paragiraffe

Recipe Copyright

I read a lot of recipes. I read several food blogs. Recently I was looking for a new recipe for Crockpot chicken tortilla soup, because the one I’ve been using (and it’s nothing fancy, obviously) requires too many ingredients for my four quart model, and I was curious to see some other options. I found the same recipe two or three different times, and, if I recall correctly, I found this recipe for black bean soup four different times with as many titles.

But it’s not really plagiarism. According to the US Copyright Office on recipes:

Mere listings of ingredients as in recipes, formulas, compounds or prescriptions are not subject to copyright protection. However, where a recipe or formula is accompanied by substantial literary expression in the form of an explanation or directions, or when there is a combination of recipes, as in a cookbook, there may be a basis for copyright protection.

May be. And I’m guessing “preheat oven to 350°” doesn’t qualify as substantial literary expression.

I have to admit, originally, I thought it was kind of novel and weird that you basically can’t copyright a recipe. But food is for sharing, and ultimately what makes a dish great is the skill of the chef. Even the most amazing recipe won’t taste good if the cook burns it. And it’s hard to think of an analogy—with a book or magazine the written word is the final product, but with a recipe that’s not the case. How would you enforce recipe “DRM” anyway? When you buy a “license” you can make it just five times and share it with just three friends? Seems kind of silly.

This Washington Post article, Can a Recipe Be Stolen? opens with an anecdote of copyright worries in creating a compilation cookbook for charity. What an unfortunate application of our growing sensitivity to copyright law. Another good read on recipe copyright is Meg Hourihan’s Keep recipes free, and don’t skip the comments, either.

And, in the spirit of recipe sharing, I’m including (after the jump) a dinner I made yesterday I really enjoyed.

Linguine With Sausage And Peppers

From Southern Living, originally published July 2003

1 pint grape or cherry tomatoes, halved
¾ tsp kosher salt
1 (12-oz) package linguine
1 (16-oz) package mild Italian turkey sausage links¹
1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced
1 green bell pepper, seeded and diced
1 medium sweet onion, diced
1 (8-oz) package sliced fresh mushrooms²
3 garlic cloves, minced
¼ tsp dried crushed red pepper
1 tbsp olive oil
1½ cups shredded Parmesan cheese

STIR together tomatoes and salt; set aside, stirring occasionally.
COOK linguine in a Dutch oven, according to package directions. Drain and return to Dutch oven; keep warm.
REMOVE and discard casings from sausage. Brown sausage, bell peppers, onion, and mushrooms in a large skillet over medium-high heat, stirring until sausage crumbles and is no longer pink. Add garlic, cook 2 minutes³. Drain.
TOSS together linguine, sausage mixture, tomatoes, crushed red pepper, olive oil, and ½ cup Parmesan cheese. Serve immediately with remaining Parmesan cheese.

¹I used hot Italian sausage because I like spice.
²When I make this again I will slice the mushrooms even smaller than they come in the package. As it was I couldn’t use them all anyway because my skillet is too small.
³Next time I will add the tomatoes at this point as well because I like it when cherry/grape tomatoes heat and kind of melt away from their skins.