Masterclass: editing recipes

With published bookstore cookbooks, consistency is everything with each recipe. Read on for tips when editing your recipes.

Recipe title & index generator

As part of your Premium or Community package, when our team does a complete design check this includes generating an A-Z index. In order for the index generator to pick up every recipe title, each recipe title needs to be the same font and size.

Recipe description

The recipe story/description is normally featured after the recipe title, but it can be placed anywhere. Adding italic to the font gives it more of a handwritten feel. Make sure the story is grammatically correct and add the name of the person who wrote it if there are several recipe authors throughout the cookbook.

Prep, cook & serves

Although optional, if you can providing a timeline to the reader gives them the information they need before embarking on the recipe, especially for the first time. They can then better organise their time as to how long it will take to prepare, cook, and also how many it will serve or make.

Ingredients

The rule of thumb is to list all ingredients in the order they are used in the recipe.

Sometimes ingredients can be sub-divided. As an example, the first part might be for the “custard mixture”, followed by the second part for the “cake mixture”.

Imperial, metric, cups & spoons

Choose either imperial or metric measurements, not both, with the exception of spoon and cup measurements, this can be added to both. It is better to spell out the words of the measurement rather than abbreviations. For example, instead of “tbspn”, write “tablespoon”.

We recommend adding fractions and oven measurements as symbols. Click here to read article on how to add symbols to your recipes in your recipe library.

Method

Write the recipe in order that the ingredients are used is essential. The person cooking the recipe needs clarity, so don’t be vague. Write “preheat oven" and the oven temperature at the start of the method if an oven is needed.

If the ingredients are sub-divided (as mentioned in ‘Ingredients’ above) then do the same in the instructions.