Standardized Recipes

Recipe Tools

Use these tools to develop or revise recipes, determine the crediting of meal pattern components in recipes, and conduct nutrient analysis of recipes.

• Recipe Template for one grade group/portion size
• Recipe Template for multiple grade groups/portion sizes
• Recipe Standardization Steps
• Standardized Recipe Checklist
• Recipe Crediting Checklist
• Recipe Crediting Tool - Spreadsheet tool for calculating ounce equivalents of meat/meat alternate, ounce equivalents of grain, cups of fruit, and cups of vegetable per portion of a recipe.
• Dietary Specifications Tool for Recipes (nutrient analysis) - Use this tool to calculate the calories, grams of saturated fat, and grams of sodium for standardized recipes.
  • Dietary Specifications Tool for Recipe Analysis Webcast
  • Dietary Specification Tool for Recipes
• Milk Recipe Instructions/Template (Printable Version)
• Sample Standardized Recipe with Instructions - assorted
• Sample Standardized Recipe with Instructions - multiple parts

Recipe Resources

• USDA Standardized Recipes 
  • Note: A recipe is not truly standardized until the recipe has been tried, adapted and retried several times for use by a given foodservice operation. You may use these recipes as a basis, but they should then be standardized to your operation.
• On, Wisconsin! Cycle Menu Recipes
• What's Cooking? USDA Mixing Bowl - This resource contains a database of quantity recipes as well as other recipe resources. Click on "Large Quantity Recipes" to search recipes scaled for school food service.
• New School Cuisine: Nutritious and Seasonal Recipes for School Cooks by School Cooks - Includes 78 kid-tested and approved recipes that meet USDA dietary guidelines and feature local, seasonal foods, Vermont FEED 
• Chef Cyndie Story Recipes - Team Nutrition Iowa
• Basics at a Glance - Institute of Child Nutrition
• Chop! Chop! Culinary Skills for Wisconsin-Grown Produce in School Meals
• Healthy Meals Resource System - Recipes for School Food Service; Taste Testing and Evaluating Recipes
• Culinary Techniques for Healthy School Meals - Institute of Child Nutrition
• Why Use Standardized Recipes? - Institute of Child Nutrition