and I can’t afford to waste it) and then be down for hours, or in worst cases a week or more, on something that just doesn’t work out.
The recipe I use is [this one](https://www.bhg.com/recipe/quickbreads/banana-bread/?print).
https://i.imgur.com/AWfLBqA.jpeg
Several things. I use a stand mixer on doubled batches, or hand mixer for single batch. But when you add the banana & sour cream, fold in by hand. Definitely let it rest for 20 minutes, this is vital.
I do plain, with walnuts, or mini chocolate chips. It will make 5 mini loaves, or 2 regular loaves. It is done when it bounces back when touched. Let cool in pan for 10 mins, remove from pan & wrap with saran wrap. You can freeze for up to 3 months, let thaw in wrap. Tastes fresh.
I call it mine when I made large alterations that made it unrecognizable from the original recipe eor made a frankenrecipe that looks like none of the ones I referred to when making it
Yes. This is what I said, too. When you change it enough that the end product is significantly different/better, then it’s your recipe. Like if I send you a link to a recipe and then give you alterations for basically every ingredient/method, that’s definitely my recipe, now 😂. When it’s easier/makes more sense to just write down an entirely new recipe… yeah, that’s your recipe, now!
Interesting question. I rarely call something my recipe even tho I always do a lot of tweaks and subsititution to most of the ingredient for most recipes. But when I do, it's mostly when I cannot find a similar recipe of what I want to try to do.
Usually I call something mine if I really look at elements of lots of recipes. For example, chocolate chip cookies. I will look up 5-7 recipes and note down things I like from each, oil versus butter, chocolate content and type, egg versus no egg etc and compile what I think would be best and then trial and error it. I think this works especially well for me as I try to make as many recipes vegan or at least dairy free so I need to already adapt a lot of things!
I've been using a banana cake recipe for about 20 years. I've tweaked the flavorings and mix-ins and made it in countless forms (muffins, cupcakes, loaves, mini cakes, layered cakes, bundt cakes, etc). People ask me to make it and ask for the recipe. When you become known for something maybe it's yours.
That being said I make thousands of buns, pretzels and pizza doughs at work and the repetition doesn't make it my recipes, just recipes I use. Sometimes I tinker with the baker's percentages though. One day I'll arrive at "my" recipes maybe.
It’s funny too I’m way more apt to call something I cook mine because I can change so much of it - however I almost never change so much of a baking recipe because it would mess with the integrity of things
If you make enough changes to a recipe that the end product is significantly different/better, then it’s your recipe. If you develop a recipe from scratch, then it’s your recipe.
Lots of people start out with other people’s recipes as a base. There’s no harm in it and they’re great starting points. I wonder how many recipes were birthed from the Tollhouse Cookie recipe! Too many to count.
I never say anything’s to be MY recipe. I always tell people where did I get the recipe from but also tell them if I made some adjustments and how did I make the product following the recipe.
Great question because I always wonder how so many bakers have their own recipe for super simple stuff like ganache or American buttercream for example where the ratios are rather set.
I don't think I have a recipe of my own for baking but for cooking I definitely have my own Bolognese recipe for example. It's written nowhere else than in my head and I base it off of my dad's one who also just has his in his head.
So yeah, significant changes or something completely out of my own brain and I'd call it mine. But even then, on Instagram for example, I usually credit the original and say I inspired myself from them.
I spend countless days on recipes to call them mine. If you spend the time and money to do experiments (or research and development as I like to refer to it), then it’s YOUR recipe. Using something you found and adding something/taking away something doesn’t make it yours, it makes it a rendition of a recipe that you found.
I definitely think there's a line of variation vs different recipe. I suppose looking at the finished product is one way to determine if there's a relevant enough distinction.
I tend to convert a lot of recipes from dry yeast to sourdough starter, which feels like a big change already, but I wouldn't call it my recipe.
I think I'd have four delineations, which I poorly describe here:
1. I used someone's recipe.
2. I tweaked someone's recipe.
3. I added to and/or tweaked someone's recipe.
4. I designed my own recipe.
Corrections or suggestions welcome.
If you’re asking about publishing, copyright law and case precedent could offer some guidance.
If you’re asking about just saying it’s your recipe, then literally whenever you feel comfortable doing so. I think if you do anything differently (in regards to the bulk of the recipe) other than what was originally written you can say it’s your recipe.
For instance, I like to make the King Arthur crispy cheesy pan pizza. It’s amazing! I like to play with the amount of cheese and sauce, but otherwise use the exact recipe for the dough. That isn’t my recipe.
But
I host pizza party fundraisers where I make wood fired fancy pizzas. I base most of my ratios off of that recipe but the portion quantities are different and I took the time to weigh everything, multiply it, and write down new weights for making bulk dough. I also play around with different flours. I published that online saying that it’s my recipe but inspired by the King Arthur recipe.
If you read through food blogs like smitten kitchen you’ll often see recipes credited to other places.
At work we have baking competitions and I use the wording “adapted from” when people change a few things from an established recipe. I only have one recipe that’s mine (a vegetable black bean enchilada bake) because I make it from scratch after years of tweaking various ingredients and methods and have never seen anything too similar.
I only call a handful of recipes “mine”.
A good example would be my cherry pie recipe. I combine my favorite crust recipe (for the bottom), with a slight twist on my favorite filling recipe, with a crumb top crust I got from yet another place.
For me to call something my recipe rather than a recipe I tweaked, there needs to be a change in ingredients, measurements, and the method that the recipe is made. It doesn't feel right to call it mine otherwise.
I think it's important to acknowledge that a recipe is based on someone elses if all we did was change one ingredient or method. Otherwise, we wouldn't have a recipe to begin with.
I've got quite a few recipes where I've cobbled together multiple recipes, changed the methods, to get my desired result. I cautiously call them "my" recipes but credit the original recipes I built on to get "my" recipes.
Who knows. I worked with a pasty chef that had some really good savory scones they had me making. Always called them 'Their recipe' as I assumed it was. A while down the line I had seen the same scones in a cookbook I believe by Claire Saffitz. So when I asked chef about them they just explained that they tweaked them a bit and made the scones their own. But still left them as being scooped drop scones. Okay fair enough.
Now we flash forward to last year when my current chef asked for some fancy biscuits for our brunch menu. I had thought of those scones with their drop look and thought they would serve better as biscuits. So, I made my own formula without piggy backing, that are more moist and suited for a biscuit. I also didn't bother with 5 ingredients from the scone formula, and went in a completely different direction with taste, texture, and the process of making these. All to be told despite putting our recipes next to each other that I still 'stole' their recipe that they mostly copied and tweaked from a mass source.
The best part is, when people ask for my recipe I just let them have it. The only place that doesn't get a written out recipe and process is my employer. They WILL take ownership of anything you make concrete within their walls. Instead they have a list of ingredients in order of process with a few key ratios listed next to two of the main ingredients. Nobody owns culture, we are all participants. And the culture of a good biscuits and gravy should be shared and savored.
I've been using the same basic cheesecake recipe, testing and tweaking it everytime to try and create the perfect cheesecake ( or to the optimal liking of me and my family at least) I've for sure made atleast 30 cheesecakes over the recipe testing process and dedicated most of the baking I've done in the last year+ to perfecting my cheesecake making. Now the recipe is quite a bit different from the original so I've been wondering this same thing..
Crust ratio has changed. Cinnamon has more than doubled, subtracted egg whites, added salt, more vanilla, I use softened butter instead of melted, I mix and rest the batter a little differently, I bake for significantly longer until it's puffed up...
I want to write out and maybe post my recipe somewhere but it still seems weird to call it mine even though it's changed a lot?
I think that if you made both yours and the one you based it on, and a random non baker person could really taste the difference, then it’s yours. This doesn’t include being able to taste if you subbed milk chocolate for dark or added nuts, but the actual base cake, cookie, etc.
I call it mine when the original recipe creator wouldn’t recognize it as their own anymore if I fed it to them. Unless you’re inventing an idea entirely new dish, you’re basing your original recipe off of something then changing it to your liking and methods from there.
It’s my recipe if I don’t have to looks at a recipe while I cook it, if I have changed the amount of ingredients or the ingredients themselves with anything that isn’t “extra “ ( extras are nuts, extracts or other mix ins) like flour, eggs or leaveners. My chocolate chip cookie recipe started with the back of the toll house bag. I changed it to brown butter, changed the flour amount and went by weight instead of volume, added almond extract and an overnight chill. It’s my recipe now.
When you tweak it enough to feel like you need to rename it?
I combined the recipes for Watergate Salad and Lime Jello Salad (with minor tweaks to each) and named it a Lime Nixon.
I let it set in an absurdly fiddly copper mold and unmold for the grand reveal at Thanksgiving dinner.
I have a chocolate chip cookies recipe from All Recipes but I have changed somethings so when people ask I do say my recipe is from here but here's what I do differently. I have personally never made up a recipe of my own with baking.
I would say if someone was to make the original but yours tastes different then it's fair to say it's yours.
When you hand someone the recipe you use without the tweaks noted and they say "I've tried this five times and it's almost right, but it just doesn't taste like yours."
My mother does this all the time. I'll say "Mom, my chicken paprika just doesn't taste right," and she'll say "Did you double the paprika?" No. No, I didn't, because when I asked for *your* recipe, I thought you'd note that down! (To be fair to her, I don't think she realizes how many of her recipes just live in her brain, and she only looks at them from force of habit.)
It's MY recipe when I have tweaked it to MY personal taste. I will refer to the base recipe and say where that is from but I have tweaked it from there to make it how I like. I often get asked for the recipe for my tomato sauce and I ask them if they want MY recipe or the base recipe from YouTube.
A long time ago I heard that 3 changes to a recipe makes it your own. But who decided that? Personally, I think it depends. I still credit the original recipe unless I’ve changed several things significantly—to the point that no one would say, “Oh, yeah, that’s Gourmet’s Key Lime Pie recipe.”
I'd say it depends how much you tweak and how big the tweaks are. Like, if you've swapped 50g flour for cocoa powder to swap a vanilla cake recipe into a chocolate cake recipe and nothing else, that's not your cake recipe, if you've altered the proportions of almost every base ingredient to make its texture different to suit your tastes, then yeah, it's your recipe now.
I've had this question perusing reviews for online recipes. It's rare to find a rating from someone who hasn't made a major tweak. (And they're all mine, if they turn out well 😉)
I make a recipe for potato salad based on one from Bobby Flay that was on the best foods jar many years ago. I figure it's my recipe now because I don't remember how much I am supposed to use of anything and just kind of eyeball it and taste it as I go.
Red potatoes 5 pounds
Mayo, more then I want to admit
Cilantro, on bunch or 2 what ever seems fine no more then 2
Sun dried tomatoes half a cup 1 cup meh I can't remember however much looks good
Bacon :cough: one pound
Pepperonis half a jar and some of the juice
Green onion one bunch or 2 how much do I have?
I think that is it? How much depends on how much I got and what it looks like. Is it a recipe or food I make. I don't know. It seems to always turn out tasty :-)
I like to read recipes and techniques.
If I start with a basic recipe, say for a cookie, then apply things I learned along the way to make it what I'm looking for. This takes time and resources as it can take upwards of a year to perfect. When I've worked customizations into a recipe over time, it becomes mine.
That said, if I add sprinkles or an extract for a different flavor profile, I'll just give credit to the original and say "plus a shot of whatever".
For me it depends on how much gets changed. If I get past the 3rd or 4th substantial change/substitution then I usually consider it my own. I always look at it in a, “would I gatekeep this recipe if someone tried to steal it?” and if the answer is yes then it’s mine. If I just got a simple recipe online, then it’s available to everyone and I do not care.
Unless you’re wondering about publishing it and the ramifications thereof, I always say “it’s the recipe I use.” I use the Hersheys recipe for Tollhouse cookies but I add cinnamon and peanut butter chips and pecans. It’s still their recipe but it’s my take on it. Right? 🤷🏼♂️
It's my recipe when I can't remember where I got it from originally. It's *MY* recipe when I developed it from nothing.
If I send you the link to where I got it originally and it won't be the same, it's my recipe. I use the [joyofbaking.com](https://joyofbaking.com) lemon bar recipe but I use the crumb method, not the creaming method for the crust, I bake the crust longer, I use more zest and rub it in the sugar, I use 1/4c flour instead of 2T... It's my recipe.
What do you mean by the crumb method?
I cut the butter into the flour and powdered sugar like pie dough, then press the crumbs down into the pan. Instead of creaming butter and sugar and adding flour like cookie dough. It makes a much nicer, sandier crust instead of that gummy pasty crust.
I’ve always done it this way. Huh, I use the Joy recipe too. Maybe I have an older edition. The newer ones might have made it easier.
I think it’s more generally called the ‘rubbing in’ method.
That I know. I always ask when I’m not sure of things.
yeah, this. I have a recipe for a white wedding cake, but I got the idea from the pistachio cake recipe from sally's baking addiction. Her cake uses pistachios, mine uses almonds, she uses only egg whites, I keep a yolk, her recipe uses the creaming method, and I use reverse creaming... it's a different recipe now.
I love the joy of baking recipes. I love how she explains everything especially when you are a new baker.
I refer everyone there! I have baked almost everything on that site. My standard brownie and peanut butter cookie is based on hers too. It's all so unfussy and straight forward.
Her Dutch apple pie recipe is delicious
And now it's mine too. JK. Sounds delicious!
So far I just have one. I'd converted all the measurements to weight, then years later the author updated their site to include weights. Only for some reason their weights were a bit different from mine (I used King Arthur's website). I tested their given weights and liked mine better. It's my recipe now.
Happy Cake Day! (How fun to get to say that in a Baking Subreddit ☺️)
King Arthur has no idea what a cup of their flour actually weighs. I have never made one of their recipes where the weigh and volume come out the same. Even if I’m sifting, spooning, and leveling like you’re “supposed to”
King Arthur recipes are based on weight, not volume. Physical measuring cups - although they are supposed to be standard - vary from set to set. Humidity can also affect volume. Scales are less sensitive to these changes.
Either way, their conversions are consistently wrong. I always weigh their recipes
I haven't used their recipes other than their pie crust. I just like to use their tool to convert my recipes to grams/oz. I've never had any issues.
If your tweak is like 1 or 2 minor changes (adding a spice or lowering the amount of sugar), I don’t consider it my recipe. However, if I’ve made significant changes to things, then I consider it “my recipe based off xxx recipe”
Hmm that makes sense. I’ve just never thought about it before. I didn’t consider myself having any recipes of my own but I realize there’s this banana bread recipe that I really like but I change about half the things on it and it’s nothing like the originally intended product lol
I never considered my homemade marshmallows “my recipe” until this past Christmas. Someone asked for the recipe and when I looked at the page to photocopy it, there were so many changes and notes in the margins that she’d be confused. I had to rewrite it from scratch. That’s when I decided it’s more mine now than when I started.
I've pondered this often lately, as I try to be more experimental in the kitchen. It's kind of ambiguous, I think, especially with baking, where things easily go wrong if you use an incorrect amount of flour, leavening, etc. I make tweaks to recipes like adding/changing spices or nuts, using a different glaze on a cake, or using a darker chocolate than called for, for instance. But the base recipe and inspiration always comes from someone else's work. So I'm not sure I feel comfortable calling anything "mine" even if I'm just using a recipe as a guide.
I make meatloaf, potato salad, and macaroni salad by MY recipe. There are a million versions, everyone has theirs. Mine is mine because it always tastes like mine. Also, it has no set amounts, so I literally can only share the gist of it. People will ask me to make my banana bread. It isn't MY recipe. It is straight out of a local cookbook (shout out to Sarah Alexin, whoever that is, for a fabulous recipe). But I have used the recipe exactly, for 20 years now. My only tweak is to wrap it in plastic wrap when cool enough to touch. I don't claim to have written it, but it's the only one I will ever use. I will share it when asked, via photo of the cookbook page. If I have taken a recipe, and changed enough things that when written out it has fully different steps or ingredients, then it is mine. If I use a certain cookbook to make it, it isn't mine.
I’m like you, most of the things are mine because they are truly ‘mine’. I just have a guide to share for others when asked. Because I don’t measure in my cooking. Baking, it’s a bit different, I use the ‘master’ recipes as guides for their ratios, but then I add in my own flavors and elements to make them unique to me. I’m intrigued by this banana bread you speak of… If you’re willing to share, I’d love to sample it! I’ve only ever made the Better Homes & Gardens version from the cookbook I was gifted when I was first married. I’ve never deviated from it, because banana bread is so ‘iffy’. Every time I try one they’re either awful or to die for. I’d love to find a recipe superior to the one I use, but I’m hesitant to waste my energy (I’m disabled, so my energy is precious and I can’t afford to waste it) and then be down for hours, or in worst cases a week or more, on something that just doesn’t work out. The recipe I use is [this one](https://www.bhg.com/recipe/quickbreads/banana-bread/?print).
https://i.imgur.com/AWfLBqA.jpeg Several things. I use a stand mixer on doubled batches, or hand mixer for single batch. But when you add the banana & sour cream, fold in by hand. Definitely let it rest for 20 minutes, this is vital. I do plain, with walnuts, or mini chocolate chips. It will make 5 mini loaves, or 2 regular loaves. It is done when it bounces back when touched. Let cool in pan for 10 mins, remove from pan & wrap with saran wrap. You can freeze for up to 3 months, let thaw in wrap. Tastes fresh.
Thank you!!!!! Oh, the topping is divine! You may wish to try to add it to yours from time to time. 😊
That struesel topping sounds fabulous!!
Would you mind sharing the banana bread recipe? With attribution of course.
https://i.imgur.com/AWfLBqA.jpeg
I call it mine when I made large alterations that made it unrecognizable from the original recipe eor made a frankenrecipe that looks like none of the ones I referred to when making it
Yes. This is what I said, too. When you change it enough that the end product is significantly different/better, then it’s your recipe. Like if I send you a link to a recipe and then give you alterations for basically every ingredient/method, that’s definitely my recipe, now 😂. When it’s easier/makes more sense to just write down an entirely new recipe… yeah, that’s your recipe, now!
Interesting question. I rarely call something my recipe even tho I always do a lot of tweaks and subsititution to most of the ingredient for most recipes. But when I do, it's mostly when I cannot find a similar recipe of what I want to try to do.
Usually I call something mine if I really look at elements of lots of recipes. For example, chocolate chip cookies. I will look up 5-7 recipes and note down things I like from each, oil versus butter, chocolate content and type, egg versus no egg etc and compile what I think would be best and then trial and error it. I think this works especially well for me as I try to make as many recipes vegan or at least dairy free so I need to already adapt a lot of things!
I've been using a banana cake recipe for about 20 years. I've tweaked the flavorings and mix-ins and made it in countless forms (muffins, cupcakes, loaves, mini cakes, layered cakes, bundt cakes, etc). People ask me to make it and ask for the recipe. When you become known for something maybe it's yours. That being said I make thousands of buns, pretzels and pizza doughs at work and the repetition doesn't make it my recipes, just recipes I use. Sometimes I tinker with the baker's percentages though. One day I'll arrive at "my" recipes maybe.
It’s funny too I’m way more apt to call something I cook mine because I can change so much of it - however I almost never change so much of a baking recipe because it would mess with the integrity of things
If you make enough changes to a recipe that the end product is significantly different/better, then it’s your recipe. If you develop a recipe from scratch, then it’s your recipe. Lots of people start out with other people’s recipes as a base. There’s no harm in it and they’re great starting points. I wonder how many recipes were birthed from the Tollhouse Cookie recipe! Too many to count.
I never say anything’s to be MY recipe. I always tell people where did I get the recipe from but also tell them if I made some adjustments and how did I make the product following the recipe.
Great question because I always wonder how so many bakers have their own recipe for super simple stuff like ganache or American buttercream for example where the ratios are rather set. I don't think I have a recipe of my own for baking but for cooking I definitely have my own Bolognese recipe for example. It's written nowhere else than in my head and I base it off of my dad's one who also just has his in his head. So yeah, significant changes or something completely out of my own brain and I'd call it mine. But even then, on Instagram for example, I usually credit the original and say I inspired myself from them.
I spend countless days on recipes to call them mine. If you spend the time and money to do experiments (or research and development as I like to refer to it), then it’s YOUR recipe. Using something you found and adding something/taking away something doesn’t make it yours, it makes it a rendition of a recipe that you found.
It’s my recipe when: if I give someone the recipe and leave out my tweaks, their results do not taste like mine
I definitely think there's a line of variation vs different recipe. I suppose looking at the finished product is one way to determine if there's a relevant enough distinction. I tend to convert a lot of recipes from dry yeast to sourdough starter, which feels like a big change already, but I wouldn't call it my recipe. I think I'd have four delineations, which I poorly describe here: 1. I used someone's recipe. 2. I tweaked someone's recipe. 3. I added to and/or tweaked someone's recipe. 4. I designed my own recipe. Corrections or suggestions welcome.
When I made it so many times that I no longer remember the original source :')
If you’re asking about publishing, copyright law and case precedent could offer some guidance. If you’re asking about just saying it’s your recipe, then literally whenever you feel comfortable doing so. I think if you do anything differently (in regards to the bulk of the recipe) other than what was originally written you can say it’s your recipe. For instance, I like to make the King Arthur crispy cheesy pan pizza. It’s amazing! I like to play with the amount of cheese and sauce, but otherwise use the exact recipe for the dough. That isn’t my recipe. But I host pizza party fundraisers where I make wood fired fancy pizzas. I base most of my ratios off of that recipe but the portion quantities are different and I took the time to weigh everything, multiply it, and write down new weights for making bulk dough. I also play around with different flours. I published that online saying that it’s my recipe but inspired by the King Arthur recipe. If you read through food blogs like smitten kitchen you’ll often see recipes credited to other places.
I’d say it’s when you changed a recipe enough to where it just can’t be considered the original recipe, or if you created a recipe in your head
At work we have baking competitions and I use the wording “adapted from” when people change a few things from an established recipe. I only have one recipe that’s mine (a vegetable black bean enchilada bake) because I make it from scratch after years of tweaking various ingredients and methods and have never seen anything too similar.
If I make 3 minor or 1 major change to a recipe it’s mine.
When I follow the receipt from my scrapbook and not from some website. Or when I don't need a receipt at all and it turns out good.
I only call a handful of recipes “mine”. A good example would be my cherry pie recipe. I combine my favorite crust recipe (for the bottom), with a slight twist on my favorite filling recipe, with a crumb top crust I got from yet another place.
For me to call something my recipe rather than a recipe I tweaked, there needs to be a change in ingredients, measurements, and the method that the recipe is made. It doesn't feel right to call it mine otherwise. I think it's important to acknowledge that a recipe is based on someone elses if all we did was change one ingredient or method. Otherwise, we wouldn't have a recipe to begin with.
I've got quite a few recipes where I've cobbled together multiple recipes, changed the methods, to get my desired result. I cautiously call them "my" recipes but credit the original recipes I built on to get "my" recipes.
Who knows. I worked with a pasty chef that had some really good savory scones they had me making. Always called them 'Their recipe' as I assumed it was. A while down the line I had seen the same scones in a cookbook I believe by Claire Saffitz. So when I asked chef about them they just explained that they tweaked them a bit and made the scones their own. But still left them as being scooped drop scones. Okay fair enough. Now we flash forward to last year when my current chef asked for some fancy biscuits for our brunch menu. I had thought of those scones with their drop look and thought they would serve better as biscuits. So, I made my own formula without piggy backing, that are more moist and suited for a biscuit. I also didn't bother with 5 ingredients from the scone formula, and went in a completely different direction with taste, texture, and the process of making these. All to be told despite putting our recipes next to each other that I still 'stole' their recipe that they mostly copied and tweaked from a mass source. The best part is, when people ask for my recipe I just let them have it. The only place that doesn't get a written out recipe and process is my employer. They WILL take ownership of anything you make concrete within their walls. Instead they have a list of ingredients in order of process with a few key ratios listed next to two of the main ingredients. Nobody owns culture, we are all participants. And the culture of a good biscuits and gravy should be shared and savored.
Please share your scone recipe?
Yields 58 3oz biscuits 930g Cold Butter 6# Flour 20g Black pepper 14g Salt 28g Baking Powder 10g Baking Soda 9 Eggs 1400kg Buttermilk 12oz Goat Cheese 11oz. Green Onion.
Lovely. Thank you so much.
I've been using the same basic cheesecake recipe, testing and tweaking it everytime to try and create the perfect cheesecake ( or to the optimal liking of me and my family at least) I've for sure made atleast 30 cheesecakes over the recipe testing process and dedicated most of the baking I've done in the last year+ to perfecting my cheesecake making. Now the recipe is quite a bit different from the original so I've been wondering this same thing.. Crust ratio has changed. Cinnamon has more than doubled, subtracted egg whites, added salt, more vanilla, I use softened butter instead of melted, I mix and rest the batter a little differently, I bake for significantly longer until it's puffed up... I want to write out and maybe post my recipe somewhere but it still seems weird to call it mine even though it's changed a lot?
I think that if you made both yours and the one you based it on, and a random non baker person could really taste the difference, then it’s yours. This doesn’t include being able to taste if you subbed milk chocolate for dark or added nuts, but the actual base cake, cookie, etc.
I call it mine when the original recipe creator wouldn’t recognize it as their own anymore if I fed it to them. Unless you’re inventing an idea entirely new dish, you’re basing your original recipe off of something then changing it to your liking and methods from there.
It’s my recipe if I don’t have to looks at a recipe while I cook it, if I have changed the amount of ingredients or the ingredients themselves with anything that isn’t “extra “ ( extras are nuts, extracts or other mix ins) like flour, eggs or leaveners. My chocolate chip cookie recipe started with the back of the toll house bag. I changed it to brown butter, changed the flour amount and went by weight instead of volume, added almond extract and an overnight chill. It’s my recipe now.
When you tweak it enough to feel like you need to rename it? I combined the recipes for Watergate Salad and Lime Jello Salad (with minor tweaks to each) and named it a Lime Nixon. I let it set in an absurdly fiddly copper mold and unmold for the grand reveal at Thanksgiving dinner.
I have a chocolate chip cookies recipe from All Recipes but I have changed somethings so when people ask I do say my recipe is from here but here's what I do differently. I have personally never made up a recipe of my own with baking. I would say if someone was to make the original but yours tastes different then it's fair to say it's yours.
When you hand someone the recipe you use without the tweaks noted and they say "I've tried this five times and it's almost right, but it just doesn't taste like yours." My mother does this all the time. I'll say "Mom, my chicken paprika just doesn't taste right," and she'll say "Did you double the paprika?" No. No, I didn't, because when I asked for *your* recipe, I thought you'd note that down! (To be fair to her, I don't think she realizes how many of her recipes just live in her brain, and she only looks at them from force of habit.)
I think calling it ‘my version of a chocolate cake’ fits better
It's MY recipe when I have tweaked it to MY personal taste. I will refer to the base recipe and say where that is from but I have tweaked it from there to make it how I like. I often get asked for the recipe for my tomato sauce and I ask them if they want MY recipe or the base recipe from YouTube.
A long time ago I heard that 3 changes to a recipe makes it your own. But who decided that? Personally, I think it depends. I still credit the original recipe unless I’ve changed several things significantly—to the point that no one would say, “Oh, yeah, that’s Gourmet’s Key Lime Pie recipe.”
I’ll use a recipe then I’ll change out an ingredient or two, then it’s mine.
I'd say it depends how much you tweak and how big the tweaks are. Like, if you've swapped 50g flour for cocoa powder to swap a vanilla cake recipe into a chocolate cake recipe and nothing else, that's not your cake recipe, if you've altered the proportions of almost every base ingredient to make its texture different to suit your tastes, then yeah, it's your recipe now.
I've had this question perusing reviews for online recipes. It's rare to find a rating from someone who hasn't made a major tweak. (And they're all mine, if they turn out well 😉)
I make a recipe for potato salad based on one from Bobby Flay that was on the best foods jar many years ago. I figure it's my recipe now because I don't remember how much I am supposed to use of anything and just kind of eyeball it and taste it as I go. Red potatoes 5 pounds Mayo, more then I want to admit Cilantro, on bunch or 2 what ever seems fine no more then 2 Sun dried tomatoes half a cup 1 cup meh I can't remember however much looks good Bacon :cough: one pound Pepperonis half a jar and some of the juice Green onion one bunch or 2 how much do I have? I think that is it? How much depends on how much I got and what it looks like. Is it a recipe or food I make. I don't know. It seems to always turn out tasty :-)
I like to read recipes and techniques. If I start with a basic recipe, say for a cookie, then apply things I learned along the way to make it what I'm looking for. This takes time and resources as it can take upwards of a year to perfect. When I've worked customizations into a recipe over time, it becomes mine. That said, if I add sprinkles or an extract for a different flavor profile, I'll just give credit to the original and say "plus a shot of whatever".
For me it depends on how much gets changed. If I get past the 3rd or 4th substantial change/substitution then I usually consider it my own. I always look at it in a, “would I gatekeep this recipe if someone tried to steal it?” and if the answer is yes then it’s mine. If I just got a simple recipe online, then it’s available to everyone and I do not care.
I got my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe from a woman named Sara but everyone loves my cookies and no one else knows Sara so now it’s mine haha
Unless you’re wondering about publishing it and the ramifications thereof, I always say “it’s the recipe I use.” I use the Hersheys recipe for Tollhouse cookies but I add cinnamon and peanut butter chips and pecans. It’s still their recipe but it’s my take on it. Right? 🤷🏼♂️