The spread of recipes is directly related to the spread of literacy, as is their evolution. We have recipes as far back as Mesopotamia, but recipes were very limited in detail for thousands of years. As you can also see with medieval recipes, recipes were relatively common but did not generally include quantities or times. Recipes could only be read by the literate and chefs were expected to know what they were doing, so recipes were simply lists of ingredients and basic instructions for assembly.

As literacy improved in Europe and the Americas, there was now a market for recipes for regular people (usually housewives preparing food for their families). The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy by Hannah Glasse was first published in 1747 and continued through various revisions and illegitimate copies into the early 19th century. It's widely regarded as the first truly popular cookbook, written in plain language in an intimate style that made it appealing and easy to read. The printing press allowed them to be churned out en masse and reach all corners of the English-speaking world.

As time went on, the recipes would gradually improve in their precision. One of the reasons we can have the precision we do now is because of modern ovens and stovetop burners with specific settings. When cooking over a fire or in the coals, the heat is variable. The cooking time will naturally be variable as well compared to using 20th and 21st century equipment. The explosion in popularity of convenience foods like canned food in the 1950s further changed recipes by allowing you to simply add standard-size cans of ingredients and follow instructions exactly to create meals.