A recipe is a set of instructions for cooking a dish: a list of ingredients and the steps to prepare it. The word is only about cooking: a doctor's written order for medicine is a prescription.
recipe: will you get the meaning right?
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a recipe for + dish; follow / try + a recipe; a family/simple + recipe; a prescription (not a recipe) for + medicine; a recipe for disaster
- I followed my grandmother's recipe, but my pancakes still didn't taste like hers.
- Our team shares quick lunch recipes in a group chat every Monday.
- On a cooking course in Naples, the chef showed us his recipe for pizza dough.
What changed
First versionThe doctor gave me a recipe for antibiotics.
RevisionThe doctor gave me a prescription for antibiotics.
In some languages the same word is used for cooking and for medicine, but English has two different words. With recipe, the sentence sounds as if the doctor explained how to cook antibiotics in the kitchen. The doctor's form that lets you get medicine is a prescription.
Recipe can also be figurative: a recipe for disaster is something that is sure to end badly, and a recipe for success is a way to succeed. Driving at night without sleep is a recipe for disaster.
Your turn
Could you send me the ___ for that lemon cake you made on Sunday?
Show the answer
recipe — The cake was baked at home, and you need instructions for making it. That's a recipe. A receipt is the piece of paper you get in a shop after buying something, not after home baking.
Write about a dish you cook from a favourite recipe. Name the dish, say whose recipe it is and mention one ingredient you can't make it without.
My favourite recipe is my mum's Olivier salad, and you can't make it without good pickled cucumbers.
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