If I get a recipe from a real person, I always give them credit -- it would be Louise's Homemade Bread and sometimes I've even called my recipes Sue's Louise's Homemade Bread because Sue called it Louise's and I got it from Sue!

I get it, but it's the old see one, learn one, teach one. If she's teaching your recipe she should give you credit, but bread is bread, and generally not really unique.

I've given my mother's (pretty much unique) challah recipe to a few who've begged, but they take one look at it, blanch in horror, and run toward the hills. :) The only one whom I know mastered it was a cousin's wife. She changed it around and made different kinds of enriched breads of her own creation until my cousin demanded any other kind of bread. :) That's the folk process. :)

Learn an excellent new recipe and don't share it with her. :)

I do the same as Martha!

What I find funny is when I give a recipe to someone and they come back to me complaining that it wasn't the same as when I made it for them. An aunt and uncle come to mind. They couldn't find Cod so they bought tilapia. My aunt never makes fresh mashed potatoes, always instant. They used jarred garlic, not fresh chopped, dehydrated parsley, not fresh...I can't remember what all of their complaints were but of course what they made didn't taste the same as mine.

I also give credit the way Martha does in my saved recipes, but if I share a recipe from a friend I don't put the full name for privacy reasons, unless that person and the recipient are members of the same social circle.

Seagrass, that's why I get very very specific when I share recipes, and will give exact ingredients and methods, or else I'll do it the old way that assumes people know how to cook, and just give the ingredients and just a few words, if needed, on directions. For a long time, I've known that for baking the exact kind of fat makes a big difference--so much so that I was confused by all the different kinds used for matzah balls and was told here in CF that it doesn't matter for them. (They're boiled dumplings--I grew up using schmaltz, but some use liquid vegetable oil. And it doesn't matter. :) ) Recently, I've learned the really big difference that flours can make in bread, given equal protein content. And, of course, there's the cane sugar vs. beet sugar debate. :)

Plllog - a little off-topic but in the time of covid virus my DH has been the hunter-gatherer because I have some chronic health issues and don't want to venture into a grocery store. I have to be so very specific and still there are variables that never occur to me until he comes back with something that doesn't meet criteria.

It helps sometimes to name the recipe after that person. I've given my late mom's recipe out to several people and they all call it "Stuffed Millies"

I always write names on my recipes and all are still handwritten on paper in a wooden file box. "Jay's Jerk Chicken", "Aunt Doris' Pickled Beets and Eggs", "Dad's Eggnog", "Grandma Buntain's Indiana Picnic Cake", "Mom's Vegetable Soup", "Vicky's Clam Chowder"....sometimes in their handwriting. First thing I'd rescue if my house was on fire. My recipe box.

I usually name recipes for whoever gave it to me. For instance right now I have a batch of dough for "Annie's No-Knead Bread" rising on the counter!

Just yesterday a friend was relating how her mother shared a recipe for pickled eggplant with a neighbor. The neighbor later bragged about how she had won a $5000 prize and Blue Ribbons every year with this recipe... never once giving credit to my friend's mother for The Recipe. When this woman realized to whom she had bragged, she couldn't get away fast enough.

Funny story now. Not funny then. And, too sad, but happens all the time.

I will share 99% of my recipes, but there are a few that I keep locked-up tight.

I taught my DIL to make bread from my grandma's recipe. That was Thanksgiving. For Christmas she made 20 loaves as gifts for her friends. No credit was given to anyone but it didn't matter - she was passing on the gift by making people happy.

I do understand the frustration, but really, what’s the difference. There’s been discussion here about recipe copyrighting and as I recall it takes very little adjustment to call it you own. Maybe even just the narrative and not the ingredients?

It’s just a name. If I get it from a publication then I’d probably mention that when passing it on, esp online. If I got it from a friend and passed it on to a friend who knew them, I’d mention it. But chances are that would last one “generation” at most.

We do this all the time here on CF. “Annie’s” bread was mentioned above. Annie notes, “I used bread flour, but the recipe calls for all purpose.” So whose recipe is it? Does it matter? It’s flour, salt, yeast and water. Seems to me I’ve seen that combination before.

I honestly don't care if I don't get credited. If I wanted credit for it, I would publish it. I'm happy knowing it was such a good dish that the recipe got shared and is being made by others too.

I do tend to give others credit, I know it means a lot to some folks.

I actually have 2 recipes for "no-knead" bread. They are just enough different that I prefer the texture & taste of Annie's (which does not have any sugar.) So I call it that to differentiate it in my old brain when digging through my pile of recipes.

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.

When moving here, I found Mom's recipe box, a bunch of recipes she either hand copied or pasted onto recipe cards. I love it! I need to explore further. (A few of Dad's are in there as well.) Mom had the habit of naming recipes, say, "Mimi's Apple Tort" - so I do know the person's name - and I vaguely remember meeting an adult woman named Mimi who associated with Mom - but no idea what her last name was. Dad's would basically be "NY Times" with a couple near-illegible changes in the margins. Dad cooked as often as Mom, especially once he retired and went into business for himself, but most of his cooking was totally "jazz riffs" on any recipe idea he ran into. (I do a combo of my Mom's approach and my Dad's approach - some go one way, some the other.)

Personally, storing my own on a blog, I link back to the recipe on the Internet (or write down the details from the book I used). I also let readers know if I copied the recipe exactly, or if I made changes (what worked better for me, what ingredients I had to punt over, or subbed out because most tree nuts rip my lower GI track up). Then, I say: Adapted from - giving the reader a general idea of what was changed. Inspired by - more changes than the Adapted From - it may well just be cooking time for a specific main ingredient. It's just good manners. (I also use my OWN photos and do the write up / directions in my own words. Which is also good manners and keeps one away from copyright issues anyway.)

NO, you cannot copyright lists of ingredients, even the way they wrote the list. I do tend to modify ingredient lists in my blog to format out to the way I usually type them - but that is for internal blog consistency. (I spell out teaspoon and tablespoon, for instance. I have visual issues seeing "t" and "T" in a recipe, and I personally don't want to ruin the recipe when I make it again... )

As for people taking my recipes - I appreciate but don't require the credits. HOWEVER if you take a photo - I generally won't mind, but I want credit. And if you were to publish (and get paid for) my photos - I want to talk a bit more seriously with you. Fortunately or unfortunately many of my blog photos aren't really up to cookbook publishing quality, although I am proud of a few of them.

(If my meal is to served HOT, I get impatient.... My meals are to be eaten!)

What's a recipe? Moreover what's a recipe that is so exact and precise that only you can make it....but you give it to someone and they pass the product along and don't give you credit. Do you KNOW that they followed the directions precisely?
when I give a recipe, I GIVE it...I don't lend it, it's a gift. Do with it as you will. And If I knit a sweater for you and you wore it and got compliments would I expect you to say, "thank you, Linda made it for me"?
One case in point, the rolls I make so often are called Mrs Avery's Rolls....because Mrs Avery was a neighbor when I was a very little girl and she often brought over a pan of rolls. My father loved them and asked for the recipe. the recipe came from a very early edition of the Fanny Farmer cookbook. But they are still Mrs Avery's Rolls.
My recipe file contains a few recipes for carrot cake. The one I like best cane from a local woman who ran a small restaurant from her farm home and eventually published a cookbook. It's Julie T.'s carrot cake. When I take it somewhere and am asked for the recipe and give it....people then call it Linda's Carrot Cake.
Cooking is love, recipes are method of cooking. Either give them lovingly or say ,selfishly, sorry I don't give out recipes.
Remembering one lady, who was "famous" locally for entertaining, would almost never give out a recipe....but only maybe to a very good friend who promised never to share. But you know how that goes. One time I, a sweet young thing of maybe 23, was looking for something to serve to a group of other women for dessert and an older friend said "try this, it's good and easy, but never tell I gave it to you, it's Bea's recipe and she would never speak to me if I gave it out"....
Turns out half the town knew of it....because when I served it, several said "Oh Bea's Banana dessert."

Well, I "invented" taco pie about 30 years ago when my daughter was taking gymnastics next to a tortilla factory! The tantalizing

smells made the kids want tacos 2x per week!

I was so sick of tacos I made taco pie which is basically all the ingredients of tacos layered like lasagna, except instead of lasagna noodles, I used crushed tortilla chips.

I see very similar recipes and grumble cause I think I invented it, but oh well. It's not in a cookbook and my kids know how to make it, so maybe it's called Nancy's Taco Pie!