Base recipes
A base recipe is a standard building block — a recipe that represents a dish in its most basic, scalable form. It defines the ingredients and proportions for a standard portion, and other recipes can be built on top of it.
Base recipes vs regular recipes
| Base recipe | Regular recipe | |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | A reusable template | A ready-to-use dish |
| Used in | Other recipes | Linked directly to meals |
| Example | "Mashed potato (1 portion)" | "Mashed potato with gravy" |
Think of base recipes as the standardised components your kitchen uses — the building blocks from which more complex dishes are assembled.
Why use base recipes?
If the same component appears in many dishes (for example, a standard tomato sauce used in pasta, lasagna, and pizza), you only need to define it once as a base recipe. If the tomato sauce recipe changes, all dishes using it update automatically.
Finding base recipes
Go to Meals → Recipes → Base recipes. The list shows all base recipes available to your catering service.
Creating a base recipe
Click + Create. The form is the same as a regular recipe — give it a name, add ingredients with quantities, and add preparation steps.
The key difference is that base recipes are intended to represent a single standard portion so they scale cleanly when used in larger dishes.
Using a base recipe in another recipe
When editing a regular recipe, search for the base recipe in the ingredients list and add it like an ingredient. The system automatically includes its components in the nutrition and allergen calculations.