Comprehensive frameworks for structured recipe creation, ingredient management, meal planning, and recipe collection organization.

Recipe Card Format Standards

Standard Recipe Card Template

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  [RECIPE TITLE]
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Prep Time: XX min | Cook Time: XX min | Total: XX min
Servings: X       | Difficulty: [1-5 stars]
Cuisine: [Type]   | Course: [Meal type]

DIETARY: [Vegan] [GF] [DF] [NF] [Vegetarian] [Keto] [Paleo]

━━ INGREDIENTS ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[Group Name (if applicable)]
  [ ] 2 cups     all-purpose flour
  [ ] 1 tsp      baking powder
  [ ] 1/2 tsp    salt

[Group Name]
  [ ] 3 large    eggs, room temperature
  [ ] 1 cup      whole milk
  [ ] 2 tbsp     unsalted butter, melted

━━ INSTRUCTIONS ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

1. [Action verb] [what to do] [how to do it].
   Tip: [Optional helpful note]

2. [Action verb] [what to do] [until what result].
   ⏱ [Time indicator if applicable]

3. [Action verb] [what to do].

━━ NOTES ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Storage: [How to store and for how long]
Make Ahead: [What can be prepped in advance]
Variations: [Alternative versions or substitutions]
Source: [Original recipe attribution]
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Recipe Card Format Standards

Standard Recipe Card Template

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ [RECIPE TITLE] ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Prep Time: XX min | Cook Time: XX min | Total: XX min Servings: X | Difficulty: [1-5 stars] Cuisine: [Type] | Course: [Meal type] DIETARY: [Vegan] [GF] [DF] [NF] [Vegetarian] [Keto] [Paleo] ━━ INGREDIENTS ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ [Group Name (if applicable)] [ ] 2 cups all-purpose flour [ ] 1 tsp baking powder [ ] 1/2 tsp salt [Group Name] [ ] 3 large eggs, room temperature [ ] 1 cup whole milk [ ] 2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted ━━ INSTRUCTIONS ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 1. [Action verb] [what to do] [how to do it]. Tip: [Optional helpful note] 2. [Action verb] [what to do] [until what result]. ⏱ [Time indicator if applicable] 3. [Action verb] [what to do]. ━━ NOTES ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Storage: [How to store and for how long] Make Ahead: [What can be prepped in advance] Variations: [Alternative versions or substitutions] Source: [Original recipe attribution] ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Principle	Example Good	Example Bad
Start with verb	"Whisk the flour and salt"	"The flour and salt should be whisked"
Specify doneness	"Saute until golden, about 5 min"	"Saute the onions"
Include visual cues	"Stir until thick enough to coat a spoon"	"Stir until thick"
Group by station	"Dry ingredients, then wet ingredients"	Random order
Note timing	"Bake 25-30 min until top springs back"	"Bake until done"

Rating	Label	Description
1	Beginner	No special skills, simple techniques, common ingredients
2	Easy	Basic cooking skills, straightforward timing
3	Intermediate	Some technique required, multi-step, timing-sensitive
4	Advanced	Technical skills, precision required, complex assembly
5	Expert	Professional techniques, specialty equipment, extensive prep

Original	Half	Double	Triple
1/4 cup	2 tbsp	1/2 cup	3/4 cup
1/3 cup	2 tbsp + 2 tsp	2/3 cup	1 cup
1/2 cup	1/4 cup	1 cup	1-1/2 cups
3/4 cup	6 tbsp	1-1/2 cups	2-1/4 cups
1 cup	1/2 cup	2 cups	3 cups
1 tbsp	1-1/2 tsp	2 tbsp	3 tbsp
1 tsp	1/2 tsp	2 tsp	1 tbsp

Original Pan	For 1.5x	For 2x
8" round	9" round	10" round or 2x 8"
9x13" baking dish	—	Sheet pan (18x13")
8x8" square	9x9" square	9x13"
9" pie plate	10" pie plate	2x 9"
12-muffin tin	18-muffin	2x 12-muffin

US Customary	Metric	Tablespoons	Teaspoons
1 cup	240 ml	16 tbsp	48 tsp
3/4 cup	180 ml	12 tbsp	36 tsp
2/3 cup	160 ml	10 tbsp + 2 tsp	32 tsp
1/2 cup	120 ml	8 tbsp	24 tsp
1/3 cup	80 ml	5 tbsp + 1 tsp	16 tsp
1/4 cup	60 ml	4 tbsp	12 tsp
1 tbsp	15 ml	1 tbsp	3 tsp
1 tsp	5 ml	1/3 tbsp	1 tsp

US	Metric
1 oz	28 g
4 oz (1/4 lb)	113 g
8 oz (1/2 lb)	227 g
12 oz (3/4 lb)	340 g
16 oz (1 lb)	454 g

Fahrenheit	Celsius	Gas Mark	Description
250 F	120 C	1/2	Very low
300 F	150 C	2	Low
325 F	165 C	3	Moderate low
350 F	175 C	4	Moderate
375 F	190 C	5	Moderate high
400 F	200 C	6	Hot
425 F	220 C	7	Hot
450 F	230 C	8	Very hot
475 F	245 C	9	Very hot
500 F	260 C	10	Extremely hot

Ingredient	Calories	Protein	Carbs	Fat
Chicken breast (cooked)	165	31g	0g	3.6g
White rice (cooked)	130	2.7g	28g	0.3g
Pasta (cooked)	131	5g	25g	1.1g
Whole egg	155	13g	1.1g	11g
All-purpose flour	364	10g	76g	1g
Butter	717	0.9g	0.1g	81g
Olive oil	884	0g	0g	100g
Whole milk	61	3.2g	4.8g	3.3g
Cheddar cheese	403	25g	1.3g	33g
Broccoli	34	2.8g	7g	0.4g

Label	Code	Excludes
Vegan	VG	All animal products (meat, dairy, eggs, honey)
Vegetarian	V	Meat, poultry, fish, seafood
Gluten-Free	GF	Wheat, barley, rye, triticale, and derivatives
Dairy-Free	DF	Milk, cheese, butter, cream, yogurt
Nut-Free	NF	Tree nuts and peanuts
Egg-Free	EF	Eggs and egg-derived ingredients
Soy-Free	SF	Soy, soy sauce, tofu, edamame
Keto	K	High-carb ingredients (>20g net carbs/day)
Paleo	P	Grains, dairy, legumes, refined sugar
Low-FODMAP	LF	High-FODMAP foods (garlic, onion, wheat, etc.)
Whole30	W30	Sugar, alcohol, grains, dairy, legumes

Field	Type	Required	Purpose
`title`	String	Yes	Recipe name
`source`	String	Yes	Attribution
`servings`	Number	Yes	Yield
`prep_time`	Minutes	Yes	Active prep
`cook_time`	Minutes	Yes	Cooking/baking
`total_time`	Minutes	Yes	End to end
`difficulty`	1-5	Yes	Skill level
`cuisine`	String	Yes	Cuisine type
`course`	String	Yes	Meal category
`dietary`	String[]	Yes	Diet labels
`tags`	String[]	No	Custom tags
`rating`	1-5	No	Personal rating
`notes`	String	No	Personal notes
`last_made`	Date	No	Tracking

Technique	Temperature	Medium	Best For
Saute	Medium-high	Small amount of fat	Vegetables, thin proteins
Sear	High	Thin layer of oil	Steaks, chops, fish
Braise	Low (300F)	Liquid (partial)	Tough cuts, root vegetables
Roast	375-450F	Dry heat, oven	Whole proteins, vegetables
Broil	500F+	Radiant top heat	Finishing, melting, charring
Simmer	180-200F	Full liquid	Soups, sauces, stews
Boil	212F	Full liquid	Pasta, blanching vegetables
Steam	212F	Water vapor	Vegetables, dumplings, fish
Poach	160-180F	Full liquid, gentle	Eggs, delicate fish, fruit

Protein	Minimum Safe Temp	Ideal (Quality)	Rest Time
Chicken/Turkey	165F / 74C	165F	5-10 min
Ground beef	160F / 71C	160F	3-5 min
Beef steak (medium-rare)	145F / 63C	130F (carryover to 135F)	5-10 min
Beef steak (medium)	145F / 63C	140F (carryover to 145F)	5-10 min
Pork chop	145F / 63C	145F	5 min
Fish	145F / 63C	125-140F (varies)	3-5 min

Ingredient	Substitution	Ratio	Notes
All-purpose flour	GF flour blend (1:1)	1:1	Add 1/4 tsp xanthan gum if not included
Butter	Coconut oil	1:1	Solid at room temp, slight coconut flavor
Butter	Vegan butter (Earth Balance)	1:1	Best for baking
Milk	Oat milk	1:1	Best for baking, creamiest
Milk	Almond milk	1:1	Lighter, good for savory
Heavy cream	Full-fat coconut cream	1:1	Chill can, use solids
Eggs (binding)	Flax egg (1 tbsp ground + 3 tbsp water)	1 egg	Let sit 5 min to gel
Eggs (leavening)	1/4 cup applesauce	1 egg	Adds moisture and sweetness
Eggs (moisture)	1/4 cup mashed banana	1 egg	Adds banana flavor
Soy sauce	Coconut aminos	1:1	Less sodium, slightly sweeter
Cheese	Nutritional yeast (for flavor)	2 tbsp per 1/4 cup cheese	Not a texture substitute
Breadcrumbs	Crushed GF crackers or almond meal	1:1	Almond meal adds richness

Missing	Substitute	Ratio
Buttermilk (1 cup)	1 cup milk + 1 tbsp lemon juice	Sit 5 min
Self-rising flour (1 cup)	1 cup AP flour + 1.5 tsp BP + 1/4 tsp salt	Mix well
Brown sugar (1 cup)	1 cup white sugar + 1 tbsp molasses	Mix well
Honey	Maple syrup	1:1
Fresh herbs	Dried herbs	1 tsp dried = 1 tbsp fresh
Shallot	Red onion (smaller amount)	1/2 onion per shallot
Wine (cooking)	Broth + 1 tsp vinegar	Same volume
Cornstarch (thickener)	2x all-purpose flour	Cooks out floury taste

Recipe Card Creator

Recipe Card Format Standards

Standard Recipe Card Template

Recipe Card Creator

Recipe Card Format Standards

Standard Recipe Card Template

Instruction Writing Guidelines

Difficulty Rating System

Ingredient Scaling

Scaling Calculation Rules

Common Scaling Conversions

Pan Size Adjustment for Scaling

Measurement Conversions

Volume Conversions

Weight Conversions

Temperature Conversions

Nutritional Information Estimation

Macro Estimation Framework

Common Ingredient Quick Reference (per 100g)

Dietary Restriction Labels

Standard Dietary Labels

Labeling Rules

Meal Planning Integration

Weekly Meal Plan Template

Grocery List Generation

Recipe Organization and Categorization

Collection Taxonomy

Recipe Metadata Schema

Cooking Technique Reference

Essential Techniques

Internal Temperature Guide

Substitution Guide

Common Allergen Substitutions

Emergency Pantry Substitutions

See Also

Restaurant Roulette

Rebase Onto Main

Grocery Prices

Cook

Toast

Swiggy