calling a recipe your own

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lbb87

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Nov 20, 2003
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When exactly can you call a recipe your own? Does it have to be one you created or can it be one that you've modified?

For example, I found a recipe on a package of meatballs. The recipe was basically a sauce for the meatballs. One day when I was cooking some pork & beans, I got the idea to use the meatball sauce recipe in the beans. I of course had to modify the recipe in terms of how much ingredients to use but it came out great. My family really likes it and wants the recipe. So, even though I didn't create the (sauce) recipe, do I have the right to call it my own?

Or what about when I take a recipe and really modify it a lot? It's not exactly the same as the original recipe but the foundation is basically the same.

It seems like these are just lawsuits waiting to happen but I know a lot of people who do it.
 
i only call one my own when i came up w/ it on my own, period. it just doesn't seem right, otherwise.
 
I once asked a quesion in another forum about recipes and plaguarisation but got no replies.

My recipes are the ones that come to me during the day and I start getting things out of the cupboards or the fridge. Then with a vision in my mind I create a recipe. Its probably not unique but it is inspired by my imagination and the products I have available at the time to cook with.
 
lbb87 said:
When exactly can you call a recipe your own? Does it have to be one you created or can it be one that you've modified?

For example, I found a recipe on a package of meatballs. The recipe was basically a sauce for the meatballs. One day when I was cooking some pork & beans, I got the idea to use the meatball sauce recipe in the beans. I of course had to modify the recipe in terms of how much ingredients to use but it came out great. My family really likes it and wants the recipe. So, even though I didn't create the (sauce) recipe, do I have the right to call it my own?

Or what about when I take a recipe and really modify it a lot? It's not exactly the same as the original recipe but the foundation is basically the same.

It seems like these are just lawsuits waiting to happen but I know a lot of people who do it.

Which is basically why it's impossible to truly copyright a recipe, although many have tried. Take any recipe and tweak an amount by even 1/8 tsp. (which more than likely won't change the flavor) and you've now changed the recipe and it's your own.

If you've thought of an idea, and even though someone may have already done it unbeknownst to you, then don't worry about it. You had no idea that it was already being done and there's no way your recipe and that other person's recipe will be exactly the same, so just call it yours. Don't sweat the small stuff. It doesn't matter. As long as you and the people you're serving it to think that it's your original recipe that so be it.
 
What I remember from earlier discussions on this subject is that you cannot copyright a list of ingredients, only the technique for combining them. Any lawyers feel free to step in here.

So, if you take a list of ingredients and rewrite the instructions, it can be called your recipe.

In practical terms, your example of combining two recipes with modifications would qualify as a new recipe created by you.

When I decide to make a certain dish, I hunt for published recipes from my cookbooks and the internet. I select up to a half dozen and compare the ingredients and techniques.

I often end up with a new recipe that takes some ingredients from a couple of the published recipes and has some modifications to the directions. That's now my recipe and I label it as an "Andy M. Original".
 
It's not impossible to copyright a recipe. Many people have done it and many have successfully defended their copyright by suing for copyright infringement.

Andy is correct. You cannot copyright a list of ingredients, but you can copyright THE DESCRIPTION of how you make the dish.

To avoid copyright infringement you must change the recipe enough so that it is not substatially similar to the original, and not capable of being confused with it. Making a minor change in the amount of an ingredient probably isn't substantial enough of a change.

That said, in practical terms the liklihood of running into a copyright problem is pretty low.
 
It would seem to me that this is a moot point anyway unless you are planning to use it for profit. I have a number of things that I make which started as other recipes, but which have mutated over the years into my "own" concoctions. I don't include a list of credits or a bibliography when I pass it on to somebody, nor have I ever heard of anybody doing so. I also don't try to claim them as my own creations. I just like to pass on a good recipe if a friend asks for it.

On every street corner in Texas (and through much of the South) you'll find someone with his own "secret" recipe for BBQ. How many of those are truly original? Yet they guard their "personal" recipes jealously, because there is nothing in law to prevent somebody from essentially duplicating it and then calling it their "own". It may not be ethical, but I certainly can't see it being illegal.

This makes me think of the episode of "Friends" where Phoebe has lost her grandmother's secret chocolate chip cookie recipe, so she and Monica go about trying to duplicate it. After about 3 dozen failed batches, it is discovered that the "secret" recipe is on the back of every bag of Nestle's chocolate chips. :rolleyes: :ROFLMAO:
 
RPCookin said:
It would seem to me that this is a moot point anyway unless you are planning to use it for profit.

You don't have to profit from redistributing a copyrighted work for it to be actionable. The copyright ownder does, however, have to prove damages.


RPCookin said:
because there is nothing in law to prevent somebody from essentially duplicating it and then calling it their "own". It may not be ethical, but I certainly can't see it being illegal.

Yes there is -- if it has copyright protection. If it is a copyrighted recipe, duplicating it and redistributing it without permission is very much illegal. It's not about "calling it your own," it's about redistributing it without permission. You can give the author credit and not call it your own and still be violating copyright law.




Once you start me on this .... :wacko:
 
If you aren't using it for profit, at most you would just have to give credit where it is due. If I use a seafood rub that I get off the internet and change one ingredient, or slightly change the cooking temp, or grill instead of bake, is the recipe now mine? It certainly isn't the exact recipe or process I started out with. But it isn't an "original" creation either. How much modification does it take to make it "mine"? I'm not talking about trying to turn around and sell it as a part of a book of recipes, just for my own use and to pass it on to friends and family.

Any recipe made available for public use can't possibly entail rights that would go beyond protection from redistribution for profit. If so, then virtually any amateur cook in the civilized world would be in violation, and that just isn't reasonable. Courts would be tied up 24 - 7 just dealing with recipe copyright "criminals". :rolleyes:
 
RPCookin said:
If you aren't using it for profit, at most you would just have to give credit where it is due.


Wrong, sorry.


RPCookin said:
How much modification does it take to make it "mine"?

Enough to make it not substantially similar in the court's eyes.

RPCookin said:
Any recipe made available for public use can't possibly entail rights that would go beyond protection from redistribution for profit.

Again, from a technical legal perspective, you are wrong. What if I read that scads of people here were looking to buy the new Gourmet Magazine cookbook, but they thought it was too expensive. What if I then helpfully scanned and posted all of it here, for the thousands of members to read and print out for free?

If it has been made available for public use by the copyright holder then you are ok.
 
All I can say is that I don't know of a person who cooks who doesn't share recipes, and it doesn't matter whether it came from Grandma or from a cookbook. If somebody says "Hey this is good. Can I get the recipe?", I've never seen them turned down. So I guess that everybody I know should be locked up. :ermm:
 
Never said that sharing recipes didn't happen or was even a bad thing.:chef:

Never said you should be locked up :ohmy:

Just trying to clear up misinformation on what the law is.
 
From where I sit, RPcookin: you are stating what you believe is sensible and practical in the real world. That's evident from some of your qualifying statements such as, "It seems to me..", and "practically speaking...".

Jennyema is stating what the law says. Two very different things.

Jennyema, deja vu all over again! Should have save the postings from the foodtv boards on this subject.
 
Last edited:
If you like it, it's yours to "own." If you post it somewhere, might want to give the credit as such.
 
Just to again clarify ...


If you post a copyrighted recipe without permission, you are technically violating copyright law whether you "give credit" for it or not.

Attributing a source absolves you from plagairism but not from copyright infringement. In fact, it's sort of an admission of guilt, as you are highlighting that it is someone else's work.

There seems to be a heck of a lot of misinformation about this out there.

I chime in here only to try to clear up misunderstandings.

As a practical matter, most sharing of recipes is harmless and wouldn't be prosecuted even if it they were copyright violations. But there have been cases where posting of copyrighted recipes caused boards like this to be shut down.
 
I often just give people credit, even if I've changed a recipe quite a bit. "Oh, this is so-and-so's, but I make it a little different." Keeps everyone happy ... assuming, as already said, I'm not planning on making money on it (and I'm not). I'm just concerned with hurt feelings. I do beadwork, and there is the same problem there. You'd be amazed at how easy for a few hundred people to come up with an idea that is the same and all claim it is "theirs". I've seen things in both bead books, cook books, and magazines that I "invented" before, and there's no way they were copying me. Just synchronicity. So I never claim to be the one and only and first. Something inspires all of us.
 
Interesting and informative discussion.

From my perspective, if I morph recipes to create something that is unique, I think I can call it mine. My family calls the Boston Baked Beans I make "Mark's Beans" even though everybody knows I took it from a cookbook years ago and tweeked it just a little. I share recipes whenever anyone asks... with little, make that NO consideration of copyright ramifications.

As jennyema said, the original 'owner' of a recipe would need to demonstrate that it is substantially (enough) similar to their own AND that there were some kind of damages... I think THAT would be the hard part in most cases.
 

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