are recipes public domain

No

Seems cookery books could be the new, next big thing for 2010. :-)

Here's a short thread on exactly this subject from just recently:

[webmasterworld.com...]

No they are not public domain. recipes are copyrightable just like any other form of expression.

To body of knowledge and opinions expressed on this subject may I add the following article, which was published in the Washington Post [washingtonpost.com]...

The ethics guidelines of the International Association of Culinary Professionals focus on giving proper attribution to recipes that are published or taught. The association advises using the words "adapted from," "based on" or "inspired by," depending on how much a recipe has been revised. ("Adapted from" is the phrasing favored by The Washington Post and many other newspaper food sections, which, along with culinary instructors, enjoy "fair use" of someone's creation for the purpose of teaching, news reporting, scholarship or research.) The only time a recipe should be printed without attribution, the association contends, is when it has been changed so substantially that it no longer resembles its source.

The article also expresses the view that...

It's highly unlikely, [said Siva Vaidhyanathan, author of "Copyrights and Copywrongs: The Rise of Intellectual Property and How it Threatens Creativity"] that anyone would be sued for putting someone else's published recipe -- with or without attribution -- in a charity cookbook or posting it on the Internet... In fact, said Vaidhyanathan, an assistant professor of culture and communications at New York University, it would be unusual even to receive a nasty letter about it. "There isn't (big) money at stake."

As the commentator states, that's in relation to republication for charity or the web, so what about using other people's recipes in a book?

Professional cooks who publish recipes that blatantly copy colleagues' work without attribution are often shunned or gossiped about, but even then, lawsuits are rare.

Ouch, so they may talk about you behind your back!

Ultimately then, if the legal risks appear to be minimal (based not on my view but on the opinions expressed in the article), it would seem to come down to a question of morality.

Would you take someone else's work and pass it off as your own, or use it for self gain?

Syzygy

Thanks for the info.
Miamadre

I don't believe many recipes have copyright. It's coming up to St Patrick's Day so lets take the example of Irish Stew. Whose does the recipe for Irish Stew belong to?

No-one of course. The recipe evolved over many years and there is now a perceived standard Irish Stew recipe. But it belongs to no-one. Same for Hungarian Goulash, Spanish Omelette and a thousand other "standardised" recipes.

And it's even more unlikely that any recipe can be copyrighted because the elements within a given recipe are infinitely variable. A Spanish Omelette requires you to fry onions. What onion variety do you use, how finely do you chop them, do you fry them in olive oil / vegetable oil, how long are they fried for, what level of heat is applied, what type of pan is used and there are 100 other variables for that simple operation. No recipe can specify exactly how to cook a simple Spanish Omelette because it also uses eggs and potatoes and they also are subject to 100s of variables.

Just don't copy and paste your recipes and you're on safe ground in my opinion. If you have actually cooked the recipes yourself and include a picture of your result then you are totally covered as far as copyright is concerned.

A list of ingredients isn't covered by copyright. However, the instructions on how to make a particular recipe can be copyrighted. It is also possible to copyright a specific collection of recipes, such as a cookbook. You can see this information at [copyright.gov...]

How do cookbook publishing companies deal with the copyright laws when they are presented with a compilation of recipes such as cookbooks to publish from organizations for fundraising purposes or like me, a collection of family recipes where they have no control of where those submitting recipes got their recipes?

miamadre, their editors have a lot of experience in dealing with recipes, and will be able to evaluate them based on perceived originality, the writing outside of the recipes (many cookbooks have a lot of non-recipe content), the mix of recipes, etc. If necessary, they can do some research to check to see if sample recipes are simply grabbed from the Internet or an existing book....

Thanks.