The genre of recipes mainly has four parts: the introduction, a brief description of the food, a set of instruction, and then at the end there’s sometimes a substitutions portion. This format rings true for most recipes as it is the standard for the genre. In the introduction serves as guide for the reader in the history of the recipe. Sometimes its credits the culture the food is originally from and sometimes it shows what inspired the author in creating their version of the dish. The brief description of the food is just that; it describes what the recipe will be make in simple terms that a reader can glance at. The set of instructions will list the ingredients, how they are to be prepared, and how to combine and cook them to make the dish. The last part is a new edition to the genre of recipes in that it adds substitutions that can be made. This has become more relevant as allergies and diet choices have changed; currently you can see options to make it vegan, vegetarian, or gluten free at the end of some recipes.

The layout follows this trend throughout the genre. As time has changed, so has the format with handwritten notecards of recipes from grandparents kitchens, to published cooked books, magazines with recipes in them or even recipes with exclusively food and recipe content, food blogs, pinterest, and even food videos like the Tasty brand. Each form is a little different with the notecards being the most basic and the Tasty videos being the most digital. With modern cookbooks and online recipes photos have become a larger part of the genre of recipes. The photos let the reader look and decide if the recipe looks good enough to eat or just good enough to sit on the bookshelf.

Authors write recipes for a few reasons depending on what their aim is. Some people write recipes just to share the food they make with friends and family. Other authors write to fulfill their own self passion around food; this category can include both professionals and amuature in the blogs and internet categories. The last category is for business; typically they do not start writing recipes for money but for their own passions and over time make it into a business. Their motivation is still to fulfill their passion but now they are getting money for it so the mindset will change a bit.

Some of the topics or themes in the writing can center on a certain cultures food, alternative diets (vegan, vegetarian, gluten free), healthy food, or a certain type of process of cooking. In general authors write recipes to satisfy their own curiosity and passion for food. Each piece of writing and recipe has a different audience. Some the things authors keep in mind in regards to the audience is what they can get their hands on in regards to ingredients, time, and skill.

An author who writes a cookbook for beginners will have more basic or skill building recipes. Teaching how to cook throughout the book. An author who writes a cookbook for those on a budget will be price and time conscious in regards to the ingredients and how long it takes to make the recipe. An example of this would be the Good and Cheap text by Leanne Brown.  Within the internet space people can have entire food blogs of their recipes centered around different themes, in such theme is healthy eating. An example of this would be http://www.thekitchenofdanielle.com/ a blog that is centerd on healthy lifestyle choises and healhty eating. She provides recipes and tips to achieve both. My personal favorite of her blog is the gingerbread waffles .

Different authors connect with their audience in different ways. An author that’s writing for a college student or young promensil might try videos or pinterest post to capture the millennial mind. As a group we are more susceptible to videos explaining how to make a recipe than the typical recipe book format. Even within the internet different pinterest boards and search terms can focus in on different target audiences. Crock-pot, or slow-cooker is often used for people who work during the day and want dinner ready when they come home. The term, ‘Meal prep’ is used among the health conscious as a way to make healthy meals a week at a time. In both magazines and recipes books the use of photos is another way to catch the target audience. The photos style can be changed even among the same recipe to get a different audience with background lighting, plate choice, and even the background itself informing the audience what it is looking at and if they want ot make it.

To me a good recipe should give credit where it is due, taste good, and be easy to follow. The credit portion shows what inspired the recipe or even where the author originally got it from. Tasting good in my personal opinion is one of the most important parts; you can make many things but its is harder to make them taste good. The last part is the most important in my opinion; the recipe should be easy to follow. This does not at all mean easy to do; it can have complex cooking techniques but it should explain what these techniques are and how to do them. It should say a specific way of mixing the ingredients. An example I like to use is folding, mixing, stirring, and beating together the ingredients for brownies. All of the previous verbs can be used for ‘mix’ or ‘stir together’ but they all mean very different things. The instructions should be clear in how to prepare the recipe and if needed explain what they mean so you can follow the recipe easily.