Posting recipes from cookbooks

[steorra]

Are there guidelines about posting recipes that came from cookbooks? I have some that I'd like to post but I'm worried about copyright issues. One of the ones I have in mind I could probably rewrite so that it wasn't just copied straight from the cookbook, but the other one is so simple that it would be hard to rewrite it.

My understanding is that at least in the US, the content of recipes generally can't be copyrighted, but I don't know if the wording might be copyrightable.

Comments

[highlyeccentric]

My understanding is that lists of ingredients and instructions are fair game, but, yes, distinctive wording is copyrighted.

However, one recipe properly cited may well come under 'fair use'? Much like copying out a single poem from an anthology, or a couple of paragraphs of a novel?

[bedlamsbard]

There's a good article here by David Lebovitz about posting recipes online. My understanding is that the text of the instructions is copyrighted, but you can't copyright the ingredient list.