Lists, Recipes and Genealogies – Copyright Law  Thank you
“Cyndin” .  In a comment to “Great-Grandma’s Cherry Pie”  she
 correctly points out that lists are not protected by copyright.
So, we come to the question, what makes a recipe subject to
copyright?  The definition above gives the answer.  Most recipes
have directions, descriptions of how to use that list of
ingredients, explanations of the process, pictures of the final
result, and the best ones give a little bit of the history of
the recipe as well.  So the mere ingredients of the Cherry Pie
would not be subject to copyright but the written description of
the process to create it might be.  The more creative the
telling of the recipe, such as my Mother’s Spamburgers (complete
with my sister’s fantastic art work) the more likelihood
copyright applies.  The Copyright Office goes on to state that
if you want to keep a recipe secret you probably shouldn’t
publish it or file a copy with the Copyright Office.  So…….in a
sense recipes are like genealogies