Can one patent a recipe?

A post in the Montreal Gazette discusses plagiarism of recipes and includes the text:

“Legally,” said the head of the group that put that cookbook together back in 1983, “a recipe never belongs to anyone.”

Wolfert agrees, somewhat, but stipulates: “According to the author’s guild, no one owns a recipe. Not an ingredient list, because otherwise a recipe like mayonnaise could never get repeated. But you can only own the language of a recipe, the written text.”

--link
http://montrealgazette.com/life/food/critics-notebook-plagiarism-a-common-ingredient-in-the-wide-world-of-recipes

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Patents involving the word recipe in the claims:

8,840,942:  Food product and method and apparatus for baking 

8,623,437:  Combination breadsticks and pizza product 

7,851,008:  High fat to protein ratio egg yolk product and methods for making and utilizing same ,
With claims

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2. A mayonnaise recipe having the following ingredients in the following proportions: TABLE-US-00011 Ingredient Unit Amount (wt.) Sugar 1.4 Salt 1.7 Garlic Powder 0.1 Onion Powder 0.1 Dried High Ratio Yolk prepared 3.0 according to the process of claim 1 City Water 5.9 Vinegar 5% 8.0 Lemon Juice 1.5 Dried Albumin 0.3 Canola Oil 78.0 100.00.

3. A pancake recipe having the following ingredients in the following proportions: TABLE-US-00012 Ingredient Unit Amount (Wt.) Wheat Flour 54.2 Corn Flour 14.5 Dried Milk Ingredients 11.3 Oil 5.8 Sugar 5.8 Dried High Ratio Yolk prepared 4.6 according to the process of claim 1 Double Acting Baking Powder 3.8 Salt 1.0 Lecithin 0.5 Water 115. 

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