# Recipe snapshot per Order Item

An Order Item's full Recipe (every Preparation Step, in order) is copied from the Menu Item's live Recipe into a per-Order-Item `orderItemSteps` table at order-placement time, rather than each Step being looked up from the live Recipe as the Order Item progresses. We chose this because price is already snapshotted per Order Item for the same reason ("later menu changes don't rewrite history") — an operator editing a Menu Item's Recipe (reordering Steps, changing a Step's Machine Tag or duration) should never reshape an Order Item a customer already paid for and is partway through cooking. The live `menuItemSteps` table remains the source of truth for menu browsing and for new Orders; only `orderItemSteps` is read once an Order Item exists.