Recipes are detailed instructions for preparing food, often compiled in cookbooks that reflect cultural identities and societal shifts while serving as educational tools. The earliest known written recipes date back to 1730 BC on cuneiform tablets from Mesopotamia, with further ancient examples from Greece and Rome, including the remarkably complete 4th/5th-century collection known as Apicius.
During the medieval period, notable English recipe books like King Richard II's "Forme of Cury" (1390) emerged, detailing aristocratic cuisine and the reintroduction of various herbs and spices. The advent of the printing press in the 16th and 17th centuries spurred a boom in recipe publishing, fostering competition among cooks and a move towards more accessible culinary advice. By the 19th century, pioneers like Eliza Acton with her "Modern Cookery for Private Families" (1845) began creating cookbooks specifically for the domestic reader, shaping the modern recipe format we know today.