Recipes

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. HistoryEarly examplesThe 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 Egyptianhieroglyphs 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 A