Recipes and Culinary Techniques

When operating Child Nutrition Programs, offering quality and consistent menu plans is important for meeting program requirements and student expectations.

Standardized recipes are key to consistency and are companion tools to production records. Recipes provide production staff with all of the information needed to produce the same delicious food time after time.

Because standardized recipes have been tested, the results:

Are known and can be duplicated repeatedly.
Ensure consistency with nutritional content, including child nutrition crediting information (how many ounce equivalents of meat/meat alternate, etc.).
Are useful in procurement as well as inventory and labor management.

Together, production records and standardized recipes help make up menus that meet the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program requirements for reimbursement.

Culinary Tips and Techniques

Basics at a Glance [ 1.4 MB ]
Be Salt Savvy: Scoping Out Sodium in School Menus [ 1.1 MB ]
Be Salt Savvy: Sodium Swaps Utilizing Product Substitutions [ 1.3 MB ]
Culinary Techniques
Florida Kitchen Hacks [ 135 kB ]
School Meals Cross-Utilization Infographic [ 1.1 MB ]
Spice It Up: From Dips & Sauces to Herbs & Spices [ 1.8 MB ]
USDA Foods: 59 Meal Service Ideas and Cycle Menu Samples [ 2.5 MB ]
Vegetable Roasting Guide [ 2 MB ]
Seafood in Schools
Best Lentil Recipes

Resources and Tool Kits

Back to Scratch Recipe Book
Fruit and Vegetable Quick Crediting Guide [ 596.3 kB ]
Lunch 180 Recipe Book [ Adobe PDF Document ]
Milk Food Safety Tips [ Adobe PDF Document ]
Packing Ideas for Meal Components in School Food Service Meals [ 1.8 MB ]
To Go Containers for School Food Service Meals [ 1 MB ]
Vegetable Cycle Menu Plan: Two-Week Sample [ 90.9 kB ]
Vegetable Meal Preparation and Service Tool Kit [ 12.5 MB ]
Vegetable Project Presentation July 2020 [ 1.5 MB ]

Standardized Recipes

USDA Standardized Recipes for Schools

Choose from 43 classic standardized recipes from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in portions of 50 or 100 servings. The recipes include yield, portion crediting, and nutrient content information. Being “classic” recipes, reference is made to all-purpose enriched flours, enriched pastas, and enriched white rice for Grain Component items. Therefore, sponsors should look to swap enriched rice recipes with brown rice, enriched pasta with whole grain rich pasta, and at least half of the enriched all-purpose flour with whole wheat flour.