Rusty, if you take a recipe and make some minor adjustments, such as changing just the amounts of seasoning, or just substituting lemon for orange, than I would give credit to the original owner. But if you got the idea for a particular dish but changed it completely so it wasn't recognizable from the original then go a head and call it your own. I'd still probably say that the recipe was adjust from or inspired by. There are very few recipes that are totally unique when it comes to ingredients, but often the method or the instructions are what make the recipe special. Ann

Chocolate Walnut Fudge Serves: 25    1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk    1/3 cup agave nectar    1 pinch salt    12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips    1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts (4 ounces)  Mix sweetened condensed milk and agave in a small saucepan and stir to blend. Add a large pinch of salt. Bring mixture just to a boil, stirring with a wooden spoon until smooth. Add chocolate chips and lower heat to a simmer. Cook, stirring constantly, until chocolate melts completely and mixture is smooth. Stir in walnuts. Pour the warm mixture into an 8 x 8-inch pan and smooth the top with a butter knife. Let cool and refrigerate until cold. Cut into 25 squares. ____________________________________________________________________ Banana Loaf Made With Spelt Flour Recipe Ingredients  1/2 cup butter at room temperature  1 cup or less light/golden brown sugar  2 organic eggs, beaten  1 tsp. vanilla (optional)  2 cups Spelt flour  1 tsp. baking soda preferably aluminum-free  1/2 tsp. salt  2 or 3 very ripe organic bananas, mashed  1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional) Directions Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F. Beat butter and sugar together until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla and beat well. Stir in dry ingredients. Blend bananas and walnuts and mix gently. Bake in a well greased and lightly dusted 5 x 9 inch loaf pan or three 3 x 5 inch loaf pans. Bake for one hour or until toothpick comes out clean. Lessen the baking time for the smaller loaf pans. NOTE: When using spelt flour as a substitute for All-purpose or whole wheat flour, always remember that spelt requires approximately 25% less liquid. You can either reduce the liquid by 25% or add 25% more spelt flour than your recipe calls for.

I am nearly incapable of following a recipe exactly. Even when it is one of my own that I have carefully written down. I'll sub something, or increase or decrease the amount of some ingredient. When I'm looking for a new recipe, either one I've heard of but never really made, or (like blfenton above) where I have three ingredients that need to be used, and I'm looking for inspiration, I'll generally google around, read four or five recipes to get the sense of a dish, and then improvise from there. Or if it is something really out of my wheelhouse, I might faithfully follow the recipe (more or less) that looks best to me the first time I make it. I have no problem if a site requires you to register to post comments, since I'm not ever going to make a comment on some random-found internet recipe anyway. I do mind places that require you to register simply to read a recipe, but that is what the back button is for. I'm also not overly bothered by some of the inane comments on recipes that many here dislike, but mostly because I don't value them at all, and rarely ever read them. Oftentimes with the ad-blocking and the script-blocking I use the comments section won't ever even load.

It's a manners thing. I also credit the books, blogs, etc., when someone wants a recipe. I make up a lot of my own recipes and I title them with my name so the person I give it to knows where it came from. The posited issue is something I've never experienced, but I can sympathize--someone takes something from you and blows it up big time without any acknowledgement. The reason performers make such boring speeches at awards shows is that they know they're standing on the shoulders of many, and saying the names during a broadcast gives warm and fuzzies to the people who rightly deserve the credit. That's totally different from copyright. You can't copyright food. That includes an ingredient list (I'm not a lawyer, but I think I have a good understanding of the rules (I have worked in the arts). Please check with a copyright attorney for actual legal advice rather than chat). You can only copyright your own creation. The old saw about changing three things doesn't cut it unless those make a significant change in the actual recipe, like the fish dish above with a different fish, and different ingredients, and it was nothing like the original. OTOH, if you write up a recipe for something nearly identical to another recipe, but use all your own words for the method and direction, it is not a copyright violation. You can even copyright a recipe for Fried Chicken, if you say enough that's substantially unique to you, though you probably can't for the basic directions that are basically the same as you could find in a zillion books and blogs. Like maybe there's a whole story about your Aunt Ruthie woven through the directions. Because you can only copyright your words, and then, only if they're finished and unique. (You can much more easily copyright your pictures of the chicken, though it's probably unenforceable if the violator didn't made a lot of money off of them.) You can't even copyright a title, though you might be able to trademark it. None of that is about credit. If A's instruction and/or recipe enables B to be wildly successful outside of her home, it's only polite for B to say, thank-you, I couldn't have done it without A's recipe.