The People's Cookbook
Writing your People's Cookbook recipe
UKTV Food is looking for home cooks across the country to share favourite recipes and tell us the stories behind what makes your dishes so memorable.
We're looking for recipes with a strong story behind them - a recipe handed down through generations, a classic dish made with a twist, an unusual regional speciality, or a signature recipe created to celebrate an important event.
Your friends and family can support your recipe and add their own comments about what they like about it and what makes it special to them.
Everyone who submits a recipe will recieve a free hessian bag. And all recipes submitted will be included in the online database of recipes. You can even add a photo or video!
See a sample recipe.
Recipe writing tips
Try to use metric measurements, rather than imperial, take a look here at our conversion chart. Smaller amounts are measured in tsp (teaspoons) and tbsp (tablespoons) or even handfuls. Try to be as accurate as possible when writing home baking recipes, a few grams out, and that cake may not rise!
If your dish has a number of components, separate the ingredients out accordingly with headings. Using lasagne as an example, you would have headings for the white sauce, meat sauce and toppings.
Include the oven times in centigrade and gas - if the recipe requires you to preheat the oven, make it the first item in the method.
Think of the recipe as a series of separate tasks such as -'melt the butter in a saucepan, stir in the flour then slowly add the milk, stirring all the time. Keep stirring over a gentle heat until it thickens and bubbles'.
Try and keep the method to short and concise sentences. You could get a friend to read it all through to see if it makes sense - sometimes its hard to be objective when you know something so well.
Your friends and family can support your recipe and add their own comments about what they like about it and what makes it special to them.
Everyone who submits a recipe will recieve a free hessian bag. And all recipes submitted will be included in the online database of recipes. You can even add a photo or video!
See a sample recipe.
Recipe writing tips
Recipe story
Please add a short paragraph about what your dish means to you. Is it a recipe handed down through generations, a classic dish made with a twist, a regional speciality or a signature recipe? Share your culinary success with the rest of us so we can create a snapshot of contemporary British food culture.Servings
Make sure you include a reference to servings - don't worry about being 100% accurate, a fish pie could serve 6 or a greedy 4, trust your judgement. If you are baking, include how many buns and cakes your recipe will make.Expertise
Include a difficulty rating in your recipe either easy, intermediate or advanced. Consider how difficult the average cook would find making your dish. If you think there are tricky techniques involved such as making choux pastry, or boning meat - then an intermediate or advanced rating may be appropriate.Ingredients
List your ingredients in the order they are used in the recipe - for lasagne it would be onions, garlic, mince...Try to use metric measurements, rather than imperial, take a look here at our conversion chart. Smaller amounts are measured in tsp (teaspoons) and tbsp (tablespoons) or even handfuls. Try to be as accurate as possible when writing home baking recipes, a few grams out, and that cake may not rise!
If your dish has a number of components, separate the ingredients out accordingly with headings. Using lasagne as an example, you would have headings for the white sauce, meat sauce and toppings.
Method
Put your method into numerical order - this breaks the recipe into easy-to-follow steps, and making it easier to read.Include the oven times in centigrade and gas - if the recipe requires you to preheat the oven, make it the first item in the method.
Think of the recipe as a series of separate tasks such as -'melt the butter in a saucepan, stir in the flour then slowly add the milk, stirring all the time. Keep stirring over a gentle heat until it thickens and bubbles'.
Try and keep the method to short and concise sentences. You could get a friend to read it all through to see if it makes sense - sometimes its hard to be objective when you know something so well.
