How do you feel when people change your recipe around?

[larry_stewart]

Kinda expanding off the thread of " Who follows recipes exactly", I was just curious how you people feel when someone asks you for your recipe, you give it to them, then they 'make changes and ( in their eyes) improvements'?

On the outside, and in general, I personally don't care. Im sure, on the inside, a little bit of me asks the question ' why did you mess around with my recipe? " .

But I guess the only thing that does annoy me, is when someone asks for your recipe, makes it ( with all their changes) for the next family gathering, and then announces how they made ' your' recipe. or even worse, makes it exactly then claims it as their own (both have happened to me in the past).

If its someone who I know, knows how to cook, I mind less or not at all, when compared to the person who doesn't know what they're doing, doesn't have functional taste buds, and kinda half-asses the recipe.

 

[Bigjim68]

Kinda expanding off the thread of " Who follows recipes exactly", I was just curious how you people feel when someone asks you for your recipe, you give it to them, then they 'make changes and ( in their eyes) improvements'?

On the outside, and in general, I personally don't care. Im sure, on the inside, a little bit of me asks the question ' why did you mess around with my recipe? " .

But I guess the only thing that does annoy me, is when someone asks for your recipe, makes it ( with all their changes) for the next family gathering, and then announces how they made ' your' recipe. or even worse, makes it exactly then claims it as their own (both have happened to me in the past).

If its someone who I know, knows how to cook, I mind less or not at all, when compared to the person who doesn't know what they're doing, doesn't have functional taste buds, and kinda half-asses the recipe.

Considering that I probably got my recipe from someone and then altered it to suit what I had on hand or to my taste. or got it out of a recipe from somewhere and again altered it, I would think nothing of it. I may even use their recipe on my next try.

Why would it matter?

 

[Steve Kroll]

Doesn't bother me one bit. I'm flattered if someone wants a recipe. I figure it's theirs to play with at that point. Plus I've had people take one of my recipes and sometimes improve it. Win-win.

Now I suppose if someone made one of my recipes, changed it around, announced to everyone that it was my recipe, and it tasted BAD... well, that might irk me a bit on the inside. But I would probably still smile and keep it to myself.

 

[dragnlaw]

Yup, I agree with Steve...

but depending on the company, if for the worse, I would definitely announce "It's mine but certainly with some interesting changes made".

 

[CraigC]

When I post a recipe, I usually tell folks to adapt it to make it their own.

 

[letscook]

I don't mind as to each their own taste, but like already said if change to your taste, say that its your version of someone's recipe. I always give a person the credit to the person recipe I make. I had a friend that wanted a recipe and gave it to her and at a gathering she made it and while I sat right next to her she said it was an old family recipe. I not the type to hold a grudge or get mad, just take the person as they are.

 

[Andy M.]

I'm always happy to share my recipes. It is a bit flattering after all.

I seldom have the opportunity to sample the shared recipe with or without changes. If someone came back to me and complained about a recipe at the same time telling me that made changes. I'd let them know my feelings.

If you're going to make changes to my recipe, don't give me credit. Call it your own.

 

[Sir_Loin_of_Beef]

...or even worse, makes it exactly then claims it as their own (both have happened to me in the past).

Back in the days of the Food Network forums, I had Tyler Florence steal one of the recipes I posted on the forums and claim it as his own. Then to top it all off, he moved to my old stomping grounds, San Francisco's Chinatown! I have hated him ever since, and if I am searching for a recipe and one of his pops up, I don't even look at it. Yes, I am a petty, vindictive S.O.B.

 

[The Late Night Gourmet]

When it comes to people tinkering with a recipe, I publicly say that I don't have any problem with it, and I really do mean it. But, deep down, I think to myself, "Why are you leaving out the balsamic vinegar? That's the best part!!"


@Sir_Loin_of_Beef: I can only imagine the burning rage this instilled in you. It would be bad enough if it were a fellow home cook, but it's a thousand times worse to know it was a celebrity chef who's already established.

 

[Sir_Loin_of_Beef]

@Sir_Loin_of_Beef: I can only imagine the burning rage this instilled in you. It would be bad enough if it were a fellow home cook, but it's a thousand times worse to know it was a celebrity chef who's already established.

The strange thing is, it was over 14 years ago and I can't even remember what the recipe was, but I am still pissed off about it and I still carry a grudge!

 

[Whiskadoodle]

If someone were to bring a dish from a recipe I shared with them, it may be a form of flattery. After all they did request the recipe from you. Unless they improved it so much it was entirely different maybe even better. It depends on the perspective. Once I give someone a recipe it is up to them what they do with it. I likely got it from somewhere else to begin with. Now-adays, I am more cognizant about acknowledging the source when I copy down a recipe, so I would include that too if I share a recipe.

I'm sure I "invented" adding a pinch of cardamom with the cinnamon in apple pie. Well, in real life you know I did not. I use all-spice in Swedish meatballs instead of nutmeg and still call them Swedish. Yummers. People aren't too sure about them if you say they are Norwegian meatballs. I guess that's tinkering with someone else's recipes.

 

[Addie]

Kinda expanding off the thread of " Who follows recipes exactly", I was just curious how you people feel when someone asks you for your recipe, you give it to them, then they 'make changes and ( in their eyes) improvements'?

On the outside, and in general, I personally don't care. Im sure, on the inside, a little bit of me asks the question ' why did you mess around with my recipe? " .

But I guess the only thing that does annoy me, is when someone asks for your recipe, makes it ( with all their changes) for the next family gathering, and then announces how they made ' your' recipe. or even worse, makes it exactly then claims it as their own (both have happened to me in the past).

If its someone who I know, knows how to cook, I mind less or not at all, when compared to the person who doesn't know what they're doing, doesn't have functional taste buds, and kinda half-asses the recipe.

Larry, my daughter was working for the RMV. My granddaughter's aunt-in-law also worked in the same department. One Thanksgiving I made a very large helping of Pumpkin Cookies, made with fresh pumpkin that I cooked myself. They went to my GD's MIL house for a pre-Thanksgiving party. The aunt asked for the recipe. I happily gave it to her. So the next Monday she had made a bunch of the from the recipe I gave her and brought them to work. When one of her co-workers asked for the recipe, she told them it was an old family recipe and couldn't be given out to anyone not in the family.

My daughter heard her. She called me and told me what happened. I faxed the recipe to my daughter, she copied about 100 copies and passed them out to every one in her department. The only thing she did extra was to put my name on the top with the title of "My Mother's Recipe for Pumpkin Cookies". At the bottom she also added the note of 'these are the cookies you had last week.' My mother believes in sharing food that makes others happy.

Needless to say, the aunt was quite put out and never spoke to my daughter or me again to the day she died.

The sad part is that it was not a very special recipe. I got it from somewhere and just changed a few amounts of some on the ingredients. I also made them from fresh pumpkin. But there was a note stating you could use canned pumpkin if you so chose to. I even included how to roast the pumpkin.

 

[CWS4322]

I consider recipes inspiration. Rarely do I follow a recipe, except when baking. I have no issue with that.

 

[Cheryl J]

I don't really care - as mentioned, once it leaves my hands it's up to others to tweak it how they want.

 

[Dawgluver]

No biggie to me either. I have streams of consciousness, not recipes. But don't ask me to replicate anything.

 

[caseydog]

If the mess up my recipe, all I ask is that they don't tell anyone it was my recipe.If they improve it, by all means, give me the credit.

CD

 

[Aunt Bea]

No problem!

Many times the tweaks and changes are better than my original recipe.

What does bother me is when someone gives me a recipe for something that I've enjoyed and they leave out the little tweaks and changes that made it special.

 

[medtran49]

Back in the days of the Food Network forums, I had Tyler Florence steal one of the recipes I posted on the forums and claim it as his own. Then to top it all off, he moved to my old stomping grounds, San Francisco's Chinatown! I have hated him ever since, and if I am searching for a recipe and one of his pops up, I don't even look at it. Yes, I am a petty, vindictive S.O.B.

We may have had something like that happen on here. The first year that we planted collard greens, we planted too many and had a huge over-abundance. It's really hard to give away collard greens. Anyway, had to come up with ways to use them. So I had an idea to use them like cabbage and make rolls with dirty rice and creole sauce. In a period of less than 2 months, Sunny of the FN came up with the exact same idea. Now it's possible I'll admit, but the timing was quite coincidental.

 

[powerplantop]

As someone who publicly post recipes I encourage people to change the recipe to suit who they are cooking for. Sometimes I even make suggestions for subs.

I spend a lot of time researching and developing recipes. I may look at 20 different recipes to find methods in coming up with "my" recipe. So knowing that someone changed "my" recipe is no big deal.

Food is constantly evolving. What we think of as real Mexican food (or almost any other food) is not what they were eating before outside influences.

 

[RPCookin]

I honestly couldn't care less if someone wants to lay a claim to a recipe they got from me. Most of the time it's not mine anyway - even if I've made modifications to the original I wouldn't claim it as my own.

I have invented a few from scratch, but they still probably aren't all that original. They are built on things I learned from the recipes of others, and if I've learned enough to create a dish that is worthy of plagiarism, I'd take it as a complement. I'm not making any money from it so the idea of "theft" is irrelevant.