Steps1

Prepare for your cooking session with any

ingredients you may choose to use, the
utensils, pots and pans, bowls, and other
kitchen tools you will need, and a notebook or
voice recorder to take notes of each step in
preparing your chosen dish.
2
Keep a list of each ingredient you use. You will
want to be as specific as possible in type,
quantity, and the method used to prepare it for
addition. An example might be, "One medium
yellow onion, peeled and finely chopped". Note, a
yellow onion is distinctly different from a red
onion, and finely chopping is different from slicing
or coarsely chopped.
1. 3
Proceed through each step of preparation,
being as exact in your measurements,
cooking times, temperatures, and sequence of
adding ingredients as possible.
2. 4
Use the correct term for each step in your
process. Using the correct nomenclature for
these will enable another person familiar with
standard terminology to more closely duplicate
your success, and avoids potential confusion.
3. 5
Simplify the process and keep descriptions as
brief and to the point as possible, without
compromising the accuracy. Reading a recipe
often occurs while you or someone else is trying
to follow precisely timed steps, and it is easier to
focus on what the cook is actually doing if the
instructions are clear and concise.
4. 6
Make a point of adding descriptive phrases
where they are needed. If you are tosaute one
or more ingredients until lightly browned, there
may not be an exact cooking time or even
temperature that works every time, so telling the
person trying your recipe what they are looking
for will be helpful.
5. 7
Give sufficient warnings about any problems
which may occur during the cooking. An
example of this might be "Do not open the oven
door while baking, or your cake may fall", or "Do
not let the oil get too hot on the stove". In candy
 making, especially, urging the cook to "Pour the
mixture quickly after the ingredients reach a
certain temperature, because they will set quickly
as they cool" is a critical warning, since any
remaining candy will turn into a hard, formless
mass in the saucepan.
6. 8
Cook the course or item you are writing your
recipe for, and see if it turns out just right. If it
is too sour, sweet, salty, spicy, or otherwise fails
the taste test, consider what you might do to
correct the problem, then begin the process over
again. Guessing an adjustment, either in
ingredients, cooking times, or temperatures does
not always yield success. This is the reason "Test
kitchens" are operated like laboratories, and
results are carefully documented and repeated.
7. 9
Write your recipe out using your notes. This
does not have to follow any certain format or
style, so long as it is readable and can be
followed someone else if you desire to share it.
The following items are a rough guideline for a
typical recipe:
o Name of the food (or dish).
o Servings produced.
o Ingredients, with measurements for each
one. Clearly write out the measurements. For
example: 1 teaspoon not 1 t. or 1 cup not 1 c.
o Use numerals when writing the recipe.
Write bake for 15 minutes not bake for fifteen
minutes. This makes it easier to read recipes
which follow a somewhat standardized format.
o Oven or stove temperatures. Many baked
recipes will state at the beginning "Preheat oven
to ____ degrees".
o Preparation steps, including all special
instructions and cooking times.