So Many Dishes

Another post without a recipe, I’m sorry to say. I tested positive for Covid yesterday, and I’m isolating in our guest room. Ken has never had Covid, and we’re trying to keep it that way. I really don’t feel that badly today, and I’m bored. I’ve done numerous Sudoku puzzles and scrolled Facebook far more than I usually do. Mostly, I’ve been reading.

I was intrigued by an article in the Washington Post, A rising star was accused of cookbook plagiarism. But can you own a recipe ? And it really has me thinking.

Because of being a musician, I’m very aware of copyright. When I include a recipe in this blog, I will always mention the source. I can only think of one instance when I forgot to do so, but given that I’ve posted dozens of recipes, I think that’s a good track record. I’ll also point out the changes, if any, that I’ve made. I like to think that I’m a creative cook, but I take inspiration wherever I can find it. But it’s important to me to acknowledge the source of that inspiration.

Interestingly, as is pointed out in the article above, you can find the exact same recipe online on numerous websites. For a time, I was a serious Pinterest junkie, and I still occasionally check my boards if I’m looking for ideas. But I can’t begin to count the times that I’ve seen a recipe, sometimes with the same pictures, appear in my feed with links to different sites. And it’s generally presented as an original recipe—at least, that’s the impression a reader is left with.

I don’t know the answer to the question n my title, or the one in the WaPo article, either. I haven’t compared the recipes in question. And plagiarism in cooking has lots of similarities to the issues surrounding plagiarism in music: combining 12 tones is going to give you a finite number of combinations, not all of which will sound pleasing. Likewise, a specific set of ingredients can be combined in differing proportions, but the results are going to have some similarities. I do know that I will continue to cite my sources, and marvel at the true recipe creators.

And I would much rather be blogging recipes!