How you cite a recipe or cookbook depends on how you accessed it, whether in print or online, and on how much information is available.
If you’re citing a recipe in a print cookbook by a single author or coauthors, include the author’s name, the title of the recipe, and the publication details for the cookbook itself as the container of the recipe:
Madison, Deborah. “Basic Mayonnaise.” Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, by Madison, Broadway Books, 1997, pp. 58–60.
Alternatively, you could cite the cookbook, not the recipe, and mention the name of the recipe and page numbers in your in-text citation:
Deborah Madison’s recipe “Basic Mayonnaise” is in fact more than basic: it offers eleven variations, including saffron mayonnaise and green chili mayonnaise (58–60).
Work Cited
Madison, Deborah. Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. Broadway Books, 1997.
For a cookbook that is a compilation of recipes, you may not be able to discern an author. In this case, simply provide as much information as you can, beginning the entry with the title of the recipe:
“Butternut Squash Soup.” The Complete America’s Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook, America’s Test Kitchen, 2023, p. 22.
In the case of a handwritten recipe card, the author may be known to you, but the date may be unknown, and in some instances, the recipe may not be titled. If the recipe lacks a title, provide a description in the Title of Source element. If you can hazard a guess as to the date on which the recipe was written down, you may provide it in square brackets at the end of the entry. For example:
Weber, Catherine. Recipe for macaroni and cheese. [1985?]
Online
If you’re citing a recipe accessed on a personal website, include the author’s name, the title of the recipe, and the website as the container of the recipe:
Drummond, Ree. “Dreamy Apple Pie.” The Pioneer Woman, 11 Nov. 2024, www.thepioneerwoman.com/food-cooking/recipes/a9553/dreamy-apple-pie/.
Cite a recipe accessed in a digital archive as you would cite any other digital artifact. Note that in the following example, which shows a handwritten recipe that is part of a collection of recipes, the name of one of the coauthors is partly illegible. Since the recipe is not titled, a description is provided in the Title of Source element.
Mrs. Simpson and Mrs. Hall—. Recipe involving beef. Elizabeth Fairfax cookbook, Special Collections Research Center, George Mason University Libraries, collection #C0202. Digital Collections of University Libraries at George Mason University, masonlibraries.gmu.edu/omeka-s/s/Cookbook/item/177#?c=&m=&s=&cv=&xywh=-335%2C-6%2C1785%2C839.
Cite a digitized cookbook as you would cite any digitized book: include the original publication details, if known, followed by the website as the container of the cookbook. For instance:
At the end of a recipe for toasted eggs, Marion Harland admonishes her readers to “pepper the eggs lightly and remove with the toast, . . . taking care not to break them” (19).
Work Cited
Harland, Marion. Breakfast, Luncheon and Tea. Scribner, Armstrong, 1875. MSU Libraries Digital Collections, n2t.net/ark:/85335/m5df6qc8w.