When does a recipe become your own?

Yes, this is another baking themed blog post that ends up being business related!

I have lots of favourite recipes that I use all the time - whether these are from books, family or websites. Sometimes I'll experiment and vary them - for example using wholemeal flour instead, adding chocolate chips, including an egg instead of some of the milk in the scone recipe - sometimes these work so well I continue to do them on future occassions I make that item.

Lets use the recipe I normally use for scones as an example...

• Inspired by other recipes for scones I'd seen, I replaced some of the milk with an egg.
• Rather then using a round cutter I just put the dough on a baking tray, and cut into wedges. Not only is this a little less washing up, it means the dough is handled less (which is important when making scones).
• I've stopped buying self raising flour and just buy plain flour - in recipes that require self raising flour I just use plain flour with baking powder.
• Leaving out the sugar and adding chopped dates, and cutting into squares.
• Last year I made a pizza using a scone based pizza dough. Rather then using an existing recipe I adapted the recipe I normally use, including with the egg as mentioned above. My adaptions included leaving out the sugar, and adding a small handful of grated cheese to the mixture.
• Also - I baked the scone pizza base on its own for 20 minutes, took out the oven, turned over and added the toppings and then continued to bake.

I'm not saying the above ideas are original - however it gives you an idea how many changes I've made to the recipe.

So when does the recipe for the scones stop becoming the original recipe, and then become my own recipe?

When are there so many changes, additions and tweaks that it can no longer be considered the original recipe?

And as with my previous similar posts - you are wondering how this is related to running a business? Or perhaps you've already guessed where I'm going with this?

In a way its a bit like Trigger's broom from Only Fools & Horses - he's had the same broom for 20 years, replaced the head 17 times, and the handle 14 times - yet insists its the same broom.

Let me be clear though - I'm not - and NEVER will say plaigerise or steal someone else's ideas. However there are ideas or implementations that either yourself or your team have carried out, and made so many changes to, that they could no longer be considered the original.

Its also clear that you acknowledge your sources or where your ideas came from - and make sure where appropriate they share the same fruits and rewards from that success.

However, its still worth considering - when is the original product still the same product after so many changes?

For example - open source software products sometimes get forked by developers who make their own version and go in a different direction - when is their project no longer based on the original product? Especially after many months and even years of development.

A few people have recently asked if I'd consider writing a recipe book - however most of the recipes I use are from other books, websites, etc. However, using the above examples, are those recipes still the same recipes? With all the changes would the original recipe be recognised? Also worth noting that a lot of recipes celebrity chefs use are mostly variations of classic and existing recipes.

You could look at it from another angle too - you are a writer who comes up with an idea for a comic book superhero - however you need an artist to bring that idea to life. You can't have one without the over - does that superhero really exist, is it really the writers idea without the artist's contribution? It's a topic that does get frequently debated!

Business books are another good example - many business books offer the same ideas or basic concepts - although presented in new and different ways - possibly with a few tweaks to them too.

Someone comes up with an idea for a new feature in your product - however after all the time spent implementing it, tweaking and making changes - will it still be the persons original idea, or something completely different?

I'm sure you can come up with many different examples of your own - perhaps ones specific to your industry or niche - and feel free to add them in the comments.

And talking of baking - if you are planning any baking for the Easter weekend, inspired by the recent series of Celebrity Bake Off or started baking during lockdown - PittRecipes is available for FREE and ideal for home bakers.

Gather your recipes and notes in one place, so they are easy to find and refer to - download for free and get started at: https://www.libraryplayer.co.uk/search/label/PittRecipes