Recipe Formatting Rules

A recipe is a set of instructions read mid-task, with wet hands, against a clock — every formatting choice below exists to reduce how much the cook has to stop, scroll back, or guess while actually cooking.

Ingredients in use-order, with prep noted

• List ingredients in the exact order they're used in the method, not grouped by pantry logic or alphabetically — a cook working top to bottom through the ingredient list should hit them in the same order the steps need them.
• Note prep state directly in the ingredient line, not as a separate step: "1 onion, diced" not "1 onion" with dicing buried three steps later. This lets all prep happen once, up front, instead of interrupting cooking to chop mid-step.
• Group ingredients by component when a recipe has clearly separate parts (sauce, marinade, garnish) with a subheading per group — a flat list for a multi-component dish forces the cook to mentally sort which ingredient belongs to which part.
• Note ingredient state that affects the result (room temperature butter, cold water, ripe vs firm fruit) directly in the ingredient line — this is information the cook needs before starting, not something to discover mid-recipe.

Exact quantities with units

• Give a real quantity and unit for every ingredient — "a pinch of salt" for a garnish is fine, but "some onion" or "a bit of oil" in an actual component is not; be as specific as the ingredient warrants.
• Use consistent units throughout one recipe (don't mix cups and grams for dry ingredients within the same recipe) and prefer weight over volume for baking-sensitive ingredients (flour, sugar) where volume measurement is genuinely unreliable.
• Specify size when it affects outcome: "2 large eggs," "1 medium onion (about 150g)," "a 400g can of tomatoes" — an unspecified size is a hidden variable that changes the result.

Steps as single actions

• Write each step as one action with its own line: one verb, one thing happening. "Dice the onion, then sauté it in butter over medium heat until translucent, about 5 minutes" is really two or three steps merged; split them so each is independently trackable.
• Order steps strictly by execution sequence, including parallel prep cues ("while the pasta boils, make the sauce") stated explicitly rather than implied — a cook shouldn't have to infer that two things can happen at once.
• Keep each step scannable at a glance — a cook re-checking a step mid-action needs to relocate it instantly, which a long paragraph step defeats.

Time and temperature, always explicit

• Give a real time for every step where time matters, plus a visual/tactile doneness cue as a backup ("simmer 8–10 minutes, until reduced by half") — a cue-only instruction ("cook until done") isn't enough for someone who hasn't made the dish before, and a time-only instruction ignores that stoves and pans vary.
• State exact oven temperature and whether it's fan/convection or conventional — this single unstated detail is one of the most common reasons a recipe fails to replicate for someone else.
• Specify heat level in concrete terms (low/medium/medium-high/high) at every point it changes, not just once at the start of a step block — heat that silently changes mid-step without being called out is a common source of burnt or undercooked results.

Substitutions

• Include a dedicated substitutions section listing realistic swaps for the ingredients most likely to be unavailable or restricted (a specific cheese, an allergen, an uncommon spice), each with the actual effect on the result noted ("swap in Greek yogurt for sour cream — slightly tangier, otherwise equivalent").
• Don't suggest a substitution that silently breaks the recipe's chemistry (baking soda for baking powder without adjusting anything else) without flagging what else needs to change alongside it.
• Mark substitutions that only work with an adjustment elsewhere in the recipe (e.g., "using a gluten-free flour blend — reduce liquid by 10%") rather than presenting them as drop-in equivalents when they aren't.

Yield and storage

• State yield precisely: number of servings and, where it's ambiguous, what a serving actually is ("4 servings, about 1.5 cups each") — "serves 4" alone under- or over-specifies a wildly different amount depending on the dish.
• Include explicit storage instructions: how long it keeps, refrigerated vs frozen, and in what container/state — a recipe with no storage guidance leaves the cook guessing about food safety, not just convenience.
• Give reheating instructions when reheating changes meaningfully from initial cooking (a different method, a shorter time, adding liquid back) — assume the person reheating didn't just make the dish and doesn't remember the original technique.