Ancient recipes have passed through the generations and through the hands of better educated cooks and recipe writers alike. The first known collection of ancient recipes, which has survived to this day is the De re coquinariis, written in Latin, and was written sometime around the 1st Century AD. It contains a mixture of old Greek and Roman recipes, but sadly with very little information on cooking and preparation.

The Romans were famous for their large number of recipes which varied widely from region to region, city to city and even country to country. There is one recipe that tells how to cook boiled meat over a fire so that the flavor of the dish is preserved. Another recipe called the Pompiaster is described as a stew of roots, leaves and grained bread cooked on an earthenware vessel in boiling water, and topped with gold coins. The most famous recipe in this collection is the Veluximum recipe, which literally means a thousand taste.

However, it was not until the 11th century that European recipes started to include more detailed instructions. Most modern recipes still follow very similar formats, but some countries have also taken advantage of new cooking technologies and have created new recipe formats, like the German Vermischklamm, or the English Sauce. These sauces now require ingredients to be put into containers that are then covered in sauce, which is then left to cook for several hours. This has made preparing these dishes far more complicated than they would be if all ingredients were available in the kitchen, although they are now copyrighted and cannot be copied or adapted to other cultures.