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Episode details

World Service,12 Feb 2026,26 mins

How to write a recipe

The Food Chain

Available for over a year

We all have recipes we turn to again and again, perhaps from the stained pages of our favourite cookbooks, or handed down through families. But have you ever wondered about the work that鈥檚 gone into writing that set of instructions? In this edition of The Food Chain, Ruth Alexander looks at the art and science of recipe writing. How does a cook turn what is often an instinctive and creative process into a list of instructions anyone can follow? How much detail is too much, and what are the essential elements no recipe is complete without? Ruth talks to a well-known cook who describes her love-hate relationship with recipe writing and a cookbook editor reveals how she鈥檚 built recipes from chefs鈥 doodles or even notes scrawled on a napkin. Find out what it鈥檚 like to work in the world of recipe testing and how the art of writing recipes has changed over hundreds of years. Producer: Lexy O鈥機onnor Sound engineer: Hal Haines If you would like to get in touch with the show, please email: thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk

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