In this article, the cookery book recipe is understood as a textual cultural tool helping in the mundane but important everyday task to get food on the table. The article examines the function and culinary-ideological potential of the recipe through an analysis of pizza-recipes. By using theoretical concepts such as cultural tool, subject position and culinary ideology, the textual activities of the recipes are described and compared. The material consists of different pizza recipes, taken from four cookery books. The cookery books represent four different culinary traditions: one classic/traditional cooking and three dietary regimens: the raw food-diet, the LCHF-diet and the 5:2-diet.

The result shows both similarities and differences among the recipes. On one level, all four recipes show the same structure, which is what makes them a cultural tool for teaching the skill to use different ingredients to make a tasty and filling dish. There were also differences between the recipes, according to the different culinary ideologies of the cookery books. The analysis shows how the recipe’s function as a culinary ideological tool evolves in the interplay between the similarities and differences between the classic and the dietary pizza recipes. The culinary-ideological potential of the recipe as a cultural tool has economic, ecological as well as important health aspects, which make its features, functions and use important to study.