The Recidemia Culinary Index

What is the RCI?

The Recidemia Culinary Index (RCI) is a hierarchical numbering system for classifying world recipes, inspired by the Aarne-Thompson-Uther (ATU) index used in folklore studies. Every dish receives a unique, structured identifier that encodes its place in the culinary taxonomy.

The RCI organizes 17,575 recipe types across 14 domains and 63 families, alongside 0 cuisine traditions.

How to Read an RCI Number

An RCI number has four levels, read left to right:

• Domain (2 letters) — the broadest category, based on primary ingredient or dish form
• Family (3 digits) — a sub-group within a domain, based on cooking method or sauce type
• Type (4 digits) — the canonical, scholarly form of a specific dish
• Variant (3 digits) — a regional or cultural interpretation with a full recipe

Domains & Families

The RCI currently has 14 domains. Each domain contains families that group related recipe types by technique or sauce style.

Cuisines

Cuisines are an orthogonal axis to the dish-type taxonomy. While domains classify recipes by what kind of dish they are, cuisines classify them by which culinary tradition they belong to. A single recipe type can belong to multiple cuisines (e.g., “American Chinese” cuisine).