Recipe Schema for Recipes: The Complete 2026 Guide

Recipe schema is a structured data vocabulary that describes cooking instructions, ingredients, and nutritional information on recipe pages. When implemented correctly, it enables rich results that display a recipe card, star ratings, cook time, and calorie count directly in the search snippet. This guide covers the on-page application of Recipe schema for food and cooking content, distinguishing it from general structured data strategies covered elsewhere.

Recipe rich results are among the most visually prominent SERP features. Google displays a carousel of recipe cards with images, ratings, and cooking times that drive high click-through rates. For food blogs and recipe sites, Recipe schema is the single most impactful structured data type. Pages with valid Recipe schema are also eligible for Google's recipe search features on mobile devices.

Google's documentation confirms that Recipe schema enables rich results for recipes, including the recipe carousel, rich snippet with ratings, and individual recipe cards. The schema also helps Google surface your recipes in voice search results.

The core properties for Recipe schema include:

• @type: Use Recipe.
• name: The recipe title.
• image: One or more dish images.
• author: A Person or Organization object.
• datePublished: The publication date.
• description: A short summary of the recipe.
• prepTime: ISO 8601 preparation duration.
• cookTime: ISO 8601 cooking duration.
• totalTime: ISO 8601 total duration.
• recipeCategory: e.g., "Dessert", "Appetizer".
• recipeCuisine: e.g., "Italian", "Mexican".
• recipeIngredient: An array of ingredient strings.
• recipeInstructions: An array of HowToStep objects or a string of instructions.
• nutrition: A NutritionInformation object with calories.
• aggregateRating: Optional. User ratings.

Below is a complete JSON-LD block for a recipe page. Place it inside a <script type="application/ld+json"> tag.

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Recipe",
  "name": "Classic Margherita Pizza",
  "image": "https://example.com/images/margherita-pizza.jpg",
  "author": {
    "@type": "Person",
    "name": "Chef Maria Rossi"
  },
  "datePublished": "2026-05-15",
  "description": "A traditional Neapolitan Margherita pizza with San Marzano tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and basil.",
  "prepTime": "PT20M",
  "cookTime": "PT10M",
  "totalTime": "PT30M",
  "recipeCategory": "Main Course",
  "recipeCuisine": "Italian",
  "recipeYield": "2 servings",
  "recipeIngredient": [
    "1 pizza dough ball",
    "1/2 cup San Marzano tomato sauce",
    "8 oz fresh mozzarella cheese",
    "Fresh basil leaves",
    "2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil",
    "Salt to taste"
  ],
  "recipeInstructions": [
    {
      "@type": "HowToStep",
      "position": 1,
      "text": "Preheat your oven to 500F (260C) with a pizza stone or baking sheet inside."
    },
    {
      "@type": "HowToStep",
      "position": 2,
      "text": "Stretch the dough into a 12-inch round on a floured surface."
    },
    {
      "@type": "HowToStep",
      "position": 3,
      "text": "Spread tomato sauce evenly over the dough, leaving a 1-inch border."
    },
    {
      "@type": "HowToStep",
      "position": 4,
      "text": "Tear mozzarella into pieces and distribute over the sauce."
    },
    {
      "@type": "HowToStep",
      "position": 5,
      "text": "Bake for 8-10 minutes until crust is golden and cheese is bubbling."
    },
    {
      "@type": "HowToStep",
      "position": 6,
      "text": "Top with fresh basil, drizzle olive oil, and serve immediately."
    }
  ],
  "nutrition": {
    "@type": "NutritionInformation",
    "calories": "350 calories per serving"
  }
}

Use structured recipe management in your CMS. Map database fields for ingredients, prep time, and cook time directly to the schema properties. Use HowToStep objects with explicit position values for the recipeInstructions array rather than a single text blob to maximize rich result eligibility.

Include recipeCuisine and recipeCategory for better classification. These properties help Google surface your recipes in narrower search queries. Use standard values where possible.

Validate every recipe page's schema with Google's Rich Results Test. Confirm that prepTime, cookTime, and totalTime use valid ISO 8601 format. Check that recipeIngredient is an array of strings, not a single concatenated string. Run a bulk crawl of all recipe URLs to verify that required fields (name, image, recipeIngredient, recipeInstructions) are present and non-empty.

1. Google Search Central. "Recipe structured data." https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/recipe
2. Schema.org. "Recipe type definition." https://schema.org/Recipe
3. Google Developers. "Rich results test." https://search.google.com/test/rich-results