Terms of Use

Last updated: September 4, 2026

Welcome to Recipe Rewind. These Terms of Use (the "Terms") are an agreement between you and Melissa McKenzie Sullivan, the person behind this site, covering how you can use recipe-rewind.com and everything on it (the "Service"). By reading recipes, browsing posts, leaving comments, or otherwise using this site, you agree to these Terms. If you don't agree, the simplest fix is to not use the site.

What We Own, and What We Don't

Let's be straight about this: a basic ingredient list and a simple set of directions cannot be copyrighted, under U.S. law or anywhere else. Recipes are treated as facts and procedures, not creative works, so we don't claim ownership over the underlying ingredients, quantities, or basic steps of any dish we publish, including recipes that originated generations before us.

What we do own, and what these Terms protect, is everything we build around a recipe: our headnotes, personal stories, historical research, detailed explanations of technique, the specific wording of our instructions, and our original photography. That surrounding content was created, developed, compiled, and written by us, using our own time, research, and testing, and it's protected by copyright law as a creative work, even though the plain recipe underneath it isn't.

If you want to share the idea of a recipe you found here, feel free. Write it in your own words, test it in your own kitchen, and if you'd like, link back to us for the full story and context. What we ask you not to do is copy our specific wording, headnotes, photos, or written instructions and republish them as your own.

Automated Access and Scraping

The content we make available on this Service, including our written stories, historical research, and photography, was created through the expenditure of substantial time and effort. You may not use, and may not authorize any third party to use, this Service or its content in a way that:

• Acts as a substitute for the Service or its content.
• Interferes with our ability to earn money from the Service, including affiliate revenue and ad revenue.
• Competes with the Service we provide.

These restrictions apply to any robot, spider, scraper, web crawler, or other automated tool or manual process used to access, copy, or republish the Service. You agree not to violate any robots.txt restrictions on this site, and not to bypass or circumvent any measure we use to limit automated access to the Service.

Personal, Non-Commercial Use Only

You're welcome to read Recipe Rewind, cook from it, save posts for your own kitchen, print a copy for your own use, and share links to our posts on social media. You may not republish our written stories, photos, or full recipe write-ups on another website or in a newsletter, compile our content into an ebook or course, or scrape the site to feed an AI tool, database, or competing recipe site without our written permission.

Cooking and Recipe Disclaimer

We test every recipe we publish, but your kitchen isn't our kitchen. Oven calibration, altitude, ingredient brands, and equipment all vary, and vintage recipes in particular were written for a different era of appliances. You're responsible for using safe food-handling practices, checking your own dietary restrictions and allergies, and using your judgment around doneness, temperature, and food safety. We aren't liable for how a recipe turns out in your kitchen or for any illness, injury, or disappointment (we've all been there) that results from preparing it.

Comments and Community

We love hearing from readers, and we ask that comments stay on-topic, respectful, and free of spam, scraped content, or promotional links to other businesses. We reserve the right to remove any comment, and to block or ban any user, at our discretion, without notice. Comments represent the views of the person who posted them, not Recipe Rewind.

Affiliate Links and Advertising

Recipe Rewind participates in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program and may earn a commission on qualifying purchases made through links on this site, at no extra cost to you. Full details are in our Affiliate Disclosure. The site may also display advertising. Neither affiliate partnerships nor ads influence our recipe testing, recommendations, or editorial content.

No Warranties

The Service is provided "as is." We don't guarantee the site will be error-free, uninterrupted, or perfectly accurate at all times, and we don't warrant that any recipe, tip, or piece of historical information will meet your specific needs. We work hard to verify our historical claims and test our recipes thoroughly, but we're not a substitute for professional culinary, nutritional, or medical advice.

Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Recipe Rewind and Melissa McKenzie Sullivan won't be liable for any indirect, incidental, or consequential damages arising from your use of the Service, including a failed cake, a skipped step, or a recipe that didn't turn out the way you hoped.

Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time as the site grows and changes. The "Last updated" date at the top will reflect the most recent revision, and continuing to use the site after changes means you accept the updated Terms.

Governing Law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Texas, without regard to conflict-of-law principles.

Contact Us

Questions about these Terms can go to melle@recipe-rewind.com.