Conversational recipe telling

Conversational recipe tellings are multi-unit turns with characteristic openings and closings. They are similar to narratives in several ways, but they are also like sets of instructions, and they tend to switch back and forth between the first person past tense of the former and the second person imperative of the latter at sequentially significant junctures. Recipe tellings routinely issue from narratives and segue into narratives in conversational interaction, requiring tellers to mark off the recipe portion in characteristic ways, including shifts in tense and person. In line with their status as sets of instructions for preparing food, recipe tellings constitute expert talk, presupposing shared background knowledge and interest, and containing technical vocabulary and references to ingredients, measurements, tools and procedures associated with specialized practices. Conversational recipe telling exploits conventions from written recipes: conversational recipe telling borrows its overall sequential order, presuppositions, vocabulary, measurements, and grammatical structures from written recipe texts. Recipe telling as shop talk among cognoscenti establishes individual identity and group membership, demonstrating shared practices and interests.

► This article examines the telling of recipes in everyday conversation.
► It reveals their similarities and various interactions with storytelling.
► It explores their relationship with written recipes and sets of instructions more generally.
► Examples of stories about using recipes incompetently and of a joke recipe telling are presented for comparison.
► Recipe tellings are a manifestation of everyday talk influenced by conventions from a written text invested with authority.