General Settings
Browse/Search Recipes Page
If you're going to have your recipes listed on a specific page, it's a great idea to let Cooked know what page you're using. That way, it can use that page when searching, redirecting, etc. Create a page with the [cooked-browse] shortcode on it, then choose that page from the dropdown there.
Recipes Per Page
By default, Cooked will use your "Posts per page" setting from the WordPress Settings > Reading screen, but you can choose to display more or less recipe posts per page by choosing that here.
Recipe Taxonomies
You can choose to disable/enable the default taxonomy, "Categories", here. If you don't need to categorize your recipes then you probably don't need it. Cooked Pro includes additional taxonomies like "Cuisine", "Cooking Method", "Tags", etc. so this comes in handy if you're using the Pro version of Cooked.
Global Recipe Toggles
You can globally enable/disable certain features of Cooked very quickly by using these toggles. Hide the author, prep times, cook times, etc. all with a single switch.
Author Name Format
When a recipe author's name is displayed, you can choose to have Cooked show it in a different format by choosing one from this dropdown.
Default Category
When using the [cooked-browse] shortcode, it will show all recipes by default. If you want to show a specific category, you can choose that here. Or if you want to set that via the shortcode, there's a way to do that as well.
Default Sort Order
When using the [cooked-browse] shortcode, it will sort recipes newest to oldest by default. If you want to sort them differently by default, you can choose that here. Or if you want to set that via the shortcode, there's a way to do that as well.
Advanced Settings
Disable Public Recipes — The only reason to disable public recipes is if you're going to be embedding them all into pages or posts using the [cooked-recipe] shortcode. Otherwise, I would leave this alone!
Disable Cooked <meta> Tags — If you're using an SEO plugin that adds its own meta tags, you can probably disable this to avoid conflicts. I would recommend leaving it enabled unless you notice issues.