  Food systems are responsible for a third of global anthropogenic greenhouse
gas emissions central to global warming and climate change. Increasing
awareness of the environmental impact of food-centric emissions has led to the
carbon footprint quantification of food products. However, food consumption is
dictated by traditional dishes, the cultural capsules that encode traditional
protocols for culinary preparations. Carbon footprint estimation of recipes
will provide actionable insights into the environmental sustainability of
culturally influenced patterns in recipe compositions. By integrating the
carbon footprint data of food products with a gold-standard repository of
recipe compositions, we show that the ingredient constitution dictates the
carbon load of recipes. Beyond the prevalent focus on individual food products,
our analysis quantifies the carbon footprint of recipes within the cultural
contexts that shape culinary protocols. While emphasizing the widely understood
harms of animal-sourced ingredients, this article presents a nuanced
perspective on the environmental impact of culturally influenced dietary
practices. Along with the grasp of taste and nutrition correlates, such an
understanding can help design palatable and environmentally sustainable
recipes. Systematic compilation of fine-grained carbon footprint data is the
way forward to address the challenge of sustainably feeding an anticipated
population of 10 billion.
