Capitalize all words except prepositions of fewer than five letters and conjunctions.
Always capitalize the first word of the second and subsequent lines unless the designer calls for
lowercase, for example in a title treatment.
Pumpkin Cake
With Sour Cream Frosting
Use the following guidelines in deciding whether to hyphenate a title:
Hyphenate when there are two ingredients combining to make an item (instead of using “and”).
Banana-Orange Frozen Yogurt
Barley-Wheat Bread
Asparagus-Cheese Omelet
Hyphenate when there’s some action to the second word.
Herb-Marinated Vegetables
Spinach-Stuffed Fish Rolls
Always hyphenate with “style.”
Greek-Style Salad
California-Style Vegetables
Don’t hyphenate when the first word describes the second rather than being an equal part of the recipe.
Greek Meatball Sandwich
Gingered Orange Refresher
California Chicken Stir-Fry
Caramel Apple Tart
Don’t use a hyphen if it would be overwhelming.
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Keep recipe titles as simple as possible. Use “and” only when necessary for clarity.
Turkey-Shrimp Jambalaya Chicken-Pasta Salad Beef and Red Onion Bake Wild Rice and Bulgur Pilaf Beef-Olive Turnovers Artichoke and Dried Tomato Pesto |
NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT |
Turkey and Shrimp Jambalaya Chicken and Pasta Salad Beef-Red Onion Bake Wild Rice-Bulgur Pilaf Beef-and-Olive Turnovers Artichoke-and-Dried-Tomato Pesto |
In some cases, keep the “and” and the hyphens for clarity.
Spinach-and-Cheese-Stuffed Eggs
Do not use ampersands in recipe names. (Exception: PB&J) (Added 7/20/22)
Where applicable, substitute “with” for “and.”
Oven-Fried Chicken with Potato Salad NOT Oven-Fried Chicken and Potato Salad
Don’t hyphenate common terms.
Peanut Butter
Whole Wheat
Graham Cracker
Sour Cream
Ice Cream
There may be some close calls; but use the “and” criteria for help.
Lemon Pudding Cake
Turkey Waldorf Salad
Chili Vegetable Platter
(In these examples, the first word is describing the last two).
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