About ingredients
Ingredients are one of the most important components of any recipe. Entering them accurately supports compliance, enhances the customer experience, and improves production efficiency.
Accurate ingredient entry enables:
Regulatory compliance
Ingredients flow through to allergen identification, nutrition panels and food labels to ensure your meals meet labelling requirements.
Informed customer choices
Clear ingredient and allergen information helps customers select meals that suit their dietary needs and preferences.
Operational efficiency
Accurate ingredients power scalable recipe cards and shopping lists, streamlining kitchen production and ordering.
How to Add Ingredients in a Recipe
1. Add ingredients to your recipe
From your recipe, go to Ingredients and select Add ingredients.
If you've already added ingredients, select Edit ingredients to make changes or add more.
Tip: Already have your ingredient list written somewhere else? You can save time by selecting Import ingredients instead.
Read more: Import ingredients in a recipe
2. Search for an ingredient
Start typing the ingredient you want to add into the search bar.
Your search results will show:
- Ingredients you've previously added or used in Cookaborough
- Other matching ingredients from the Cookaborough Ingredient Database
Choose the ingredient that best matches what you actually use in your kitchen.
Tip: If you're deciding between similar ingredients, select Show nutritional information to compare their nutritional information before choosing one.
Can't find the ingredient you need?
You can add and manage your own ingredients from the Ingredients page or request an ingredient to be added to the Cookaborough Ingredient Database.
Read more: Request a missing ingredient
3. Add the quantity and unit
Enter the amount of the ingredient used in the recipe and select the appropriate unit of measurement.
The available units will depend on the type of ingredient you've selected.
For example:
- Carrots — 200 g
- Olive oil — 2 tbsp
- Salt — 1 pinch
Important: Enter the amount used to make the whole recipe, not the amount in an individual serve.
Keep your quantities as accurate as possible. Cookaborough uses them elsewhere in your recipe, including when calculating nutritional information.
4. Add an ingredient note, if needed
Use an Ingredient note when your kitchen team needs some extra information about how an ingredient should be prepared or used.
For example:
- Onion — finely diced
- Carrots — peeled and chopped
- Butter — melted
These notes can appear on your recipe card, making them useful for preparation details your kitchen needs when following the recipe.
You don't need to add a note if the ingredient doesn't need any additional instructions.
5. Continue adding your ingredients
Repeat these steps until you've added all of the ingredients used in your recipe.
As you build your ingredient list, you can drag ingredients to reorder them.
For longer recipes, you can also select Add heading to organise ingredients into sections that make the recipe easier for your kitchen to follow.
For example:
Ragù
- Beef mince
- Onion
- Tomato passata
- Red wine
Béchamel
- Butter
- Flour
- Milk
Using a recipe you've already created as an ingredient?
You can also search for and add an existing sub-recipe to your ingredient list.
Once added, it will appear as an underlined ingredient linked to the sub-recipe.
This can be useful for something your kitchen makes once and uses across multiple recipes, such as a sauce or gravy.
Read more: Create and use sub-recipes in your recipes
6. Check your ingredient information
As you add ingredients, Cookaborough gives you some additional information to help you check your recipe.
Nutrition
Select the information icon next to an ingredient to view the nutritional information available for it.
You don't need to manage your recipe's overall nutritional information here.
Allergens
If the ingredient contains recognised allergens, they'll be displayed alongside it.
You'll review your recipe's overall allergen information separately when completing your recipe.
Ingredient cost
If you've added pricing for an ingredient from the Ingredients page, its cost will be shown alongside the ingredient.
Recipe composition
Select View composition to see which ingredients make up the largest proportion of your recipe.
Cookaborough shows the top four ingredients in your recipe composition.
This can be useful for checking that the quantities you've entered reflect the recipe you actually make.
7. Save your ingredients
Once you've added and checked your ingredients, select Save.
Your ingredients will be added to your recipe and you can continue completing the other sections of your recipe.
Read more: Create and edit a recipe
Additional Information
Need more information? Contact Cookaborough Support: