Recipes

I like to read recipes. I like to talk about recipes. I ask people all the time about how they cook. It's just something I do.

Tonight I was reading over my blog and looking at the recipes I've provided. Some recipes I've made up. Some recipes were taken from cookbooks, blogs, forums, etc. Some I've really enjoyed and still make on a regular basis. Others I haven't touched in years.

But all this god me thinking, "What makes a recipe an original?" There are probably a million recipes out there for, say, a Bacon Lettuce Tomato sandwich, but what makes one better than the other? Is a recipe truly unique, if recipe A calls for 1/2 tsp of salt and recipe B calls for 1 tsp of salt? You can only stretch a BLT so far. Does that slight difference make A & B two unique recipes? Two original ideas?

Say I have a recipe for Chicken Parmesan from the Betty Crocker cookbook, but instead of topping the chicken with mozzarella cheese as called for, I use swiss, have I created a new original recipe?

So tonight I ponder. What makes a recipe truly original and one's own.